Introduction

As an author, your website is your digital home base, where readers can learn more about you, your work, and your brand. A well-designed author website can be a powerful tool for building your audience, establishing your authority, and promoting your books.

But what makes a great author website? To help answer that question, we've analyzed the website of New York Times best-selling non-fiction author Jay Shetty to identify what works well and what could be improved.

Related posts about author websites:

• Not sure you need a website? Check out our article here about why you still need an author website.

• Not sure what to include on a website? Check out our article here about what to include on your own author website.

Want more examples of author websites?

• Here’s our analysis of New York Times best-selling author Gretchen Rubin’s author website.

• Here’s our analysis of four best-selling fiction author websites.

A website's purpose is to get visitors to trust you and take a specific action.

Before we start analyzing author websites, let’s go over some basics about the purpose of websites.

The first purpose of a website is to build credibility.

Here are some interesting statistics about websites that should guide how you think about a website:

·      94% of people judge a brand’s credibility based on the website.

·      56% of people don’t trust a brand without a website.

·      It only takes website visitors 2 seconds to judge a website and, thus, a brand.

·      94% of website visitors are not ready to purchase the first time they land on a website

This data shows that the purpose of a website is to build credibility with the website viewer. Your website viewer wants to know if they should trust you.

Websites must build the know, like, and trust factor for brands. The know, like, and trust factor is based on the theory that a potential customer must know, like, and trust you before engaging with your content or purchasing from you.

Brands can build the know, like, and trust factor in three ways. First, the brand should offer images of themselves and their products. Second, the brand should provide social proof through testimonials, reviews, and data about their impact or effectiveness. Third, the brand should make the website easy to navigate so visitors can explore the brand and its offerings, purchase products or services, or get in touch.

The second purpose of a website is to get the reader to take a specific action.  

The secondary purpose of a website is to get your website visitor to do something specific. This could be asking your audience to sign up for your newsletter, download your podcast, watch a video or a demo, book a discovery call, buy your product, or request a sample of your work or product.

Good websites have a specific ask, called a call-to-action, repeated multiple times throughout the website.

Measure the effectiveness of a website based on the conversion rate:

The effectiveness of a website is based on the concept of a conversion rate – i.e., what percentage of people visit the website and complete the call to action that the website is designed to promote.

Conversion rates usually range from 0.5% to 10%. A conversion rate of 2-3% is considered solid!

The best call to action for author websites is to get people onto your newsletter.

For authors, the best call to action is to get your website visitors onto your newsletter. This is because 94% of website visitors are not ready to purchase the first time they land on a website. Instead, they’re most likely browsing an author's website to get to know them and browse all their work.

Once a reader is in an author’s newsletter, the author can warm up the reader and gradually get them ready to purchase. This is why email marketing is so powerful. Email is estimated to generate $36 for every $1 spent. For comparison, social media generates a return of $3 per $1.

Authors should measure the effectiveness of their websites based on how many people sign up for their newsletter.

Conversion rate = newsletter sign-ups / unique website visitors. Aim for a conversion rate of 1% to start with!

Given this background information, let’s analyze Jay Shetty’s author website.

A few highlights about Jay Shetty’s author website:

• Jay has two quiz lead magnets to build his email list.

• Jay uses an announcement bar for his world tour.

• Jay’s hero image on his homepage is a carousal of content, including video content.

• Jay’s bio includes animation to keep his website visually interesting.

• Jay offers tons of social proof.

• Jay has SEVEN call-to-action buttons to take his quiz or join his newsletter.

• Jay has a CTA in his website header.

• Jay’s navigation is straightforward.
  

Jay Shetty Author Website

Jay Shetty is a former monk, motivational speaker, and author of the book "Think Like a Monk." His website, jayshetty.me, is designed to showcase his personal development and spirituality expertise.

Jay has two quiz lead magnets to build his email list:

Jay Shetty’s website immediately opens with a pop-up to take his quiz to uncover your true purpose. A quiz is widely regarded as the most effective lead magnet to get someone on your email list because it’s easy to complete. Quizzes as lead magnets have an average conversion rate of 50.9%, compared to 36.4% for websites that use other lead magnets.

Shetty has not one but two quiz lead magnets. The first lead magnet is about finding one’s purpose and comes up when one lands on Shetty’s website. The second quiz lead magnet is in the corner of Jay Shetty’s website and is geared toward sending a workshop and a positive affirmation.

Jay uses an announcement bar for his world tour on his author website:

At the top of Jay’s website is a bright red announcement bar dedicated to selling tickets for his tour. This announcement bar is hard to miss and, therefore, a likely effective way to promote his tour.

Jay’s hero image on the homepage of his author website is a carousal of content, including video content:

Not all website areas are equally valuable. Some website sections are more valuable than others based on how readers view and consume content. For example, one of the essential sections on a website is the hero image of a homepage - i.e., the section shown before a reader scrolls. This is because this area is one of the most viewed areas by website readers and visitors.

Jay Shetty offers a carousel of content on his author website homepage

Shetty’s hero image on the homepage has a revolving carousel of content. Using carousel content on your website and video content is doubly innovative. We’ve all become accustomed to consuming content faster and via video, thanks to TikTok, Instagram reels, and Instagram carousels. Yet, few websites use video content or carousels.

Jay Shetty offers video in his carousel of content on his author website homepage

What’s incredibly unique about Jay’s website is that Jay places the carousel on his homepage. The carousel also includes multiple types of video content, such as a clip of Jay on Ellen.

Offering video content is an excellent way for Jay to establish his authority and build a personal connection with the reader. One study showed that websites that feature video content experience a 157% increase in organic traffic from search engines, a 105% increase in time spent on the website, and a 49% increase in conversion rates compared to websites without video.

Jay’s bio includes animation to keep his author website visually interesting:

Jay's bio is visually depicted with photos and moving text, which is a nice touch. This keeps the content interesting and varied.

Jay offers tons of social proof on his author website:

Jay Shetty clearly understands the power of social proof and goes above and beyond to offer social proof. Social proof is any marker of credibility. According to a study by Spiegel Research Center, products with reviews have a 270% higher likelihood of being purchased than products without reviews, demonstrating the power of social proof.

Social proof can include statistics about your impact and results, testimonials, reviews, or a list of logos of media outlets that have published your work or institutions that have worked with you.

Jay offers three types of social proof.

First, Jay includes many videos and podcast episodes of Jay interviewing and speaking with respected celebrities like Ellen, Oprah, and Will Smith.

Second, the website states in bold hot pink that over 2 million students have taken Jay's courses.

Third, Jay has a section that showcases his work (book, podcast, and courses) and states that his book is a #1 Amazon best-selling book, he has the #1 health podcast with millions of weekly listeners, and over 2 million students have taken his courses. Jay also has a scrolling logo bar of institutions that have published his work.

Jay has SEVEN call-to-action buttons on his author website to take his quiz or join his newsletter:

As mentioned above, every web page should have at least one CTA, so the reader knows what to do next. CTAs increase conversion (i.e., getting the reader to do what you want) by 80%. A web page designed to be effective usually has one CTA repeated a few times. Jay Shetty’s homepage has a CTA that’s repeated seven times! Jay alternates between asking readers to take one of his quizzes or signing up for his newsletter for weekly wisdom.

Jay has a CTA in his website header of his author website:

As mentioned above, not all real estate on a website is equally powerful - some areas are more critical than others. For example, the top right corner of a navigation bar is considered one of a website's most influential real estate areas based on how readers read websites. According to a study by EyeQuant, adding a CTA button to a website header can increase conversion rates by up to 22%. In addition, according to a study by ConversionXL, placing a CTA in the top right corner of a website can result in a 9.21% increase in clicks compared to the same CTA placed in the bottom left corner.

Jay knows what he’s doing because in the top right corner of Jay’s website is a CTA to take Jay's quiz so you can be on his newsletter. Getting website visitors onto his newsletter is highly effective since email has a $44 ROI for every $1 invested.

Jay’s author website navigation is straightforward:

As mentioned above, straightforward navigation is essential to users engaging with a website –users spend an average of 5.59 seconds looking at a website's main navigation before deciding whether to stay or leave.

Jay’s navigation is thus clear and uncluttered. There are six links in the navigation bar:

• About

• Podcast

• Courses

• Become a coach

• Book me

• Take a quiz

As mentioned, the primary call to action to sign up for Jay’s lead magnet, a quiz, is highlighted in pink to stand out in the navigation bar. The navigation bar also moves with the reader as they scroll the website.

One improvement I would suggest for Jay Shetty’s author website:

Remove the hamburger menu on this author website:

Jay Shetty’s website is 99% perfect. The one small change I would make is to remove the hamburger navigation in the top right corner. It’s unnecessary and may distract from the main navigation menu.

Jay's website is an excellent example of a non-fiction author website. He leverages social proof and calls to action to build his audience and promote his work.

Conclusion about Jay Shetty’s author website:

To summarize, Jay Shetty has possibly the best author website I’ve ever seen. Here are a few highlights about this website:

• Jay has two quiz lead magnets to build his email list.

• Jay uses an announcement bar for his world tour.

• Jay’s hero image on his homepage is a carousal of content, including video content.

• Jay’s bio includes animation to keep his website visually interesting.

• Jay offers tons of social proof.

• Jay has SEVEN call-to-action buttons to take his quiz or join his newsletter.

• Jay has a CTA in his website header.

• Jay’s navigation is straightforward.

Related posts about author websites:

• Not sure you need a website? Check out our article here about why you still need an author website.

• Not sure what to include on a website? Check out our article here about what to include on your own author website.

Want more examples of author websites?

• Here’s our analysis of New York Times best-selling author Gretchen Rubin’s author website.

• Here’s our analysis of four best-selling fiction author websites.

What do you think?

What do you think about this website? Which features do you like the best?

Action step:

What’s one tip you can implement on your author website this week?

Powerhouse Strategy

Powerhouse Strategy works with authors, podcasters, and thought leaders to build their online platform through digital strategy, SEO, newsletters, custom Squarespace websites, website maintenance packages, copywriting, and Squarespace templates.

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