Once your author website begins to attract visitors—it’s time for action! Having visitors interact with your site is essential for both new and established writers alike. It’s important that your website pages feature lots of ways for your followers and potential new fans to actively connect with you and your writing. Follow this checklist to ensure your website is interactive and action-packed:
Calls to action. Can your visitors push all the right buttons? If you have a book for sale, include an “Add to Cart” button. Connect readers to your published works or blog using “Read More” buttons. Your buttons should be in standout, contrasting colors, and can even have small arrows or graphics to draw attention.
However, when it comes to how many buttons to have on your author website, less is actually more. Visitors are more likely to click on a button if they have fewer choices, not more. And you can boost clicks by placing favorable reviews about your work near or beneath the button.
Sales page. Whether you have a dedicated sales page on your website for your book or you link to an outside sales page, it should be easy for people to act immediately and purchase your book. Don’t forget the “Buy Now!” buttons!
Publications page. Have a list of journals where you’ve been published before (note the volumes and editions) as well as your pending publications—and make sure you link to the online issues where your writing is featured. If you have a published book, share some excerpts!
Events info. Details about upcoming reading events, book signings, and interviews will get readers off their couches and into the seats at your venue. Create a mailing list so you can easily keep subscribers up-to-date on your scheduled appearances. Entice visitors to sign up with their email addresses by offering exclusive content to anyone who opts in. This is also one of the easiest ways to draw traffic back into your website.
Blog. If you have a blog, whether on your site or on a third-party site, be sure to direct visitors to check it out! An active blog will entice visitors to read more of your work and learn more about you and your writing. If you’re concerned your blog isn’t interesting enough to attract readers and build traffic, try some of our tips— you’ll see how easy it is to become a blogging superstar!
Social media links. Make it easy for website visitors to click into your social media accounts, Like your Facebook author page, and follow you on Twitter. You may also want to include social sharing buttons for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr to increase your opportunities to connect with your fans and build your author platform.
Contact page. You want readers, editors, and literary agents to be able to get in touch with you—but you also want to keep your personal information safe. Protect yourself from potential spam attacks by having a contact page. If your website is built on WordPress, there are many plugins that support a secure contact page—and setup is a breeze!
If this checklist reveals that your author website needs to be updated (or even completely overhauled) in order to get your visitors to take action, the expert technicians at Web Design Relief can help. Act now—schedule a free consultation today!
QUESTION: Which of the actions listed above are you most likely to do when you visit an author’s website?
Great checklist! Those are great elements to start when creating a website for your business. I work with a lot of small businesses and optimizing their websites has definitely become a big focus for them. Thanks for sharing this post!
These are great elements to include. As a new writer who has not published just yet, this will be good to know when I create my author website.