As an author, do you think of your website as a business card. Or, do you think of it as a portal?
Think. If you exchange business cards, do you envision it hitting the circular file–to be carried out in the next trash pickup? Or, do you see it lingering on a table, a desk, placed in a spot that the recipient easily remembers? Of course, you want the latter.
Shift to your website. Did you know that the average visitor to a website is gone within five seconds? FIVE SECONDS! That’s equivalent to be dumped into the circular file–trashed.
Over the weekend, members of Author U who attended the Author and Book Findabililty Brunch and Learn created a hive of activity and creativity. The section on website strategies was eye-opening, even to those who had very high scores via HubSpot’s Market Grader, a nifty tool that measures your website’s marketing influence. If you haven’t measured yours, I suggest you do so pronto.
We all hear about SEO this and SEO that. Is it a big deal? And the answer is: yes it is. The information that Findability pro Heather Lutze revealed was absolutely what a roomful of authors in every stage of publishing wanted to hear. Hanging on to every word, no one wanted to leave–we wanted more! Earlier this year, Heather created a stellar blog asking if your website was a ghost town. Read the blog, and then ask yourself, “Is mine?”
Your website isn’t a throw-away. It is the portal for you and your work. Does it reflect your intent? Does it carry your brand? Does it have inviting content to keep a visitor, any visitor for over that three to five drop in rate? Is it compelling enough to bring them back? Is it “old”? In other words, is it boring?
All of us need website makeovers at some time. All of us need to learn some of the tricks of the trade to keep the site, and self, visible.
- When was the last time you really deep dived into website land?
- When was the last time you looked at competitive websites and visually measured yours up to theirs?
- When was the last time you did a keyword search for key words and phrases that are “hot” for your field, your expertise?
- When was the last time that you verified what tags were used for your website within the search engines–the ones that your website designer set up?
Time’s up… start with key words pronto. Head over to HubSpot and check your website out. Then, register for the Author U Extravaganza. You will discover the latest in what works and what doesn’t.
Judith Briles is known as The Book Shepherd, the Author and Publishing expert and the Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Author U, a membership organization created for the author who wants to be seriously successful. She’s been writing about and conducting workshops on publishing since the 80s. She’s the author of 31 books including Author YOU: Creating Your Book and Author Platform that has won four multiple “best” in the writing/publishing categories in book award competitions in 2013. Her latest book is Snappy Sassy Salty … Wise Words for Authors and Publishers has just been released.
Join Judith live on Thursdays at 6 p.m. EST for Author U-Your Guide to Book Publishing on the Toginet network at: http://togi.us/authoru (you can subscribe on the show’s Home page to get weekly updates of the latest show). Connect on Google+ and become a Peep on Twitter at @AuthorU and @MyBookShepherd.
If you are looking for FREE author and book coaching … call in to Judith’s Author Monday Mornings at NOON Eastern each Monday. The number is 218-632-9854; Access Code 1239874444 … have your questions ready–there’s a full hour to ask and listen.
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