Once you have an author website that works well for your genre and acts as your online business card, it’s time for the next step: getting your readers and potential new fans to visit! Your author website should act as an online hub where you can showcase your latest publication credits, offer links to purchase your books, update followers on your next public engagement, and much more. The marketing experts at Web Design Relief know how important it is to drive traffic to your website—and we’re sharing our secrets and tips with you!

How To Rise Above The Noise And Boost Traffic To Your Author Website

Engage On Social Media

Make sure you post a link to your author website on all your social media! Some writers maintain all their social media platforms using one social media managing site like Hootsuite or Buffer. You can then easily post website links and info on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook all at once.

You should also feature social media icon buttons on your author website in order to cross-promote and build your audience.

Use Hashtags

It is important to get the social media posts featuring links to your author website in front of the widest audience possible. One way to do this is by using hashtags in your Instagram and Twitter posts. Hashtags group together posts with a common topic so that it’s easier for users to find the information they are interested in. Hashtags can be genre specific, such as #Horror, #RomanceWriter, #SciFi, or more specific to the writing process like #AmEditing or #Writing. If your new romance novel cover is ready, tweeting “Take a look at the new cover design for my latest book” with a link to your website and the hashtag #RomanceWriter will help you reach an audience beyond your own followers!

Put Your Website Address On Everything

As an author, you probably have business cards, flyers for readings, bookmarks, even books you’ve written—and your author website URL should appear on all of them! If you are doing a public reading, for example, having your website address on your handouts offers a way for members of the audience to find you (and your work!) after the reading. Find tips here for reading your writing in public.

Utilize Keywords For SEO

When writing content for your website, always include keywords to improve your site’s odds of showing up higher in search engine results. The closer to the top your website appears during a search, the more people will see it and click on your website. One of the reasons for this is sheer immediacy, but another is because many people think links that populate first are superior to those found three pages down. You can use tools like Google Suggests to find the best SEO keywords for your website blog content.

Collaborate With Other Authors

Working with other authors is a great way to promote your website and encourage new visitors! By combining your fan-building efforts with other writers, you can reach a larger audience than you would on your own. When one member of your author team publishes a short story, poem, or book, all the members can share the news with their followers—along with your website addresses. You can also host readings together to pull in a larger audience and cross-promote your website to bring in more traffic. A combined book giveaway or writing challenge is another way to attract more visitors to your website.

Give Visitors A Reason To Stop By

Everyone loves a freebie! Entice visitors to your author website with special content: an exclusive chapter or background story for a character, or a sneak peek at your new cover art, or access to your new book trailer.

While it is important for audiences to visit your author website, it is also crucial that they engage with it once they are there. Create a call to action that gets visitors to sign up for your newsletter or e-mail list.

Interact In Your Online Community

Make connections! There is a large community of readers and writers out there, and being active in that community will bring curious readers to your website. Comment on other people’s social media posts and visit other author websites.

Write Guest Posts

Writing guest posts for other websites or blogs is a great way to reach a new audience for your writing and your author website. Just be sure that the site you are guest blogging for is a good match for you and your work! And don’t write a guest post that is basically just an advertisement for you and your website: Offer something useful and interesting.

Update Your Author Website

A slow, outdated website will cause visitors and potential new fans to bounce more quickly than a kangaroo on a trampoline. Periodically review your author website to ensure all the links work, the information is current, and there is nothing hindering the speed of your website.

Track Your Visitors

Programs like Google Analytics let you track how people found your site so you can better understand which promotional tactics are most effective.

By following these ten tips, you’ll be able to bring more traffic to your author website and build your audience for your writing. And if you don’t have an author website—what’s stopping you? It’s easier and more affordable than you’d think! Contact Web Design Relief today to schedule a free consultation and learn more!

Question: How do you attract visitors to your author website?