Website Mistakes Can Lose Book Sales
by Nate Hoffelder
No matter what industry you are in, the tech you use every day requires regular maintenance. You take your car in every few thousand miles. The office copier gets monthly visits from the service tech. And the software you’re using to write your next book gets regular updates from its developer.
But what about your website? When was the last time you looked over the site and made sure everything worked right, that the site looked good, and was up to date?
If you are like most people, your website is probably the last thing on your mind, and with good reason. People rarely visit the public-facing parts of their own websites. So it is easy to forget to update important info and check to make sure it is operating smoothly.
If you haven’t checked your site recently, now is a good time to do so. I have a few suggestions on things to look for and improvements to make.
Here are seven website mistakes I have seen far too often.
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Adverts on a Free Site
One piece of advice commonly shared with new authors is that they don’t need to invest in hosting or a domain or site graphics; new authors are told that they can get a free website on WordPress.com and it will be perfectly fine as an author website.
While it is completely true in that you can do this, I don’t think it’s a good idea. The problem with the “free” sites on WordPress.com is that they aren’t actually free. They come with adverts.
WordPress.com may choose to defray their hosting costs by running adverts on a site. The adverts will be placed in the sidebar. They might also be in the middle of your blog posts. Or they can interrupt your book description.
Solution: If you don’t mind your carefully crafted words being interrupted by adverts for athlete’s foot treatments and cures for ingrown toenails, then by all means get a free website on WordPress.com. Or, you can pay for hosting with companies like WordPress.com, Squarespace.com, or PeoplesHost.com.
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No Mention of their Latest Book
It is a simple truth that if you don’t tell a reader about your new release, they can’t buy your new release. This is why most authors announce their new release on their mailing list, their social media, and so on. Unfortunately, their website is often forgotten, and it’s costing them sales.
Solution: With some of my clients, I recommend that they check their website quarterly and see if it needs to be updated. But with authors, I think they should add a step of “update/refresh the website” to their checklist for publishing a book, selling a short story, or scheduling an appearance. This way the website will be updated as frequently as they release new content and they’ll avoid website mistakes.
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Broken Links Cause big Website Mistakes
The link is the fundamental part of the web. It has been around since before any of us used the internet, and it will likely outlast us all. The same cannot be said for the sites we link to, however.
That site you linked to last month might shut down tomorrow, or it might move its content around, breaking your links. The site’s owner might decide to change their company’s name and its domain. Or they might decide to abandon a site entirely, and let the domain registration lapse. That will give someone an opportunity to register the domain and point it at a porn site. (This actually happened to a link on my blog).
And let’s not forget that republishing your books on Amazon.com will change the books’ location on the site, breaking any links you have to your books.
Solution: About once a quarter you should use a service like BrokenLinkCheck.com to scan your site for broken links. You will need to decide whether to remove a broken link, or update it so it points to a new or different location.
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No Contact Info
This might sound like hyperbole, but I actually have a couple of favorite authors who I have never been able to tell how much I love their books. The reason I can’t tell them this is that they never bothered to add their contact info to their websites.
Their websites have no email address, or contact form, or even links to the author’s social media accounts! (One author doesn’t even name their agent as a point of contact.)
Solution: Give visitors to your website as many ways to contact you as you feel comfortable with. It is understandable that you may want to limit contact. (Some authors need to keep their pen names separate from their day jobs.) But you still need to give visitors some way to reach you.
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Mobile Unfriendly Website Mistakes
Everyone knows that half or more of web traffic now comes from mobile devices. So you might think that all websites would work well on smartphone-sized screens. But you would be mistaken.
It would be rude to name names, but you would be surprised at the number of authors, including famous names, who have websites that are not mobile-friendly. Some don’t realize that their site looks bad on a smartphone. Others probably thought that using a site theme such as, for example, the TwentyTen theme from a big-name developer like Automattic, would guarantee that the site would work on a smartphone (alas, no).
Test your site by visiting it on a smartphone, and then visiting it on a tablet. Is the text easy to read? Does the menu work? How about other features? (Does the site even load?)
Solution: If your site looks bad on a smartphone, your best solution is going to be to replace the site’s theme with a more modern one. This will give your site a new look that works on all screen sizes.
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Misconfigured HTTPS
Most authors know that they need to get an SSL certificate and switch their site to HTTPS. Not everyone knows this (and that is concerning) but what’s worse is that a fair percentage of authors who do get an SSL certificate stop before they finish the process.
One thing that a lot of people don’t know is that getting an SSL certificate is merely the first step. The next step is to change the site’s domain so it starts with HTTPS, and then make sure all your images, scripts, and other parts of the site use HTTPS when they are mentioned in the site’s code.
If you don’t finish that last step then you aren’t done.
Solution: If you don’t have an SSL certificate for your site, get one. Then use WhyNoPadlock.com to test your author site. This service will scan your site and tell what you need to do to fully secure your site. For most WordPress sites, what you need to do is get an SSL cert and then install a plugin like Really Simple SSL. When activated and set up, this plugin will (in 99% of sites) do all the work.
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No Facebook Pixel
Many authors have taken to boosting their sales by buying adverts on Facebook. You might not fall in that group today, but you could change your mind tomorrow, and a Facebook Pixel will help.
If you install a Facebook Pixel on your site, you will be able to use the data it provides to target Facebook ads with pinpoint accuracy. You can have Facebook concentrate your ads on your site’s visitors, increasing the chance they will decide to buy your book.
Solution: You can install a Facebook Pixel by following these instructions. A tip: Have the instructions open in one browser tab while you follow them in a second browser tab (FB’s ad menus are super complicated).
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No Backups!
There is no worse feeling than telling someone I can’t help them rescue their lost or crashed site because there was no backup to work with. Yes, I can still help them rebuild from scratch, but losing years of work is heartbreaking (I’ve even had it happen to me once or twice – before I got smart.)
I don’t always need a backup when working on a hacked or crashed site, but having one makes it a lot easier to restore a site to a fully functional state. This is why I always make sure I make a backup before working on a site.
Solution: Check with your hosting company (or with a tech expert such as myself) about making sure your site is being backed up. Note: Your host may be taking care of this for you (I do for my hosting clients).
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No Site At All
This might be hard to believe in 2023, but I know of authors whose solution to website problems is to skip even having a website in the first place. They just use a Facebook page, or send fans to their author page on Amazon.com, or just not bother to keep any kind of online presence at all.
This is a mistake of the first order.
An author’s website is the one place on the web where the author is truly in control. Amazon might pull your books tomorrow, Facebook might remove your account, and your favorite forum might shut down on the owner’s whim, but your website is safe from anything short of legal action.
Even a simple site with a single page, a brief bio, and a few book description is better than nothing.
Solution: Get a website! (And Anne reminds you that with social media fragmenting right now, it’s more important than ever to have your own site you can control.
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Bonus Tip:
Before you make any major changes to your site, be sure to get feedback. Take the time to line up six or eight friends who will look over your site and help you spot errors like placeholder text left on a page, or missing cover images, or typos. For example, if you want to test your site and see if it’s mobile-friendly, you should ask on Twitter or Facebook.
I cannot tell you the number of times I finished a website update, fixed all the errors that I could find and that the client could find, and then had someone point out an error weeks or months later!
by Nate Hoffelder (@inkbitspixels) January 22, 2023
What about you, scriveners? Do you make any of these website mistakes? I know I don’t check broken links enough. I’m especially annoyed by websites with no contact information. What about you, do you have a pet peeve in website mistakes?
About Nate Hoffelder
Nate has been helping people fix broken tech since 2010.
He is the guardian angel who now manages this site for us, since we lost our webmaster Barb Drozdowich to a difficult illness last year.
He turns broken down WordPress sites into sites which convert visitors into superfans, also builds sites from scratch, and helps authors with their social media and newsletters.
Nate is on the board of the Florida Writers Foundation, and helps writer groups with their websites.When he is not volunteering, he writes bad jokes on Twitter and creates memes and graphics. In his spare time, Nate maintains three Little Free Libraries.
Sign up for Nate’s newsletter!
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image licensed through Creative Commons
Nate—Many, many thanks for an invaluable post about author websites! As the Carly Simon song confirms, “Nobody does it better than you!”
Thanks Ruth!
Good stuff, Nate. Thanks for the tips. I had a bad experience recently when I did a mass update of plugins after neglecting them for a few months. My blogpost achieves all went to white space death after I hit the “update all’ button. Fortunately, my daughter is a WordPress whiz and she went through my site and disabled each plugin one-by-one, checking to see when the site reactivated. She went through about 15 trial and errors before it restored. Just putting this out in case someone else clicks a bad plug and goes blank. BTW, good morning Anne & Ruth!
Thanks!
And you’re right, that is one of the first steps in troubleshooting errors on WP sites.
Wow. This is all Lithuanian to me. Looks like I need to study up. Thanks Anne & Nate.
You’re welcome!
Great advice, Nate. Even as a long-time author, I found a few I have failed to keep up on!
Thanks!
Hi, Nate
Great list. Kris Rusch pointed out the problem with the missing contact information–she was trying to contact an author to pay money to use a story. No contact information = no sale.
But you missed one that’s pretty common–not putting your name on the website. Particularly when the writer has gone the free site route, they can sometimes forget to put their name anywhere on the site (which would lead to the no contact info problem). The likely fits into the same reason they put their name in tiny letters on the cover. They don’t think it’s important, and it’s how readers find them.
Good point!
I know I need to check links, but since my (Blogger) blog is my website, I do see it every week.
Contact info – I used to have my email displayed, but I got zapped by a company claiming I was using one of their clients’ graphics and please pay them a lot of money. That’s when I switched emails and no longer display it. (And yes, it worked – they never found me again.)
That company could have been running one of several different scams. I can’t say which it was, but if they didn’t pursue it then they clearly were not llegit.
Lots of great suggestions, Nate, and all of them right on! Thank you.
You are very welcome!
Glad I could help!
Great tips, Nate. Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome!
I gave myself a big pat on the back just now. I read through all the website mistakes and thought, “Nope. Not a single one applies to me! Oh, well, okay, except that broken links one.
I get so frustrated when I see that Jetpack has emailed with more broken links. I’ve been putting off going through my website to fix them all. But, I guess I have to do something about it now. Thanks for the nudge!
Welcome!
Great tips, Nate. Thank you. Broken links are maddening.
I also wish authors wouldn’t put popup screens to ask the viewer to join their newsletter. I hate those.
I’m with you, Kay, 100%. See my comment to Garry below.
Thanks, Nate. One thing clear: I need to learn more. I do need to add that https:// to the front of the link, and I don’t know if I have an SSL certificate. I hadn’t checked how my site looked on a mobile device since I created it, but was happy to see it still looks fine. I use Weebly. They’ve been very helpful on technical questions and don’t cost that much. But I also noticed that I’d spelled Paper Angel as Paper Angle. Gotta fix that for sure!
Hey Fred,
I checked your site, and Weebly already took care of this for you.
You have successfully managed to send me down a rabbit hole. That BrokenLinkCheck… it found things that were buried in amongst my disclaimer on the affiliate links. Easy fix, but I had no idea they were there. Now to fix all the other ones sitting here. And following the White Rabbit down the hole.
Glad I could help!
Good tips, Nate! I just did a quick scan-through and all looks pretty good. Will keep this bookmarked.
Thanks!
Excellent tips. Thank you for sharing! I’ll definitely be referring to this post in the future.
You’re welcome!
Kay – I might be annoying but I get 75% of my new subscribers through Sumo popups. No apologies 🙂
Garry–What if your sign-up were not a pop-up? How do you know you wouldn’t get more sign-ups if you didn’t block your own content with an annoying popup that sends readers away? Why not have a friendly sign-up window that’s available after the reader decides if they like what you’ve written? I never sign up with a popup. I prefer to see content before I sign up for it. It’s like going to a store and having a needy commission salesperson attach themselves to you before you can even find the department you’re looking for.
I’m glad you said that Anne, I don’t even look at a blog if I get a pop-up asking me to sign up before I’ve even browsed!
Garry, I signed up for your newsletter, my friend, but it wasn’t because a popup asked me to. 🙂
Kay–A pop-up doesn’t ask. It demands. It punches you in the face and blocks your way. Sometimes it’s so hard to find the x to close it, I sign up with a fake address. Mostly I just leave the site.
Sorry Anne and Kay, but I’m with Garry on this. You can configure pop-ups—as I do—so visitors only see them as they’re leaving the site… AFTER they’ve seen the content. I also have “normal” sign-up links and such, but the pop-ups work the best. To each her own.
That’s what I do!
Nate, thank you! I have all the plug-ins you mentioned already installed, but I forgot to add my new release to my Home page. Fixed. 🙂
The Facebook pixel drove me crazy the last time I tried to install it, so I also appreciate the step-by-step instructions. I’ll try it again. Fingers crossed!
That is good to heear!
Meant to add: Your newsletters are so helpful, Nate. Did you hear smarturl sold? Their explanation of the merger is weak, at best. Still not sure what will happen to my links in February. Do you know?
I had not heard about that, no.
Btw, I signed up for Nate’s newsletter because I saw the link at the end of his post. Thanks for making it a good user experience. 🙂
Me too! They are annoying, but they work. Go figure.
Hello Nate! Thanks for this great article. I had written to you after hearing you present at a virtual writing conference I attended in the fall of 2021. I wasn’t able to get back to you at the time–immense life changes–but you had looked at my site and I was considering hiring you to clean up my site and make it more visually pleasing, as well as accessible. Hopefully, I saved that email exchange we had!
i’m going to sign up for your newsletter.
One of my web site pet peeves, in fact my biggest, is accessibility issues. I am a blind author and avid reader, and it’s highly frustrating to come across unlabeled links, untagged images and so forth. Please, take the time to make sure all your links and pictures are labeled.
Oops, I didn’t mean to make my comment sound like Nate’s site wasn’t accessible. It was a general plea for any web site creator to consider accessibility from the start.
Awesome post and info here from Nate, Anne. Thanks to Nate, especially for the broken link checker. 🙂
Welcome!
Thank you so much. I’m new to everything and appreciate the info.
You’re welcome!
Thanks for this Nate. Must check for broken links 🙂