Author Websites: What You Need to Know (With Examples)
A mobile-friendly, well-designed website is the essential part of marketing your writers book. Although website design trends have changed over the years, some things remain fundamental.
If you’re a self-published author, it’s worth taking the time to create a website as an author’s brand. This post will explore what your site should include and how much it will cost.
Finally, we’ll break down the essential components of an effective author website and explore how to integrate it into your writers book marketing scheme. Are you ready to build a top-notch professional author website that will help sell plenty more books? Let’s get started!
Why Should You Create an Author Website?
It’s essential to control the content of your website, as you can put anything on it. Hiring a web developer can be tempting, but first, consider why you need a website.
You’ll want to include your author bio rules and book description. What else should there be? Do you want to reach out to readers? If that’s the case, consider adding a mailing list signup form on your site and linking it to your social networking profiles. Do you intend to blog frequently?
To sell your books, do you want to use links that direct readers to online retailers, or would you prefer ecommerce? Consider the purpose of your website during this process–you want a site that will long-term support your author’s goals and needs.
Domain Names
Before you publish your author’s website, you must choose your domain name, and it’s best to decide before you build your site since the title, or reputation, of your site, might impact the design.
· What Is the Best Domain Name for a Book’s Website?
If you have more than one book, this should be self-evident. You won’t get a domain name for just one of your books if you have an author website with many volumes.
What if your website already exists on the name of one of your books? Consolidating under one website using your real name may be a good idea now.
Your name is usually more searchable, and by putting all of your works on one site, you allow visitors looking for one book to discover other novels by searching for them naturally.
Whether you are an experienced author with many titles or a first-time author with only one book, your website should be named after you.
· Buying a Domain Name
You should purchase your domain name using your email address and credit card. Always know the username and password for your domain name account and the place it is registered (GoDaddy, Network Solutions, Register.com, etc.). You should be identified as the “Registrant,” which means you own it.
Make doubly sure that the person who registers it for you follows these rules, and that you have the login and password for the account. It should not be written in a web developer’s account with other domain names because then you won’t be able to access it.
How Much Does an Author Website Cost?
Choosing the best website and plan for an author or publishing company can be difficult, especially if you don’t have a technical background.
Some people might feel shy about negotiating with potential website developers, but it doesn’t always have to be that way.
The cost of your website depends entirely on how you choose to create it. Platforms such as Wix, Pub Site, and WordPress allow users to design their pages without additional costs. However, if you hire a professional designer or developer, the project could cost several thousand dollars.
Professional Custom Web Design
You may hire a freelancer or a web design business to create a website that is specifically tailored to your demands. We know of sites that cost as much as $20,000 to make.
These would be well-known web design firms with experienced graphic designers and programmers working in costly offices located in big cities. If you don’t find cost an issue and want VIP service, then, by all means, take advantage of it; however, it’s not a requirement.
Questions You Should Ask When Hiring a Website Developer
You should consider some critical questions when looking for a developer: Are they responsive to your initial inquiry?
Did they explain things in layman’s terms, or did they talk to you? How much will extra pages cost? What hourly rate do they charge for changes/updates?
Are they ready to do updates after your website is live? Inquire about this before choosing a developer; what is their turnaround time for updates and how much do they charge? I’ve heard numerous writers express their frustrations regarding their developers’ unresponsiveness, lengthy delays, and high costs.
What Should I Include on My Website as a Writer?
It is a frequent question from writers, and my stock answer is, “Anything you want!” It’s one of the primary reasons for setting up an author’s website.
You can provide basic information but also add stuff that isn’t available elsewhere. You may include your author bio, photographs, audio, and video materials, book details, excerpts, reading guides, blog entries related to your book, media coverage (even cat pictures if you want!), contact information, event timetable, and more while maintaining a professional appearance.
As an author, what content should I include on my website?
- Author Bio
- 2 Books
- Contact
- Blog
- Mailing List Sign Up
- Media Page
“Isn’t that a lot?” I’m frequently asked. “Won’t they become overwhelmed?” The secret involved is to make it work to plan.
A well-designed menu aids in this — avoid having too many primary menu buttons, and instead provide drop-down menus or sub-menus with additional information. Your visitors may delve as deep as they like with menus, sub-menus, or layers or skim the surface.
It is ideal to have not more than eight menu buttons and then use parent-level submenus or links to additional detailed information on main pages like book reviews. We’ll go through your website’s most crucial content categories later in this chapter. This short list isn’t comprehensive, but it will get you started.
Important Author Website Metrics to Monitor
The data you gather is key to understanding whether your website and book marketing strategies are successful. Collecting this information allows you to replicate what works well and eliminate what doesn’t function as intended.
Keep tracking your website’s progress and find out what interests your visitors by connecting to Google Analytics with a bit of tracking code. It’s not complicated as it sounds. You can start collecting data points when the installation is taken care of. While it might seem like a lot, here are the vital traffic stats to focus on:
· Number of Visits/Sessions
The number of visits to your site is the total amount of times anyone has visited. If a person returns more than once, it is recorded as two visits.
· Unique Visitors/Users
The number of new people that visit your site every time. Each individual is recorded only once. If Mary visits your website ten times, she is considered to be a single unique user.
· Page Views
By monitoring your page views, you can get an idea of which pieces of content on your site are the most popular.
This information can help you decide what type of content to produce in the future. If visitors look at multiple pages during their visit, that’s a good sign. This means they’re “sticking” around and not just bouncing from your homepage after a glance. A high bounce rate is reflective of this behavior.
· Bounce Rate
Keep your bounce rate low for optimum engagement from readers and book reviews. A “bounce” is when somebody clicks onto your site and only views one page before leaving again. A low bounce rate means that people stay on your site because they find the content interesting, which likely leads to higher engagement levels.
If your bounce rate on the website pages is exceptionally high, you should reconsider the content and design – does it immediately show who you are and what you write? Is it interesting?
If the answer to both the questions is yes, then maybe the wrong sort of visitor is visiting your site, so you should think about where you’re advertising your site. Is this the correct audience for your message? And what exactly did you promise via advertisement? Are they unable to discover whatever your ad promised after arriving at your site? Are the book cover appealing?
· Average Time Spent on Your Site
This shows how long someone is on your site. This is a good number to keep an eye on to see if it’s improving or declining.
It gives you an indication of what people are doing on your site in conjunction with page views. Did they spend a few minutes browsing many sites, or did they spend five minutes reading one blog post?
· Top Content
By tracking which content gets the most page views and engagement, you can focus on creating similar content that will perform just as well. This way, you know what works and can replicate your success.
· Social Visits
To learn which social media platforms generate the most website traffic for yours, go to Traffic Sources on Google Analytics. Once there, you’ll have access to all websites that deliver citizens to your site.
If it looks like your Facebook posts are gaining traction while those identical Twitter Posts aren’t achieving much, then you know where needs more attention. Maybe it was a guest blog post-XYZ. Did that help? Whatever works better should be done in greater frequency.
· Traffic Source Keywords
Keep an eye on search engine terms visitors use to get to your site. This gives you an idea of the words and phrases people employ to locate your author’s website.
If feasible, ensure the term is used throughout your site, especially on the homepage. For example, a famous search phrase might be “western romance novels.” Make sure that the term appears on your website and throughout it if it’s your niche.
· Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Although Keyword search engine optimization (SEO) is important, sounding like a human being is essential.
People want transparent communication, not marketing packed with keywords that may attract search engines but turn off regular readers. Make sure your site sounds natural–you don’t want to be too keyword-stuffed.
Book websites usually have lots of text and keywords, so it’s more about finding the right balance. Use the traffic source keywords as a guide in creating your SEO strategy.
This is just a quick summary of Google Analytics. More in-depth information on any subject area may be found by conducting an internet search or visiting Google Analytics to learn more.
Understanding what’s working and where you have room for improvement should be a crucial component of your book marketing plan. The more you know about your marketing performance, the better you’ll be able to do.
There are several sorts of material you may include on your website, as well as a variety of strategies for utilizing it in your marketing efforts. While it may appear daunting to consider all the work that goes into building an author website, following the procedures outlined above, you’ll have a unique author site that stands out from the crowd.
Readers who want to learn more about you and your author’s website give you control over what they discover when they search for you. What are you waiting for? Create an author website, connect with your audience, and start selling more books.
When you use Authors Book Publisher to self-publish, you get access to a dependable and seamless book distribution from one self-publishing provider.
