Website Content
The simple one-page website
This webpage has all the information on one page. Think of it as a digital resume. If you're not interested in regularly tending to your website, this is a great option. Clippings.me is a fast way to get a one page website done fast with minimal tech training. I got mine up and running in a few hours, and it's been low-maintenance ever since. If you are going to do the one-page website, just be sure to include:- Your name and professions.
- A headshot
- A short bio
- A means of contacting you
- Links to social media profiles.
- Links to your best publications.
- An PDF version of your CV or resume.
The full website
Maybe you have bigger dreams for your author website. You want to include a blog, a contact form, and all the bells and whistles. The fuller website will give you more room for information and will be better for SEO since larger websites are generally more highly ranked. The only problem to consider is how much more work goes into a full website, especially if you have never used a web-site builder like Weebly, Wix, or Wordpress. On the bright side, if you master one of these website-builders, you can put it on your resume, since its a desirable technical skill.We'll get into which website builder to choose later, but first I recommend sitting down and mapping out what you want to include. Here is a rough template that I would propose.
Home page
The home page should clearly state your name and profession. You may also consider including:
- a headshot
- a short biography
- links to your most recent work.
- links to social media accounts.
This page should include:
- a headshot.
- a longer biography (200-400 words).
- a means of contacting you.
- links to social media accounts.
This page should show off all the great work you've done and previous experience. Include:
- links to all your online work
- a description of your work experience and services offered
- a list of achievements and honors
- a simple PDF CV or resume on this page for download.
A blog can humanize you and hold all the bits that don't fit tidily into the other pages. Include:
- announcements.
- musings on your life.
- updates on projects.
Content from an SEO Perspective
To improve SEO for your author website, you have to consider how Google does its search result rankings. Google has robots continuously comb through the internet to assess what web pages are about and whether they are desirable to users. The algorithm behind these decisions is Google’s secret sauce. No one, except maybe a few people at Google, knows exactly how it works. To complicate matters, Google also frequently tweaks their algorithm. With these caveats in mind, here are some best practices that marketers have gleaned from trial and error.Consistently include your key words in the text of your web pages.
Your key words will probably be your name and terms related to writing. For the sake of this explanation, let’s say your name is Sam Ramos and your goal is to have your author website pop up on the first page of Google when people search “Sam Ramos Writer.”A great first step would be to literally title your website and home page, “Sam Ramos, Writer.” If you can get ahold of samramoswriter.com as a url, even better! I’ve noticed that since writers are beautiful and creative people, they are drawn to website titles like, “Dreams and Sand” or “Musings from the Eye of an Artist.” While more poetic, these titles are impractical from a marketing perspective.
Think about it—a stranger searching for you would never think to type those creative titles in the search bar. The google bots also have no understanding of poetry. In fact, you may be more likely to appear under searches for unrelated topics regarding literal sand mining in the case of “Dreams and sand.”
On your home page at least, try to incorporate your name and relevant terms like “writer” or “poet” in the page title, your headers, and the body text. A great home page could be titled, “Sam Ramos, Writer,” include a headshot with alt text, a short bio that repeats your name and profession, and then some other content like recent publications.
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