The top 5 mistakes author websites make
Bit of a controversial post today, but I thought it might be helpful to summarise the top 5 issues I see with author websites.
These are the things that crop up again and again, but thankfully they’re super easy to fix and will make a big difference to your author website if you address them!
So without further ado, let’s get stuck in…
1) Bad photos/no photos/photos cropped strangely
Images for author websites can be a real issue, as of course, author sites are not naturally very visual. In order to make up for this, some authors choose to pick quite random images for their websites in order to ‘fill some space’. This can work well, but it does need careful consideration, and images need to be cropped correctly and positioned on the page in a visually attractive way.
You can find out more about my top tips for formatting images on your website here. It’s important to be consistent with the images throughout your site for a cohesive feel.
If you’re stuck wondering what images to use, you have a few options. Think around the themes in your novel, and take inspiration from your cover to source images that have a similar feel.
You’re always better off using photographs that have been shot professionally. If you’re no good with a camera yourself, then there are plenty of places online you can find images for free – here are a few of my favourites:
Top tip: if you use Squarespace for your author site you can use their direct integration with Unsplash to search for royalty-free images – it’s seamless and there’s a huge range of fantastic images to choose from.
2) No call to action
A call to action is exactly that – an instruction that tells people what you want them to do. It’s so important that your website has a call to action – otherwise what’s the point of it? People have landed on your page, and now it’s up to you to tell them what to do next.
What you choose as your call to action is completely up to you, but the one I most commonly suggest to authors is to ask people to sign up to their mailing list. A mailing list is one of the most important marketing tools an author has and you really want to capture visitors to your site while they’re there.
If you’re not interested in building a mailing list, then another good call to action (possibly even more obvious!) is to direct people to buy your book, or pre-order your next! You can also encourage people to book tickets to an event you might be appearing at, or follow you on social media.
You get my point – it’s important that when a visitor lands on your website, your website is primed to guide them into taking an action of some point. Otherwise they’ll just click on your homepage and leave, and essentially, their visit has been wasted.
You should make sure you have at least one call to action on every page of your site.
You can, of course, have more than one call to action on a page, and certainly more than one throughout your site, but make sure they are clearly labelled and stand out from the rest of your content.
3) The website is really out of date
I get it – I really do! When you first landed your book deal you set up your author website in a flurry of activity and excitement and then you… forgot about it. You got on with your writing (as you rightly should) and now it’s five years down the line, you’ve published four novels since and the whole thing is so out of date you’d rather just pretend it didn’t exist.
That’s fine except for the fact that if you’ve published four novels, you’ve probably got people Googling you on a semi-regular basis, only to be disappointed when they discover the cobwebs all over your site.
So please, see your author website as just as an important a business task as your annual tax return (although hopefully more fun!). Mark it in your schedule as something you update at least every six months (if not more regularly).
And of course, if you really don’t have time or you need some help with it, you know where I am. ;)
4) Missing information
This is something I see surprisingly often. A beautiful website that misses out essential information relating to the book or author.
For example, a website with an image of the cover of the book, but with no information on what the book is actually about. Or a website with a beautiful blurb – maybe even some behind the scenes info on what inspired the author to write it – but with no picture of the cover.
Other things that authors often forget to put on their websites are contact details for their agents, publishers and publicists. Or links to their social media accounts. Or their author bio. Or their testimonials from other writers. Or their headshot…
You get the picture. Not sure what you need to put on your author website? Not to worry! Check out my top 5 things every author website needs.
5) Wall to wall text or a cluttered site with no white space
Now to get a bit designy.
White space is your friend. Use it. As much of it as possible.
Once upon a time, the trend was for websites to fit neatly into your browser window, and for everything to be ‘above the fold’ (the point at which you need to scroll down) as much as possible. The result was boxy, static and pictorial-style homepages with small fonts and even smaller images.
But these days, with everyone used to scrolling on their mobile devices, using apps such as Twitter and Instagram, all the old conventions have been thrown out.
These days, a well-designed, user-friendly website spreads things out, using lots of white space so that the most important content on your page stands out. People visiting websites in 2019 are more than happy to scroll (plus more than half the people visiting your website are likely to be doing so on a mobile device anyway).
The downside of this new way of consuming information online is that people’s attention spans are far shorter, so the mantra ‘less is more’ really does apply. People tend to skim read, so big paragraphs of dense text aren’t likely to be doing your website any favours.
Please don’t use lines and lines of wall-to-wall text (text that stretches the full width of your browser) – this is really off-putting. No one wants to visit an author website and be greeted by something that looks like an academic manual.
Keep the copy on your site broken up in short manageable chunks, get to the point and don’t waffle. And use white space and images as much as possible to break the page up.
Finally, really think about what you’re trying to say on each page, and prune back any unnecessary content. ‘Be more Google’ - it’s the ultimate website after all, yet it has the least amount of content of any site (and the most white space!).
Here’s a great article on simplifying your website to make it as user-friendly as possible.
Hope that was helpful - please do let me know in the comments below what you thought and if you have any questions then just get in touch!
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