Boost Your Author Website Traffic with These 10 Proven Strategies

Boost your author platform with SEO, social media, and other book marketing tactics to attract more readers and sell more books

Photo by micheile henderson on Unsplash

Driving traffic to your author website requires a mix of content strategy, SEO, social media marketing, and community engagement. Remember, only one tactic or activity will not help your visibility.

Here are many effective options that all work well together to increase your visibility and hopefully, book sales!

1. Optimize Your Website for SEO

People need to be able to find your website through search engines, especially on Google, the largest search engine in the world. What to include:

Use keywords: Optimize your homepage, blog posts, and book pages with relevant search terms. If you’re unsure how to optimize your blog posts, here’s a handy 99c guide I wrote to help you with the basics.

• Write blog content: Focus on topics that readers are searching for (e.g., "Best Thriller Books 2025," "How to Write a Memoir").
  
  Not sure what to write about? Ask yourself these questions: what am I most interested in, challenged by, happy about, upset about, want to learn more about…then write about those topics.*
  
  *Many writers blog about writing, which is great if your audience is writers, too. If not, pick other topics you love to write about. Focus on building relationships online with readers.

• Have a fast, mobile-friendly site: Google prioritizes fast-loading, mobile-responsive websites. If you’re stuck, consider hiring an author website firm like Authorbytes (no financial connection).

• Internal linking: Link between pages on your site to keep visitors engaged longer (e.g., embed the link so it’s clickable).
  
  Tip: When inserting internal or external links, click ‘open in a new tab’ to avoid losing your readers as they wander off to check other links.

2. Create High-Value Content

• Start a blog: Share behind-the-scenes stories, writing tips, book recommendations, or industry insights. Share on X and Bluesky with the #MondayBlogs hashtag - more here.

• Post book excerpts or free chapters: Tease your books to entice readers.

• Offer freebies: In exchange for an email signup, clients can receive a free short story, a character backstory, or bonus content. One client shares his writing playlist, chapter by chapter; another offers book club Q&As. 

• Guest post: Write for other bookish blogs and include a link back to your site.

3. Use Social Media Strategically

• Link your website everywhere: Bio links on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc., and even your email signature.

• Drive curiosity with content teasers: Share snippets from your blog but require readers to visit your site for the whole story. The short form on X, longer on Instagram, TikTok, or LinkedIn, and the most extended space option is Facebook at over 63K characters.

• Leverage trending topics: If a hashtag or topic relates to your book niche or interests, join the conversation with a link to relevant content. As always, connect with folks first before any salesy stuff.

• Share behind-the-scenes content: Readers love insights into your writing process. Struggling with something? Share your frustrations. We’re not perfect. We’re human.

4. Build an Email List

• Create a lead magnet: To encourage sign-ups, offer a freebie (e.g., an ebook, checklist, bonus chapter, Q&As, or playlists).

• Use a pop-up or call-to-action (CTA): Have a signup box on your homepage and blog.

• Send value-packed newsletters: Give them bookish recommendations, personal updates, or exclusive sneak peeks, not exclusively promotional “Buy my book” emails, because no.
  

5. Leverage Pinterest & Other Underrated Platforms

• Pinterest: It's a search engine more than a social platform. Pin your blog posts, book aesthetics, and writing tips to attract readers. Google indexes pins, and the half-life of a pin is 3.5 months. Yea, months (as opposed to 24 minutes for a tweet).

• Reddit & Quora: Answer questions in relevant subreddits and forums. As with anything ‘social,' don’t be solely self-promotional. 

  

  Photo by Adomas Aleno on Unsplash

6. Stop, Collaborate, and Listen

• Guest on podcasts or interviews: Many book podcasts need guests—get featured and drive people to your site. Podcast Guests is a free service that will email you podcast opportunities. Check it out!

• Partner with other authors: Do a blog swap or joint giveaway, which can be particularly effective during seasons and holidays (e.g., plan now for a summer reading giveaway). You can also participate in affordable promos on Booksweeps or Written Word Media. 

• Engage in Facebook groups: Find groups in your genre and share valuable insights (without spamming links). I have a 95-year-old client who JUST published his first book, and he’s had fantastic success and sales by spending time in various Facebook groups about his topic (growing up in Brooklyn).

7. Run a Contest or Giveaway

• Book giveaways: To enter, entrants must visit your website. You can also ask them to follow you on social media, Amazon, Goodreads, BookBub, Substack, sign up for your newsletter, or use other entry options. The more entries, the higher the chance of winning.

• Goodreads has a great ebook giveaway option. Learn more here.
  
  Learn more here:

• Exclusive content access: "Get the first chapter of my new book before anyone else—only on my website!"

• Use social sharing: Ask people to share your website link for bonus entries.

8. Paid Advertising (If Budget Allows)

• Facebook & Instagram ads: Drive traffic to a specific landing page (not just the homepage). If you have a Facebook Page and connect it to your Instagram Business account (free to switch from personal to business), when running ads, it shows up on both. (I wonder if they’ll add Threads to that at some point?)

• Amazon or BookBub ads: Target readers in your genre. My go-to expert on Amazon ads is

  Charles Levin
  with MunnAvenuePress.com.

• Google Ads: Use high-intent keywords and phrases (e.g., “Best mystery books 2024”) instead of generic terms such as ‘book’ or ‘fiction.’

9. Get Media Attention

• Press releases: If you have a big book launch or milestone, send a press release to book blogs and news sites. PR.com has a free option.

• Plan a launch: This can be IRL or online. Whatever works best for you. Choose from many different platforms that offer ‘lives,’ e.g., Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok all provide live audio and/or video.

10. Make It Easy for Readers to Share Your Website

• Add social sharing buttons: Readers should be able to share your blog posts quickly and find all your social media on every page (top right is best for North American sites as we read left to right, top to bottom).

• Create pinnable images: For blog posts, book covers, and character aesthetics, I use royalty-free images from Unsplash.

• Encourage user-generated content: Ask fans to share photos with your book and tag you.

The Golden Rule: Give More Than You Take

If your website is just "Here’s my book, buy it!"—people will leave. Same with your socials, newsletters, and other communications tools. But readers will return if you share valuable resources, an engaging experience, or a community hub.

Which of these strategies resonates most with you? I can help refine your approach based on what’s already working for you! 🚀 Give me a jingle at badredheadmedia@gmail.com! Let’s strategize.

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Happy writing!