It’s important that your author website is up to date, attractive, and properly functioning so visitors keep coming back for more. Web Design Relief has some inexpensive, penny-pinching ways to have an engaging author website without breaking your budget.
Affordable Ways To Update Your Author Website
Mobile-friendly, responsive design. Nowadays most visitors will be viewing your author website on their phones. So your website has to be able to flex and adapt to whatever size screen is being utilized by your reader. Make sure your font size and buttons are big enough to easily read and use on a cell phone! If your website looks wonky on a cell phone or tablet, you could be losing potential followers and sales of your book. The easiest way to ensure your website has responsive design is to start with a mobile-friendly template. But there are also affordable plugins you can add if needed.
More images—or fewer. A quick, easy way to give your website a fresh look is to add new images or videos, or remove some old ones. Consider a background color change or a new gallery or slideshow. Update your headshot! And make sure your book cover is prominently displayed.
Social media widgets. These live widgets link your social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.) directly to your website. Your audience can use these to scroll through your latest posts without leaving your author website.
Blog. Dynamic content is a great way to keep your website current and to engage your visitors. And you can connect your website to your social media platforms so that anytime you add a new post to your blog, it will automatically post the title of your article and a link to your website on Facebook and Twitter.
Sign-up form. Creating your own mailing list gives you access to your followers without having to depend on the whims of social media algorithms. Having a sign-up form on your website makes it easy for your fans to stay current with your latest updates and receive your emailed newsletters.
Contest or giveaway. You can feature your latest contest or limited-time freebie on your author website to build traffic. Highlighting a temporary event will give your author website a new look during the promotion run. And it’s a smart way to push visitors toward signing up for your newsletter to qualify for the incentive!
Events calendar. If you have book signings, readings, or conference appearances scheduled, an events calendar is a must. Your fans will know at a glance dates, times, and locations. The more you get the word out about where you’ll be selling your book, the more attendees you can potentially reach—and the more opportunities you’ll have to sell your book to faithful fans.
Question: Which author website update would best bring in more traffic for you?
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