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.

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 bands. 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.

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 James Clear and Cal Newport’s author websites.

A few highlights about these author websites:

• Each author website is focused on conversion – i.e., getting a website visitor to opt into the author’s newsletter list. Since 94% of website visitors are not ready to purchase the first time they visit a website, getting a potential customer on your newsletter list and nurturing that lead is critical to building long-term relationships and selling more books.

  
  

• The homepages of the author websites feature a brief description of the author’s work to give visitors context about the author.

  
  

• A clear navigation bar with 5-8 items on each author website allows the reader to navigate the author websites easily.

  
  

• The authors offer social proof of their work on their author websites by listing reviews from well-respected individuals, featuring the logos of publications that have featured their work or institutions that they have worked with, listing the number of copies of books sold or students taught, listing the number of subscribers they have on their newsletter, and listing significant accomplishments such as being a New York Times best-selling author.

  
  

• The authors offer multimedia content on their author websites, such as video or podcast downloads, on their website so readers can consume content in their preferred medium.
  
  
  

Vanessa Edwards Author Website:

Vanessa Edwards studies body language. Her book, Cues, describes how competence and warmth are conveyed through body language and how we can adapt our body language based on our purpose. Her straightforward website is designed to get people on her email newsletter.

Here’s what makes the website effective:

Vanessa uses a unique domain name for her author website:

Unlike many authors, Vanessa Edwards uses a domain name separate from her name. Vanessa's website is a good example that an author’s website does not need to be listed under their name - instead, the domain name could be related to their work.

The domain name for Vanessa Edwards’ website is scienceofpeople.com. This is perhaps because Vanessa built her blog and online media following about body language under the website Science of People before she wrote her books.

Naming your brand after a concept rather than after yourself allows your brand to live on when you are ready to retire or move on to another project. Also, it’s easier to sell a brand that is not eponymous.

Vanessa’s hero image on her author website is a call to action to join her newsletter:

Cleverly and somewhat unusually, Vanessa’s hero image is a direct call to action to join her newsletter. She specifies what the individual will receive if they sign up for the newsletter. She also adds social credibility to entice someone to sign up by stating that there are 400,000 subscribers on her newsletter list.

Again, Vanessa is an experienced content creator first and author second so it’s no surprise that her author website uses effective techniques to engage her audience.

Vanessa offers free training on her author website to entice people onto her email list:

Like all the previous authors, Vanessa provides an opportunity for readers to sign up for her newsletter with an enticing lead magnet. In the top right corner of her website, in bright yellow that contrasts with her red navigation bar, Vanessa has a CTA to join her free training.

The CTA is repeated in the website's body and features a teaser video to make it even more enticing.

Adding a CTA to join a lead magnet in the top right corner of your website is highly effective.

Offering a lead magnet means that people are 50% more likely to join your newsletter. Additionally, according to a study by EyeQuant, adding a CTA button to a website header can increase conversion rates by up to 22%. Finally, 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.

Vanessa offers extensive social proof on her author website:

Social proof is vital to the website because it helps build the know, like, and trust factor. I.e., Your audience must know, like, and trust you before they purchase from you. According to a study by Spiegel Research Center, products with reviews have a 270% higher likelihood of being purchased than products without reviews.

Vanessa immediately offers social proof below her hero image by stating that she has taught 500k+ students, has 1 Million+ monthly readers, and has over 1000+ resources & guides. This powerful data could easily convince a skeptical reader to join her newsletter.

Vanessa also includes the mastheads of well-respected publications that have featured her work.

Vanessa offers multimedia video content on her author website:

Video content, though powerfully persuasive, is still relatively limited and unique on websites, especially author websites. 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.

Vanessa’s website features a video of Vanessa discussing her content, allowing visitors to know her and her work better.

Vanessa has a clever navigation bar on her author website that can expand:

Again, the power of clear navigation can’t be overstated. A study by Nielsen Norman Group found that users spend an average of 5.59 seconds looking at a website's main navigation before deciding whether to stay or leave.

Vanessa’s navigation bar includes the following pages:

• Articles

• Training

• Books

• Speaking

• About

• Free training

As usual, the free training CTA is last and highlighted in yellow to stand out.

Many navigation items also have arrows indicating that each item can expand if the reader wants to dive deeper.

Vanessa’s navigation is excellent. The navigation bar language is clear, and the arrows are user-friendly.

Vanessa uses an advanced and effective CTA that makes it easy for her readers to navigate her author website:

Vanessa makes it crystal clear how readers can navigate her website and content. She breaks down three steps for readers: (1) Take her free training; (2) read her books; and (3) access her courses.

Readers now know precisely what they should do if they want more information and content from Vanessa.

This breakdown is an excellent and advanced CTA that is much more likely to drive conversion. For example, personalized CTAs perform 202% better than basic CTAs, which are the same for all website visitors.

One way to improve this author website:

To improve Vanessa’s website, I would offer a quiz readers can take to understand their communication style. Quizzes are effective lead magnets because they’re so easy. A study by Outgrow found that websites that use quizzes as lead magnets have an average conversion rate of 50.9%, compared to an average conversion rate of 36.4% for websites that use other types of lead magnets. Additionally, the study found that the average time on site for users who interacted with a quiz was 3.5 minutes, compared to 2.31 minutes for users who did not interact with a quiz.

I would also add reviews about Vanessa’s work from well-respected individuals for even greater social proof.

Overall, Vanessa has a robust online presence that builds her credibility.

Bessel van der Kolk Author Website

Bessel van der Kolk, a psychiatrist, wrote the book The Body Keeps Score about how our bodies respond to trauma and abuse. The Body Keeps Score has been on the New York Times best-seller list since 2015! The book has spent at least 27 weeks in the #1 spot.

Here are a few of the features of Bessel’s website:

There’s a newsletter pop-up on the author website:

Like most author websites we have analyzed, Bessel’s website starts with a call-to-action pop-up to join his newsletter. The call to action is repeated in Bessel’s website’s footer.

Newsletter sign-up pop-ups are highly effective. According to a Sumo study, email newsletter pop-ups have an average conversion rate of 3.09% and can have a conversion rate as high as 9%. However, conversion rates are usually around 1-2%, so a newsletter pop-up has a higher-than-average conversion rate.  

The hero image on the author website is a carousal of Bessel and his book with a CTA:

The hero image (i.e., the main image visitors see as soon as the homepage loads) on Bessel’s website is a carousel of images. Bessel doesn’t include videos immediately on his website like Jay Shetty. Instead, the carousel features an image of Bessel and another image of his book, the Body Keeps Score.

The image also includes a call to action; Bessel invites readers to learn more about the book or order a copy.

The navigation bar on the author website is clear:

Bessel’s navigation bar includes the following pages:

• Home

• About

• Resources

• Calendar

• Contact

This is a reasonably standard navigation bar, although it lacks a clear call to action button like the other websites. Bessel also doesn’t have a page for his media appearances, books, or other writing as most authors have.

Bessel includes a home button on his main navigation, which is semi-unusual. Some designers feel that adding a home button adds unnecessary clutter to the precious navigation bar space. Most of us know to click the website name and logo to return to the homepage so the home button may be unnecessary.

Other designers like to add the home button for maximum ease and clarity.

The homepage of the author website offers a short description of Bessel’s work:

Like many non-fiction author websites discussed, Bessel briefly describes his work to orient website visitors to his expertise. This description is also in a prime spot - above the fold (i.e., above scrolling) and below the hero image.

Bessel offers social proof on his author website:

Like many websites mentioned above, Bessel's website includes details about where Bessel’s work has been featured.

Bessel offers multimedia content on his author website:

Bessel makes it easy for his website visitors to consume his multimedia content. For example, he features a podcast interview with journalist Ezra Klein, along with a description and a link to the interview.

Bessel also offers video content, so website visitors can watch him speak about his work. Again, video is likelier to build the know, like, and trust factor.

One way to improve this author website:

The most significant tweak I would make to this website is to add further social proof. I would list in the title tag and the main hero page that Bessel is a New York Times best-selling author whose book has sold over 2+ million copies. I would also mention that the Body Keeps Score has remained on the New York Times' top 10 best-seller list and has even dominated the #1 spot for a significantly long time.

Conclusion about these author websites:

To summarize, these author websites are all excellent examples of non-fiction author websites. A few traits that these websites have in common:

• Each author website does a great job of building the know, like, and trust factor on their website. 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. The authors build the know, like, and trust factor by including images of themselves, providing personal details, showing social proof about the quality of their work, and asking website visitors to sign up for a lead magnet and their newsletter so they can stay in touch.

• Each author website is focused on conversion – i.e., getting a website visitor to opt into the author’s newsletter list. Since 94% of website visitors are not ready to purchase the first time they visit a website, getting a potential customer on your newsletter list and nurturing that lead is critical to building long-term relationships and selling more books.

• There’s a clear call to action on the author websites to join the authors’ newsletters and a lead magnet, such as a course, a quiz, or a free chapter of their book, to entice the reader to join.

• The homepage of the author websites features a brief description of the authors’ work to give visitors context about the author.

• There’s a photo of the authors above the fold of the author websites, along with the tagline about their work, and a call to action to engage with their work. This call to action can be learning more about the author, signing up to be on the author’s newsletter, downloading a free chapter of the book, or purchasing the authors’ books.

• A clear navigation bar with 5-8 items allows the reader to navigate the author websites easily.

• The author websites offer social proof of their work by listing reviews from well-respected individuals, featuring the logos of publications that have featured their work or institutions that they have worked with, listing the number of copies of books sold or students taught, listing the number of subscribers they have on their newsletter, and listing significant accomplishments such as being a New York Times best-selling author.

• The author websites offer multimedia content, such as video or podcast downloads, so readers can consume content in their preferred medium.

Related posts:

• 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?

• 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 these websites? Which ones do you like the best? Which features do you like the best?

Action step:

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

About 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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