One of the most common questions I see authors ask is ‘how do I drive more traffic to my website?’. If this is you I promise you’re not alone.
Since starting my children’s book blog back in 2020 I’ve had the incredible opportunity to work with authors and one thing is clear…
You just want to write. And you spend a lot of time doing just that, the majority of which you fit writing around your main job. You don’t have the time, the knowledge or even the head-space to think about marketing and promoting your website but there are small things you can do to help it along.
The reality is that merely having an author website is just the beginning. It’s time to get the word out and get potential readers to check out what you have to offer. There are several ways you can increase your readership and traffic and that is what I would like to help you with in this post…
(In a hurry? Download a pdf version of the entire article)
1. Build a great author website (or pay a professional to do it for you)
It goes without saying that before you even start thinking about how to get people to your website, you have to create something that actually looks good.
I’ve seen so many author websites that look like they were designed in the 80’s and you may think that’s ok but honestly, it’s not. I won’t name any names but if you have a little niggling suspicion that your site may not be up to scratch… maybe it’s time to freshen things up.
For those of you thinking about setting up an author website I have already [covered things you should include in a previous article. ] so I won’t ramble too much about that here.
But think about it, if you have this amazing website smothered in your personality that people just love and resonate with, they’ll tell others about it. Word of mouth will be one of the biggest assets to you and your website.
2. Include a link to your website from all of your social networks.
You probably know this already but just in case… social networks always have a (bio) section for you to include information about who you are and what you do.
There will also be a place you can add a link to your website so make sure you take full advantage of this.
For the seasoned pros out there: Use that link area to send people to a customised landing page for your book. Or if you have a newsletter, a link to a signup form.
One of the main reasons you should prioritise your website over social media is because it will be your author hub. You stay in control.
If you rely only on social media you can and will fall prey to the many changes these platforms make. For example if you focus solely on twitter… imagine if it closed down tomorrow. Now what? You’d have to start again somewhere else.
A website belongs to you and will have its own place on the internet for as long as you want it there.
3. Include your website address on all offline materials.
Book marks, book plates, on your actual book, business cards, your kids’ forehead, stickers on your car, underwear, dog collars (not the kinky kind, or maybe you’re into that so why not!)
You may already have a list of promotional items in use so don’t forget to put your website address on it.
4. Now is the time to start thinking about author website SEO.
Search engines such as Google should be able to bring up your site whenever people search for terms highly relevant to you, your books, or your content.
For most authors, the most important search term of all is the name you publish under. Unless your name is exceptionally common, it shouldn’t be too hard to rank well for your name. But if you are one of those unlucky “Tom Smiths,” then a better target is to rank for something like “Tom Smith author” or “Tom Smith writes.”
It also helps to strictly link to your author website from your social media accounts to help reinforce, across the board, who you are and what you do.
5. Give Visitors A Reason To Stop By
Who doesn’t love a freebie! Entice visitors to your author website with special content: an exclusive chapter of your WIP or back-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.
6. Optimise your author website for speed
I’ve seriously lost count of the amount of websites I have just left because they took so long to load.
This is often a neglected part of website optimisation and will prove to be detrimental for 2 main reasons:
- If your site takes too long to load, people will leave. That’s not good.
- Google will rank sites that are too slow to load further down in search results meaning people are less likely to find your site.
There are many reasons why your site could be slow so it’s always wise to give your site a ‘spring clean’ every now and then to make sure it’s running smoothly. Here are some things to consider:
- If you use WordPress – You may have too many Plugins.
- You may need to update your plugins.
- Across the board – Your images are way too large. Get them compressed!
- Remember to add Alt text to your images.
7. Install Google Analytics and study how people find your site and use it.
If you have a self-hosted site (www.tomsmith.com and not www.tomsmith.wordpress.com), then you should have Google Analytics installed. If you haven’t, make sure it’s the next thing you do after going live with your site — it’s free and easy to set up. (Instructions here.) After Google Analytics has collected at least one month of data, look out for the following:
- How are people finding your site? Through search? Through your social media presence? Through other websites that link to you (backlinks)?
- What are the most popular pages on your site?
- If you sign up for Google Search Console (also free), you can identify what search terms are bringing people to your site.
You can better decide which social media networks are worth your time and energy by knowing the answers to these questions, as well as who else on the web might be a good partner for you (who is sending you traffic and why? ), and what content on your site is worth continuing to develop
8. Be a guest blogger.
Whenever you guest post on someone else’s website, it’s an opportunity to have multiple links back to your own site. This helps over the long term with your site’s authority and visibility in search rankings.
A worthwhile guest post involves approaching sites with a larger audience than you, but also a readership that is a good fit for your work.
Copyblogger has a great post for a thorough introduction to guest posting on other peoples blogs.
If you do ever make an appearance on another site, be sure to promote the post/interview on your own social networks and add a link to it from your own website.
9. Interact In Your Online Community
Make connections! There is a massive community of readers and authors out there, and participating in conversations through insightful interactions will attract new visitors to your website.
You could also visit other author websites and leave comments on their blog posts and/or social media posts.
10. Blog Consistently
I’d always recommend starting a blog but only if the idea of it doesn’t totally stress you out.
So don’t start one just because you think you should, start one because you want to and you have the time. But as this post is about driving traffic to your author website I’ll talk about it in that context.
Maintaining a regular blog will no doubt improve your websites’ search rankings. Google will recognise periodic and consistent updates and reward it with higher search rankings, providing of course that the content you produce is helpful/useful/entertaining to the audience you’re trying to serve – this is super important.
You can then encourage people to sign up to your email list so you can send any new content to them directly to their email inbox which will then lead them back to your blog/website which equals more traffic.
11. Leverage the Power of Social Media
Social media can be a powerful tool for reaching hundreds, if not thousands, of potential readers. So start building your audience and remember to not spread yourself too thinly.
Find out where your audience typically hangs out and use these channels to promote your website content and connect with your readers. Keep the interest of your followers by making only one in every four posts self-promotional.
12. Pitch yourself to podcasts
Podcasts are HUGE and there are a ton of them out there talking about books. Set aside some time to research some podcasts you like and take note of the ones with an audience who you think would benefit from knowing about your work.
For example if you write Fantasy, find a podcast where the audience loves to hear about fantasy writers and their books. This is a great strategy and will give you the chance to talk directly to an existing audience about yourself.
The hosts will generally ask if there is a place online where people can find out more about you or reach out to you… this is where you plug your website. Easy. And it’s a podcast… you don’t need to worry about how you look that day – heck, do it naked, no-one will know.
Check out these as a starting point:
Make sure you do as many of these things as possible and let me know how you get on either by leaving me a comment below or get in touch with me on twitter – @itseddyhope
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