Is your website ready for business? When I ask this question at speaking events I do, often very few hands go up. Most people aren’t really sure, either way, if their website is working or not. The main goal of your site is to sell your book or product, and no matter what you’re selling, there are some basic things you must do and key elements your website needs to have.

This checklist will help you determine if your website is working as well as it should:

1. Make it user friendly: Don’t use tiny or difficult to read fonts. Make your page easy to scan – people don’t read. And, please, proofread your copy! There’s no quicker way to lose a sale than to present readers with typos and other needless gaffes. Your website is your 24/7 sales and marketing tool and you want to create a stellar first impression.

2. Invest in professional design: A quality site leaves a good impression on visitors and keeps them there. You’ve seen a bad site before, surely. Did you buy their product? Probably not. In fact, you probably didn’t even stick around long enough to find out how to purchase the item.

You don’t have to break the bank, but definitely consider hiring a professional to design your website. Designers understand layout, color, calls to action, and web surfing habits better than anyone. A good designer will not only produce a nice-looking site, but one that’s focused, with a clear call to action that will turn your site’s surfers into buyers.

3. Go Mobile: With mobile now such a huge part of our world, your site should be mobile-ready. Don’t make people zoom in and out or scroll left and right. Visitors are impatient, and won’t wait for content to load. Many sites like WordPress have simple plug ins, also check out Dudamobile which has a free platform to help you turn your desktop site into something that’s mobile friendly.

4. Make it sociable and shareable: Social widgets make it easy for others to share content, whether it’s your latest blog post, book synopsis, or events
calendar. All of the major social media sites have widgets you can add to your site. When you make it easy to share content you’ll get results. 

5. Let visitors contact you: Make sure your site offers a way for people to get in touch with you. Don’t make visitors hunt for that phone number, email, or contact form – they won’t. They’ll just leave your site and they won’t come back.

6. Be media ready: Have a media room with downloadable materials ready to go. This includes a photo, bio, book synopsis and book cover. Offer the downloads in small files, people will appreciate that. In addition, your media room can have a Q&A, book reviews, book group questions, events calendar, and more. Make your media room the one stop source for easy to obtain information.

7. Have a call to action: Make sure your site is clear and concise. Cut the nonessentials. Remember, people don’t sit down to read web pages, they scan, so a home page of 200 to 250 words is ideal. Direct visitors to a specific action.

8. Make it easy for visitors to buy your book: Remember that call to action? Was yours for the visitor to buy your book? While it’s a good idea to have your products available at a number of e-tailers, you should have a spot on your site dedicated to sales – even if you direct people to Amazon.com or another site for the actual purchase. Make it easy otherwise you’ll lose the sale.

9. Keep your content fresh and engaging: Having a blog ensures you have regularly updated content (try to update once or twice a week) on your site as well as a page on your site where visitors can participate. Google will reward your site with a higher search ranking if it has fresh content. That ranking will help with search because you’ll be listed before your competition. If you’re using social media, make it easy for visitors to your site to click through and follow you wherever you are: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, etc.

10. Check your traffic: You can see who visits your site, where they come from, and much more. Google Analytics is free and easy to use. You want to review the reports regularly so you understand who visits your site, how they find you, and what they do once they’re on your site. Then you’ll learn what works (and what doesn’t).

Best of luck! And remember, many changes, though subtle make a large impact from the consumer’s point of view!

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