How to add links to your Squarespace author website
I know this might seem like a bit of a basic post, but I’ve come to realise that I spend a lot of time talking about links with my author website clients! So I thought it was time to dedicate a blog post to them, because it’s not actually as simple as it might sound…
The first thing I want to say though is that links are crucially important! So please don’t skip adding them to your author website. You want at least one on each page.
If you don’t add a link to a page, then that page effectively becomes a ‘dead end’.
And what happens when a website visitor gets to a dead end?
You guessed it - they leave your website!
So make sure at the end of a page, there’s always some kind of call-to-action to keep the visitor engaged. This is important for the ‘stickiness’ of your website, which can help your SEO.
But I don’t want to get too technical here, so let’s just also say that it’s good for the website visitor too.
We want to be as helpful as possible to our author website visitors, so including useful links is always important.
A link is not just a link
First of all let’s just talk about the different types of links.
There are two main types of link: internal and external.
Internal links are links to other pages on your own website. We want to include at least one of these on every page, to make sure that people cycle through every page of the website.
At the bottom of every page of your author website, make sure you include a link to another page on the website.
This will make sure readers stay navigating through your website and don’t miss out any pages.
External links are links to other people’s websites.
These are also vital - both for your SEO and also for your website visitors.
Including these wherever relevant is really important, BUT don’t go overboard and stuff pages full of irrelevant links.
Just make sure if you mention something (your publisher, your agent, an event etc) that you link to whatever it is you are talking about!
There is also one type of external link that is INCREDIBLY important and that so many author websites miss off - more on that later…
The main difference between internal and external links
When it comes to linking, not all links are made equal. So we have to treat them differently.
As I said above, we want to make sure we link internally as much as possible, to ensure that people visit lots of pages on our author website.
However, when we link internally, we have to make sure that the link is set to open in the same window.
Otherwise, people will quickly become frustrated as they click on links and end up with multiple tabs of our website in their browser.
However, when we are linking EXTERNALLY (away from our own website) we need to make sure we do the opposite.
We want to make sure that external links open in a new tab on people’s browsers, so that visitors to our website are not lost.
Not sure what I’m going on about? I’ve recorded a short video demo for you here:
The most important type of link on your author website
Now let’s come to the most important type of link on your author website, that I SO often find is missing when I come across DIY author websites.
Can you guess what it is?
If you’re thinking LINKS TO BUY YOUR ACTUAL BOOKS then you get… a gold star ⭐
Please, please, please do not forget to add these to your author website!
EVEN if you think the main goal of your author website is to get visitors to sign up to your newsletter because most of them have already read your book, that doesn’t mean we don’t want to make it super easy for people to click through and order another copy, or a copy of a different book!
Not sure which retailer to link to? I have a blog post all about that:
Which retailers should I link to from my author website? →
The key takeaway is to think who is most likely to read your book, and where they might shop, and link accordingly.
But if in doubt, Amazon is always the safest bet.
You can even set yourself up as an Amazon affiliate so that when people click through from your website to buy your book, you get a few extra pennies (yes really).
Psst! I have a guide all about Amazon affiliates here:
Different ways to use links on your author website
There are three main ways to use links on your author website:
In the body text
Using buttons
Using images
The way you link will totally depend on the context.
For example, when you’re linking to a retailer, quite often a button block is the best way to do it.
Button blocks stand out and catch the eye, and they look smart too, especially lined up underneath book covers.
However, if you want to link to multiple retailers, then using lots of buttons can look a bit messy. In this case, I encourage you to make use of the amazing accordion block.
I’ve done a how-to guide on the accordion block below.
Squarespace: how to use the accordion block on your author website →
Linking words
When you’re adding simple text links, then it’s important to think about the exact words you are using to link.
Google can ‘see’ these links, and will take them into account as it crawls your website and decides where to put you in the search rankings.
One common mistake I often see is people linking ‘click here’ or similar.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve been known to do this many times myself, but it’s a waste of what the SEO nerds call ‘link juice’ (ugh, I know, but bear with me!)
Instead of linking something generic that Google can’t understand, try linking the words that are most descriptive and relevant to whatever it is you are talking about.
An obvious example would be linking your publishers’ actual name to their website.
But let’s say you’ve got a blog on your author website, and you’ve written a post referencing an article you just read on author incomes, that you think might be of interest to your readers.
The best way to share this article is by linking some descriptive copy about the article.
For example:
I recently read an article about how traditionally published authors are earning less than ever before…
Rather than finishing this sentence with: you can read it here… you should and linking ‘read it here’, you should instead link:
‘traditionally published authors are earning less than ever before’
That way Google knows what the link is about.
Linking images
Something you might not be aware of is that you can actually link images on your Squarespace website too!
I highly recommend doing this wherever relevant.
For example, always link your book’s covers to whichever retailer you want to prioritise, so that people can easily click them to order the book.
Here’s a quick video to show you how to link images:
Other links not to forget
Last but not least, don’t forget to add links to your social media pages!
Squarespace has a very helpful facility to make it easy for you to add social media links that appear in your header, footer, or wherever you would like them too. More info on this in the post below.
How to add social media links to your Squarespace author website →
More info on linking in Squarespace
As always Squarespace has its own helpful guide to adding links to your site that you can find below.
Adding links to your Squarespace site →
In conclusion
Let me just wrap up by reiterating the importance of adding links to your author website!
I am constantly surprised by how many author websites I see that barely have any links on them at all. It’s a real wasted opportunity for both you and visitors to your website.
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