Creating a professional author website is crucial today for any writer looking to expand their reach and target an audience. An author’s website assists one in displaying their work, marketing their books, and reaching out to the audience. Whether you are a professional author or are just firmly putting pen to paper, creating an author website will drastically elevate your stature and visibility. In this tutorial, we’ll go through the steps needed to build an author’s website online in a few hours!
Whether it’s registering a domain name, creating the structure of your website, or making it SEO-friendly, this guide will provide you with the necessary steps in building a foolproof author’s website that captures your essence perfectly.
Step 1: Choose a Domain Name
The first step in creating an author website is registering the domain name. This proves to be quite useful as your domain name makes it easy for readers to locate you and establishes you with an online identity. The domain name needs to be simple, catchy, and easy to deal with while ideally including your name or the name of a published work if you have any.
While considering a name for the domain, one may also look at different versions in case the first one is not available. Domain registration services such as Truehost, GoDaddy, or Namecheap can help in checking the availability and purchasing of the desired name. It is also sensible to look at the extension as well, for even though.com is the most known other extensions such as .appe or .author may be adequate depending on the situation. A domain name is fundamental to any business especially when it comes to having an online presence it should be strategically chosen since it conveys a lot. A suitable domain will promote the business image and enhance its chances of being easily found by possible customers.
Step 2: Sign Up for a Web Hosting Service
Once you have the domain name, the next procedure would be selecting a web hosting service. Web hosting is important as it provides the required technology to view the site from any internet-connected device such as a computer. There is a range of hosting providers to choose from, and each has specific packages that differ based on storage, bandwidth, and support.
Truehost, Bluehost, SiteGround, and HostGator are popular choices. Most of these providers have one-click WordPress installation which means you can integrate your site without the need for any technical skill.
While choosing a hosting package, consider aspects such as customer service, guarantees of how long your site will be working, and how many more websites you can host as your site expands.
It’s best that you source a dependable host because as your reader base expands, so does the amount of traffic directed towards your site. Also, consider acquiring other features such as SSL certificates for added security and backups for your content.
This way, by prioritizing your choice of web hosting, you are ensuring that your author’s website functions properly.
Step 3: Choose the Right Platform
It is very important to choose the correct platform for authoring websites. The reason I am recommending WordPress is its huge support base and adaptability, features that very few other platforms can match. This platform has many themes and plugins designed for authors, so you can make your site look professional from its very start.
Also, look at Truehost as a hosting provider that will assist you in your website development. Truehost guarantees ultimate web hosting with easy installation of WordPress, making it even easier to get started. Their application interface and the way they relate with customers is indeed commendable, and this ensures that you spend more time creating content than managing technology.
In the case of selecting a platform, one has to keep in mind issues such as ease of use, design, and most importantly whether the platform suffices the requirements of you as a writer. For instance, in case you want to integrate a blog when selling your books, WordPress has some powerful blogging features that allow you to interact well with your readers. On the other hand, if you want a more user-friendly experience and are looking for a hosting and building solution, Truehost is a good option. In the end, your choice will affect the way you are able to generate content and blend with your fans so this is a decision that requires great input!.
Step 4: Design Your Author Website
Once you’ve decided which platform to use, it’s time to create the author site. Choose a theme that is consistent with your personality as well as the genre of your books. Most of the platforms have customizable templates making it easy to set up a decent website without the need for much designing skills.
Your author website should focus on the reader’s expectations of your writing and present yourself as an author. Appropriate changes should be made including adding a stunning header image or video, a short introduction about yourself, and links to your books or other works. Make sure goal-oriented navigation is built so that the visitors of your websites focus on finding content about your books, events calendar, or blog posts. Besides, it might be a good idea to include links to your social media so that users are encouraged to follow you on other websites. A great website not only draws attention but also retains it which is important in this regard.
Step 5: Add Your Content
After having determined the structure of your site, the next thing is to fill it up with content. Begin nurturing each page with exciting copy including writing a good ‘About Me’ section so that readers get a sense of your personal life and how you became a writer.
While presenting each book, make sure to include, apart from the book covers, the reviews, a comprehensive description, as well as links to where readers can buy or download them.
In particular, such work relevant to writing or posting about your experiences in the book business can help readers become more acquainted with you and your works.
After all, constantly refreshing the content makes it more interesting to the readers as they don’t have to repeat the same process each time; for that purpose, it would be a good idea to embed a newsletter subscription form so that the readers receive the updates on their emails instead!
And, of course, the readers will become more interested in you if you offer them something worth their attention that corresponds with their tastes and requirements.
Step 6: Optimize Your Website
The next step is optimizing your website (SEO). It involves inserting keywords that are relevant to the content and that may be used in search engines by the readers interested specifically in your niche or in certain books, the keywords are scattered throughout your text.
Take a look at each page and make sure it has relevant meta descriptions and images alt text – that maximizes the clarity to search engines. If you do not know how to optimize the web page properly, learn some basic principles of SEO or consult a professional.
Google Analytics for instance is capable of indicating how users interact with your site, which could help you devise better strategies for coming up with content that targets your audience!
Also, make sure that all pages of the site load at an acceptable speed, as websites with slow speeds deter users from further exploring the site; GTmetrix serves this purpose well!
Read also: How to Create a Killer Author Landing Page (Capture Leads and Sell Books)
Step 7: Customize with Plugins
If you choose to go for WordPress, then do not hesitate to make use of plugins that can enhance the features available on your site! Include those for SEO purposes (such as Yoast SEO), social media sharing (such as Social Warfare), email marketing (for example, Mailchimp), and of course, security (like Wordfence).
These tools not only simplify the workflows but also enhance the experience of your site’s users—making sure that visitors can explore content without any difficulty while also motivated to participate more!
For instance, the use of social media sharing buttons allows users wanting to promote a particular book to post links on their networks with ease.
And also think of using analysis plugins that allow you to handle data more meaningfully by revealing trends in user engagement over a long period of time – making changes that work best!
Read also: Author Website Hosting: Don’t Let Your Site Crash and Burn
Step 8: Launch Your Author Website
After fulfilling all the steps mentioned earlier—this is it, time to launch! Before you make the site go live ensure that all parts of your site are working and functioning as intended: every link works, menus change pages, and the site is mobile-friendly!
To create buzz around launch day think about using prior to launch marketing strategies such as social media teasers posting about it, sending emails about it, and providing already registered users special content!
Once the site is live keep a close eye on its performance—ask visitors for their reviews to find out what is missing! Interacting with some of the first visitors by asking them to fill out a questionnaire form, or writing to them directly can show whether the site has met their expectations and what modifications should be done for the next versions of the site!
Read also: How To Build an Author Website with a Blog That Readers Will Love
Conclusion
It may seem difficult to create a professional website as an author, however, if you stick to the elements listed in this how-to guide, the work will become much easier for you. These crucial steps include: selecting a domain name, signing up for web hosting, choosing platforms, designing appealing websites, adding pertinent information, as well as guiding viewers so that the website becomes easily accessible. By working on an author website today you not only increase authority in your target audience’s eyes but also open the horizon to reaching your writing goals! Begin crafting your website today!