Is Creating an Author Website Important? [A Complete Guide]

Owning an author’s website is a great way to create a strong bond with your readers. Many authors have websites that help new and regular readers keep up with new releases and upcoming projects. Authors and small publishing businesses need to have responsive and professionally made websites to create a great first impression and lasting impression on their users.

Author websites are considered a strong marketing strategy for advertising, promoting, and advancing your book to reach a larger and more diverse audience. Technical and expert solutions can be implemented to make your author’s website stand out from other competitor sites. Author websites have been considered one of the strongest marketing and promotional strategies an author can build themselves online.

In this guide, you will learn all about creating an author’s website, its importance, and why it is worth paying attention to, especially if you are starting your writing projects and want to promote yourself quickly. If you are looking for ways to create an author’s website, want to sell your books faster, or simply wish to learn about all the benefits it provides, you have come to the right place. Let us get started!

Should Authors Have Their Own Website?

The simple answer is YES! Authors should have their own websites. Not only does it come with a bunch of benefits, but it also creates a strong impression of their books and their work as authors. The best part about owning an author’s website is that you, the author, have complete control over the entire content of your website. Adding strategically optimized content that is popular or demanded in the story and eBook market can make your author’s website recognized on search engines.

Authors should own websites for several reasons. While it does help with marketing and promotional value, it also offers a wide range of benefits, such as owning an optimized and visually appealing website design and gaining a strong online reputation. Of course, you would want visitors and readers from all over the world to approach your website, regardless of your main genre or the novels you write; somewhere out there in the world, thousands of people are interested in that specific genre. Why miss the opportunity to own an author’s website? You want your introduction, bio, and book information to be read. This way, you can communicate with your readers from a professional point of view.

Readers who are interested in your books and genre and want to learn what inspires you can add all this content to a website that communicates to your loyal readers and for new readers to discover. Thinking about the purpose of a website for authors will serve you well in the long run.

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What Should I Put in My Author Website?

Here, we will guide you through the features, elements, and content of websites for authors. Let’s look into this list, which will help you know what author websites should look like professionally.

1. Author Bio

A short author bio should be the first thing to consider for your author’s website. This acts as an introduction about yourself and can also provide a deeper connection with readers, helping them get to know you better. There can be one feature, “About the Author.” Visitors who are interested in learning more about you will go through this page on your site. There can be a short bio and a long one, too. Usually, authors love to include what inspired them to write books and their first story. The gist of an author’s bio is to create an emotional and real connection with readers. It is always best to include photos or a list of future events related to your specific book. This keeps readers entertained and connects with authors even more.

2. Showcasing Books

Websites are the best way to showcase almost any project or product for whatever purpose. When it comes to the number of books you have written, a website is the best way to showcase all the books you have and their volumes, along with their little descriptions and backstories.

Adding SEO to your content is the best part, as it grasps the audience’s attention. You can either include a long or short description. Your content can include certain keywords that will optimize your site. If you provide individual book information, it can be used for metadata. Showcasing all the books you have written can make it easier for readers to decide what books they are interested in. You can add little sneak peek content that makes readers curious about your upcoming series.

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3. Blogs

Here is where more content and reading come into play for your author’s website. It is important to remember that the more optimized content you have on your website, the better chances there are for your author’s website to be found online. Since users know that search engines pick up relevant sites that individuals search for, that is the best information and site they sift out from all the websites available on the internet and decide to show you on the search engine results page.

Blogs are a great way to entertain your readers about an author’s upcoming projects. You can also provide fun tips and tricks for your website, blooper blogs, what mistakes you made throughout your journey while writing, and more. You can write on topics connected to your books, including what inspired you to write such a book, or even answer the most common questions you get asked through the form of a blog and make it entertaining for your readers.

4. Mailing List

This is the best time to start gathering emails. Make special offers for your books or let users sign up for newsletters so they are always updated with your newest books and what you plan to release soon. This ensures that your readers are always connected to you and your releases or brand-new editions. Through an email list, authors can establish ownership over their audience, ensuring that they receive directly.

5. Contact

You can add a business contact number and email address so your readers and fans can reach you. While some authors receive messages and emails daily, you can respond to some to encourage readers to stay connected with you.

Keep your email account purely business-related, so there will be no threat from spammers and scammers. Using this contact information, you can have short online meet-and-greets with your fans.

6. Media Page

A media page is important to keep users engaged and informed about projects you have completed over the years. You can include author photos, and book covers that your readers can download. You can always enhance this content even more by providing your readers with frequent updates.

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How to Use Your Website as a Marketing Tool

Your author website is your main online presence, brand, “home,” and author platform. It’s where people will go to learn more about you and your books, giving you a great opportunity to showcase yourself and your books effectively and establish your brand. While you can do this to some extent on Facebook and other social media sites, your website is the only place where you have complete control over the design and content. It’s important to make the most of it.

1. Your Author Platform and Brand

When visitors land on your author’s website, what impression do they get? Can they quickly understand who you are and what you write about? Ask individuals, such as other authors or those unfamiliar with your work, about their initial thoughts upon visiting your website.

Including writer-focused testimonials, akin to review quotes but centered on you as an author rather than specific books, is also beneficial. These can be influential in persuading potential readers and the media that you are a skilled writer, not just a one-book wonder.

2. Mailing Lists and Newsletters

This will help you collect email addresses from your author’s website. These services make the process easy by allowing you to create a form for your website and professional-looking newsletters. People who sign up for your mailing list are interested in you and your work and are often referred to as “Super Fans.” They are more likely to purchase your books and spread the word about your work. By building a mailing list early, you’ll have an audience ready to announce your book when it’s time to start promoting it. You can send emails for comments when you have created a book cover, when your book is ready for pre-order, on publication day, and more.

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3. Selling Your Books

Of course, your book marketing efforts aim to sell books, whether directly or through online retailers. Did you know that you can increase your earnings by selling your book directly to readers? You may also want to consider selling through online sources and retailers and providing links to their websites where your books are available.

4. Social Media Links

Creating multiple online accounts for your fanbase is important. This will increase your chances of being recognized online. Whatever social media platform you decide on, however, it would be wise to create as many as you can. Your feeds will be displayed on your author’s website at the bottom footer. This will allow you to gain more followers and those who are interested in the genre and books you write.

This is a great way to use social media interactively. Post on social media platforms to increase traffic to your author website and have social media links or feeds on your website to attract followers.

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5. Press/Media Page

The press/media page compiles author pictures, book covers, media, testimonials, reviews, and other material that may interest the media or reviewers. It is designed to be a one-stop resource for everything they need. Making their job easy will put you in their good graces and boost your chances of receiving coverage.

You want the media to be able to contact and connect with you easily. Have a short form available and also provide other contact options if you choose to do so. If you have a separate publicist or agent, you may want to list them or link to their website as well.

6. Book Giveaways

This can be a good way to generate traffic, attract readers’ interest in your books, and encourage people to sign up for your mailing list. You can also use your mailing list to tell about special giveaways.

Do you need to understand your book’s genre? Read our blog, What Genre is My Book? Unraveling the Famous Question.

Important Author Website Metrics to Monitor

It is crucial to obtain this data. You need to determine if your website and promotional activities are effective. It’s important to identify what is working well to optimize it and also understand what’s not working to improve or reduce it. The simplest and most efficient way to monitor your website’s performance and discover what resonates with your visitors is by linking your site to Google Analytics using a tracking code. Don’t worry – it’s quite simple. You can do this yourself by following the instructions provided by Google. Once the code is implemented, you can begin tracking traffic. However, the abundance of data can feel overwhelming, so here are the key data points to concentrate on:

1. Number of Visitors

Through analytics, you can learn more about your visitors and monitor how many visits your website gets daily, where they come from, who they are, and so on. Analytics tools can help you comprehend consumer behavior, and this knowledge can help you modify your content and create more content or books based on consumer interest.

2. Page views

Page views mean that the number of pages on your site that have been viewed. An increase in page views shows that more content is being viewed on your author’s website. It allows you to track where visitors are going on your site and how many pages they view during each visit. The more pages viewed per visit, the merrier. Additionally, it indicates that visitors are staying on your site rather than just quickly visiting your homepage and leaving, which is known as “bouncing” and is reflected in your bounce rate.

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4. Bounce Rate

With a beautifully made author website design and compelling content included, the chances of bounce rates will decrease or not happen at all. Bounce rates are defined as the number of people who leave your site within a few seconds without any action taken on the website. This means that users do not get what they are looking for.

If your website pages have a very high bounce rate, you might want to rethink the content or layout. Does it immediately represent who you are and what you write about? Is it compelling? If you are confident in both, the wrong type of visitor may be coming to your site. In that case, you might want to consider where you are promoting your site. Is it reaching the right audience? Also, consider what your promotion is promising. Is your message not quite conveyed right for the page on your site you’re directing interested visitors to? Are they not finding what your ad promised once they land on your site?

5. Average Time Spent on Your Site

This measures the duration for which someone remains on your website. It is important to track this number to determine if it is increasing or decreasing. When combined with page views, it provides insight into user behavior on your site. For instance, it helps to understand whether visitors spent a couple of minutes browsing multiple pages or if they devoted five minutes to a single page, perhaps reading an excerpt or blog post.

6. Traffic Source Keywords

You can use tools that provide you with popular keywords that search engines pick up easily. This will give you insights into the words and phrases people are currently searching for. And when you incorporate those keywords in your website, blogs, and overall content.

The best place to include keywords is on your website’s homepage. For example, a popular search term could be “Sci-fi novels.” If that is your main genre, you should attempt to use the most popular search terms or keywords for this genre on your author site homepage.

9. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Keyword search engine optimization is important, but it’s also important to communicate like a human. People expect genuine communication, not marketing content filled with keywords that are great for search engines but not so great for human readers. Make sure your site is not overly optimized for SEO at the expense of readability. Book websites typically contain a lot of text with many keywords and phrases, so it’s more about fine-tuning. When crafting your SEO, consider the traffic source keywords mentioned above.

These are just the basics of Google Analytics. You can find more detailed information on any of the specific topics by searching online or visiting Google Analytics. Understanding what’s working and where you can improve should be a crucial part of your book marketing strategy. The better you understand your marketing efforts, the better you will perform.

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Ready to Own an Author Website?

There are many ways you can make your content creative and updated according to the current trends in the eBook and storywriting industry. While it can seem overwhelming to create your own website, that is where you leave the tricky business to professionals like Book Creating. We offer a wide range of book writing services and author website designs.

Our expert team knows all about the latest trends and common mistakes when it comes to professionally-designed author websites. Your website is a platform to showcase you and your books in a beautiful way. As an author, it’s important to give readers an opportunity to learn more about you and any new releases. This can create excitement and build a strong connection with your readers. Establish an author website, connect with your audience, and increase your book sales.

FAQ’s About Websites for Authors

Should writers have their own website?

New authors should consider creating a website as soon as they have a solid first draft and a clear idea of their ideal audience. Building an early following for their work is important, whether they are aspiring authors or have a firm release date.

Are author websites worth it?

Yes, they definitely are. Author websites can give you insights and advantages that will also boost your profession on a digital scale. It is especially important for new authors to have an author website since they have a lot to juggle. With a website, gaining recognition and getting readers to know you becomes a whole lot easier.

When should an author make a website?

As soon as you can, it is important that once you start your professional writing, you release books online and in hardcover. A website can give you many more advantages and help you gain recognition quickly in the book-reading community. So, the right time to create an author website is best at your initial and prime stages.

What should an author website look like?

Apart from the visually appealing website structures and layouts, an author website should include specific content that helps your readers get to know more about the author. These can include: