Dos and Don’ts of Indie Author Website Design
While last week’s post focused on ensuring you are reaching readers before they even know you exist, this week’s post continues to highlight why having a website dedicated to showcasing you and your books is the single most important marketing strategy you have at your fingertips!
If you’re DIYing it, or guiding the process, this post will help you consider the best practices when designing your website.
Your indie author website is your foundation. Your brand. Your identity. Your community.
It’s THE way you communicate with your readers.
Just like your book covers, your potential readers are judging you based on your colors, fonts, layout, and content.
Your website is the vibe you put into the ether.
It’s the way future stakeholders do business with you.
The pressure! I know. But with that pressure comes great opportunity to communicate what you want and how you want to your readers, both present and future.
Imagine the possibilities!
THE DOS
1. Determine the Main “Call to Action” of Your Website
The main reason of having a website is likely to sell books. While your readers are there, you might want them to also sign up for your newsletter, to see where you’ll be signing books this year and to learn more about you, their new favorite author!
TIP: If you have a place where your readers can sign up for your newsletter, please make sure it is “above the fold.”
This means that users don’t have to scroll to find it. These seemingly silly details go a long way to ensuring that your readers have a great experience on your website and find exactly what they came looking for . . . even if they didn’t know what that was.
2. Map It Out
Whether you’re a plotter or a pantser when it comes to writing your books, for your website, you’ll definitely want to plot this one out beforehand!
Think through:
The content on your website
The placement of the content
How readers will navigate through your website
Since your website is your number one marketing platform, and its main purpose is to sell more books, make sure this is the driving force of the plot. Each story beat leads your website visitor on the journey you’ve envisioned.
At every turn, make it easy for your readers to find the book they want to buy and to buy it.
A poorly plotted website is similar to a poorly plotted book. It’s confusing and frustrating and leads to DNFing.
Consider the following pages:
Home (this does not need to be in top navigation; place it in the footer, instead)
Books (make sure that when readers go to buy your books, especially if it’s through Amazon or via another outside link, that they are simply directed to another tab, NOT out of your website!)
About
Events
Contact
3. Have a Clear Call to Action on Each Page
On every page, make it incredibly easy for your readers to purchase your books. You can do this by placing buttons on each page that link back to your main sales page for your books.
The designated “Books” page should have clear buttons to purchase each book. Remember the tip above to ensure that readers are not taken out of your website when they click to purchase a book.
Place the designated “Books” page in the top and the bottom navigation, so no matter where in your website your readers are, they can easily make a purchase.
4. Use Only 2 Fonts
To keep your website cohesive, choose up to 2 complementary fonts. One font for headings and one font for text. Only use a third “fun” font sparingly, if at all.
As tempting as it may be to use “pretty” fonts, doing so can cause your website to lack consistency and to appear disorganized.
To differentiate text, you can use bold, italics and uppercase to change it up. You can also choose one serif font and one sans serif font to add a bit of flair.
5. Use >16-Point Font Size
To accommodate a variety of screens, set the body text font size to at least 16-18 points.
6. Allow for “White Space” Throughout
Have you ever been on a website with so many different fonts, colors, images, and links that it’s overwhelming?
Having “white space” with clear sections gives your site a clean look and helps guide your readers’ eyes along the page.
THE DON’TS
1. Have More Than 5 Items in the Top Navigation
Having too many items in the top navigation can cause analysis paralysis, and we want to make it easy for your readers to buy your books and to be a part of your community.
TIP: The “Home” page does not need to be taking up this valuable real estate. It is now understood that by clicking on your logo in the top left of the page, the user will be directed to the Home page.
2. Center Align Paragraphs
Although it can seem counterintuitive, center aligned paragraphs of text are difficult to read.
Just like the text in your books is left justified, the text on your website should also be left justified. Generally, text that is longer than 2-3 lines, should be aligned to the left.
Centered text only works for titles and single lines of text.
Make sure your website copy (i.e., text) is easily skimmed by avoiding wall-to-wall text. Avoid long paragraphs by breaking the copy into lines of text. Such breaks are more easily digested.
3. Use Poor Quality Photos or Images
Blurry or poor quality photos and images are probably the single most thing that destroys an otherwise wonderful website.
With all of the professionally curated options with commercial licenses available, settling for amateur and blurry photos is a thing of the past.
4. Use Lots of Colors
Just like with fonts, choose a maximum of two colors. Less is more when it comes to website design and your readers’ experience.
Make text easier to read by using contrasting color. For example, use black for text and a color, like green, for links.
5. Design for Both Desktop and Mobile
While your website will likely be designed on a desktop, neglecting the fact that your site will often be viewed on a cell phone can be a fatal flaw.
When switching between screen sizes, images and text often overlap and make it difficult to read and to navigate.
And what happens when your readers can’t easily read about you on your site or purchase a book? They get frustrated and click out! Often, never to return again.
Squarespace provides both a desktop view and a mobile view, making it easy to rearrange blocks. Please be sure to do this in both views to make sure you do not frustrate your readers.
6. Add Your Favicon
Favicon?! What in the world is a favicon?
A favicon, short for “favorite icon,” is the image that appears in browser tabs, in the address bar and in bookmarks. Usually, it is a simplified, square version of your logo.
This simple image of the quill, which is part of Mint Copy Services’ logo, is used as the favicon.
Favicons allow users to quickly navigate back to your website.
It allows readers to quickly identify your website among the million tabs they have open. Take a quick gander at the tabs you currently have open, and you may be surprised how much we rely on these little images to help us find our way back to the desired website.
Unless this is intentionally changed in the backend of the site, the favicon appears as the website platform’s favicon. On Squarespace sites, the favicon is a little black cube.
I usually add the favicon as a PNG file at the same time I add your logo. It’s one more small, yet critical way, to build your brand identity, and to help your readers feel a sense of belonging in your community!
Your Indie Author Website Serves as Your Number One Marketing Platform
And I hope this post helped you embrace how these design practices can amp up YOUR INDIE AUTHOR PLATFORM and to bring your readers into your fold!
If you’d rather stick with writing books, than with designing websites, I am happy to help!
Check out my WEBSITE PACKAGES HERE and my PA SERVICES HERE!
Looking to hire a PA but don’t know if you’re ready or where to start, grab this freebie 👇
Your supportive side character,
Lisa