One of the most important elements in helping to market your book and reach your audience is your Author Website. An author website can and should be the hub for your marketing and communication efforts online. One of the best reasons for setting up and maintaining your author website is that you own it and control it. If you choose instead to communicate through Facebook or Twitter, you may find future changes end up eliminating or losing your posts or limiting your outreach. For instance, there are reports of people who once exclusively video blogged on Facebook, who woke one morning to find more than a year’s worth of videos deleted and lost forever. That is not a problem for people who own their own websites and keep their videos and posts there. The videos and post can then easily be uploaded to social media as needed for the same effect.

Setting up author websites is one of the services that Media City Publishers offers our authors. When we set up a site, we make sure to consult with our author to help focus on what activities they wish to promote along with their book. Our expert designers can create social media banners, business cards, posters, and other marketing materials that match your book in order to present our authors through a clear, unified style and brand.

Whether you choose to use our services to help set up your website or prefer to do it on your own, here are some key things to help you make your author website the best it can be:

  • Study some of your favorite websites — as well as those of competing authors — before creating your own. Research the types of pages and information that are includes as well as what colors and design elements are used. Most author websites should include a home page, a book details page (one for each book you’ve published), book reviews, media appearances, an events calendar, and a blog.
  • Choose your domain name wisely. The domain name should be short, easy to remember and logical. It’s usually better to use your author pen name than the name of your book; you don’t want to build a new site and following for each new title you publish. Use words that are easy to remember and simple to spell. If you usually have to tell people how to spell your first or last name, consider using an initial instead. It’s possible that your top choice will already be registered by someone else, so be prepared to brainstorm multiple options and to get creative.
  • It’s also important to consider keywords when creating your website. Without making your website’s content rich with keywords, it will be less likely that your page will be found through search engines. If you are unfamiliar with keywords, think about how you use the Internet and what words you would use when searching for your book or another product. How would your target audience search for your book? Try to incorporate various keywords into the text of your website, specifically on the home page and opening paragraphs of other pages. Advanced users can utilize the metadata on each page of your website, which search engines use to organize their search results.
  • Remember, no one likes to visit a website with outdated or irrelevant information. Make your visitors come back again and again by keeping your site up to date and by making it easy to navigate. The information you may want to post on your website includes upcoming events, appearances and signings; an interactive blog; book reviews; and contact information. Update frequently, keep your content timely, and never post anything that you are not comfortable disclosing to the general public.