Want your website to sell more books? The first step is attracting visitors to your website, which probably involves SEO or Search Engine Optimization. You’ll also want to make sure your website is crawlable and mobile-friendly. If you’ve avoided rookie mistakes, then you still need high quality writing to convert pageviews into book sales. A lot of SEO information is free online, but that research takes time away from your writing. If you want to skip the hassle and still put your website to work, set up a free consultation.
Target Your Subgenre
You aren’t going to rank #1 for the phrase “books like Harry Potter,” but that’s a good thing. When you’re first building a following, you want your marketing to target the fans of your specific subgenre. Within that subgenre, you should find other published works with a similar style and voice. The keywords and search phrases you target should reflect your niche within the subgenre.
Strut Your Stuff
Your website content shows your professional skill as a writer. Before the reader tries a short story or downloads a freebie novella, they read the words on your homepage. Is your style witty or literary? Snarky or friendly? Adapted as appropriate, the language on your website should let readers know what to expect in your published work. It sounds intimidating, but this overlap between messaging and product one of the biggest advantages for writers marketing themselves.
Plan a Blog
You’ve probably heard it a dozen times before, but you need a blog. An active blog (that targets new keywords) pays dividends in the form of attracting traffic. Used correctly, your blog is an opportunity to gauge reader interest in new projects. If you write a series of blog posts that nobody wants to read, then it’s worth asking whether your marketing or the subject matter is responsible. Some posts will naturally perform better than others, but your blog is one of the biggest tools for free self-promotion.
Get Pumped for Success!
Hundreds of factors contribute to website rankings, but writers have the perfect skillset to tackle one of the most expensive and challenging parts of SEO: quality targeted content. As long as you put an appropriate amount of effort into your blogs, the blog posts (and shares) will help attract the attention of people who appreciate your writing voice and message.