These critiques are geared to help authors setup websites that are visitor and search engine appealing.
Here is a critique of a website I recently recently.
The first and most notable impression this website offers is its header:
Header image: Several book images taking up about half the header – from left to center
Title: NONE
Subtitle: Welcome to my blog (under books image in small text)
Three Pages:
Home page: Welcome to “Site owner’s” XXXX XXX XXX Blog
About “Author”
Published Works
Can you quickly notice what’s wrong with the top portion of the website?
No?
Okay, Let’s go over each element:
1. Header Image
The header doesn’t tell the visitor anything. There are several small images of book covers, but the visitor won’t know what they’re for. Are they the authors, is it an author’s site, are they cover design examples?
The header raises a number of questions. This is never a good thing from a marketing aspect. You have about 4 seconds to grab a visitor – that’s not a lot of time.
Along with this, the header image only covers half the header, and it’s not centered. This makes it look uneven and somewhat unappealing.
Fix: Go to fiverr.com and hire someone to create an appealing header.
2. Website Title
There is none. Search engines (SEs) will have a difficult time finding, indexing, and categorizing this website because there isn’t any information in the title, let alone keyword information. There isn’t any search engine optimization for SE spiders to latch onto.
The same goes for the visitor - he'll be scratching his head, wondering what the site is about.
Fix: Create a site relevant keyword title. This is a must for any website.
3. Website Subtitle
“Welcome to my Blog” does offer the visitor or SE spiders any information. The site could be a real estate site, a sports site . . . it could be anything.
Fix: Create a site relevant keyword subtitle – one that supports the title, one that offers more information letting the visitor and SEs know what the site is about. You want relevant, but different keywords – don’t use the same ones as in the title.
4. The Pages
A. The Home page
This page title doesn’t offer any keyword information, although it does give the title of the site (I’m assuming). Also, it’s not a good idea to waste words on a page title. Make it simple and to the point.
Fix: The author could simply use the title of the site and omit “Welcome to “site owner’s.” Or, the author could simply keep it at “blog” if the title has no keyword value.
B. About “Author name”
This is okay to use. It quickly lets the visitor know what to expect on that page and lets the visitor know who owns the site.
Fix: None needed
C. Published Works
This page title should have keywords in it. Does the author write fantasy, nonfiction, history, children’s books?
You need to quickly let the visitor know what your site is about.
Fix: Change the page title to include the genre s/he works in.
These are simple fixes that will make a huge difference in this site’s ‘curb appeal,’ visitor engagement, and SEO.
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If you don't have a website set up yet, or you need help getting an existing one visitor and search engine optimized, check out my service http://www.karencioffi.com/website-services/
I offer website setups, website tuneups, and website critiques.
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MORE WEBSITE AND ONLINE MARKETING TIPS
Book Marketing – Website in Trouble
Commenting on Blogs Still Works
The Author Website – Keep it Simple and to the Point
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Karen Cioffi
Award-Winning Author, Freelance/Ghostwriter
Author Online Presence Instructor
Create and Build Your Author Online Presence
http://www.karencioffi.com/author-online-presence-ecourse/
Karen Cioffi Professional Writing Services
http://karencioffifreelancewriter.com/karen-cioffi-writing-services/
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