Agents and publishers are getting savvier when it comes to measuring author websites and online platforms.
If you want to attract agents and publishers for your next book, you will want to check these seven things before they do.
Minding these elements is like brushing your teeth before you go to the dentist.
1. Google PageRank
What is PageRank?
Page Rank is how important Google thinks your site is. It is a logarithmic scale from 1-10 where bigger is better. The more links you have pointing to your website, the higher your PageRank. Publishers typically look for sites with a PageRank of 4 or 5 on the homepage.
Why is PageRank important?
The higher your PageRank the easier it is to rank for various words and phrases on Google. The higher you rank for relevant phrases the more traffic you get and the more books you sell. The more books you can sell, the more publishers will want to sign you.
How do you measure PageRank?
You can check your PageRank by going to PRchecker.net. But the best way to check your PageRank is with a browser plugin. A browser plugin will show you the PageRank for every page you visit online. That will help you get a feel for what scores are good for different kinds of sites.
We recommend:
- PageRank Status (Chrome)
- SearchStatus (Firefox)
How do you improve PageRank?
Get more links from other sites with high PageRanks. The best way to do this is to put your blog on your website and not on Blogger.com, Blogspot.com or WordPress.com. Your blog needs to be at www.YourName.com/blog or www.YourBookTitle.com/blog. Blog posts attract incoming links which boost your PageRank and traffic.
2. Social Proof
What is Social Proof?
Social Proof is an indication of people following you and your website. It is a combination of Facebook Likes, Twitter Retweets, Comments and Google +1s. People want to do what other people are doing. This turns social proof into a virtuous cycle. So getting more visitors can lead to getting even more visitors.
Why is Social Proof important?
Agents and Publishers need to be able to tell at a glance that your website is popular on social media. You want the first thought that comes to their mind to be, “Wow, this author is popular!” Most publishers lose money on over half the books they publish. To reduce their risk, they look for authors who already connect with a following online. They call this “platform” and it reduces their risk of losing money on new authors.
How do you measure it?
Count your:
- Facebook Likes (both your fan page and for blog posts)
- +1 on Google
- Twitter Retweets
- Comments
- Twitter Followers
- RSS Subscribers
- Email Subscribers
How do you improve it?
Boosting social proof is as simple as putting counters on your website. Believe it or not the mere presence of a counter will increase social engagement. You will notice that on Author Media, we have badges at the top of each post that show the number of Tweets, Likes, etc. Do the same on your website and then watch the number of shares increase. If you find this post helpful, feel free to share it on Facebook. 🙂
3. Alexa Rank
What is it?
Alexa tracks how much traffic websites get. They give each website a score (with 1 being the most popular website in the world). Agents and Publishers typically look for Alexa ranks lower than 500,000. They get particularly excited when the find a site with a score lower than 100,000.
Why is Alexa important?
The lower your Alexa rank, the higher your traffic. A low Alexa rank indicates that your website is already popular. Many browser plugins show the Alexa rank of websites automatically. This means savvy agents will check your Alexa rank within seconds of visiting your website. You want thier reaction to your Alexa rank to be “wow” not “yuck.”
How do you measure it?
Go to www.alexa.com and enter your website in the search box on the homepage. Or use one of the Alexa browser toolbars.
How do you improve your Alexa rank?
Alexa measures traffic, so to increase your Alexa rank you will need to boost traffic to your site. The fastest way to boost your traffic is to bring your blog over from blogspot or blogger and integrate it into your website. When we did this for Mary DeMuth, her traffic went up 1000% the next month.
You can also sign up for our email tips newsletter and get our free guide How to Boost Traffic to Your Blog which will also apply to your website.
4. Compete Rank
What is it?
Compete is similar to Alexa in that it measures the traffic to your website. Like Alexa, a lower score is better. Compete is more accurate than Alexa but it doesn’t track as many websites. If you are just getting started, you will likely have a Compete rank of N/A.
Why is Compete important?
Compete is the most authoritative source of third party traffic (yes, better than Alexa). Not having a Compete rank hurts your chances of getting published. Publishers will lookup your Compete score long before they ask for your Google Analytics data.
How do you measure it?
Go to www.compete.com and enter your URL.
How do you improve it?
You improve your Compete rank the same way you improve your Alexa rank. You can also buy online PPC ads to drive traffic to your site. So you can boost traffic either by spending time creating valuable content or you can spend money buying ads.
5. Professional Design
Why is design important?
The quality of your site design reflects on how professional you are as an author. There are many wannabe authors on the internet with lame-looking websites. Publishers are not looking to sign these sorts of authors. The more professional your site, the more attractive you will be to publishers.
How do you measure design quality?
The quality of the design is the most subjective of these 7 elements. Your friends will generally tell you they like your site even if they secretly hate it. We recommend that you ask an impartial graphic designer what they think of your site. You can also schedule a free 15 minute consultation with us to look over your site.
How do you improve design?
- Avoid Lame Author Portraits
- Use a Premium Template and then don’t change anything. You are an author not a website designer. Stick close to the “recipe” for an inexpensive and quality design. Most author changes to templates do more harm than good.
- Get a Profesional Author Website Design.
6. WooRank
What is it?
WooRank is an amazing tool for measuring how good your website is. In many ways, it is a single score that summarizes all the others. It measures social proof, site traffic and how well-coded your site is. It will be the hot new tool for publishers to vet author websites in 2012.
Why is WooRank important?
WooRank looks at over 100 aspects of your website. It gauges everything except for design. Publishers will be using this tool or others like it to measure your website.
How do you get a WooRank?
Go to www.WooRank.com and enter your webiste. At the time of this writing WooRank is free.
How do you improve your WooRank?
WooRank is the most technical thing on this list. WooRank will give you recommendations on how to improve your score. Some will be easy and some will be tough. The easiest way to increase your WooRank is to email the report to your web company and have them implement the improvements for you.
7. Hubspot Marketing Grader
What is it?
Marketing Grader (formerly Website Grader) is a tool to measure the effectiveness of your website. Unlike Compete and Alexa that measure website traffic, Marketing Grader measures how effectively you are able to convert those visitors into book buyers.
Why is Marketing Grader important?
A website that gets a lot of traffic but makes no sales is unattractive to agents and publishers.
How do you get a grade?
Go to www.marketinggrader.com and enter your website along with a couple of competing websites. If you don’t know who your competition is, you need to spend more time researching your market.
How do you improve your grade?
The nice thing about Marketing Grader is that it will tell you exactly what to do to increase your score. If you need help, Author Media has coaching packages that will help you increase your website effectiveness. HubSpot can also help you.
What do you think? How should agents and publishers measure author websites?
Would like some one to set my account up for me I do not know how.
Check you inbox!
You had me going until I got to hubspot. If your goal is to attract an agent or publisher, you most likely do not have any product to sell. Hubspot is devoted to directing traffic to landing pages for selling the product you don’t have.
Do you have any data on publishers and agents using any of these tools to filter potential authors?
On an unrelated side note, what does that image of the apple and the toothbrush have to do with the article? It seems surreal.
Your author brand is part of your product. Agents and publishers need to know that you have a product (your personality and your writing) that readers want. Using Hubspot marketing methods can work, even if you don’t have a physical book to sell. What about ebooks that help build your platform?
We’ll try to get you the data. Thanks for checking into it!
The apple and toothbrush tie in with the third paragraph – “Minding these elements is like brushing your teeth before you go to the dentist.”
We appreciate the feedback, London!
@London
You should have a product before your book comes out even if that product is just a free newsletter or ebook short story. If your website can’t “sell” a free newsletter how will it be able to sell your book? Agents and publishers want to see proof that your website actually works.
As for data, Marketing Grader was made popular in the publishing community years ago by Michael Hyatt who promoted it back when it was called Website Grader. See http://michaelhyatt.com/website-grader.html and http://michaelhyatt.com/four-surprising-conclusions-about-author-websites.html for details.
Checking these 7 elements is like brushing your teeth before going to the dentist.
Why would someone want a newsletter from an unpublished wanna-be author? For that matter, why would a non-writer or non-friend want to read an unpublished wanna-be writer’s blog?
Is this meant for non-fiction writers? If so, please make that clear; I can imagine thousands of unpublished fiction authors having strokes when they read this.
I can sort of understand all this in the context of an existing, published author’s web presence (I imagine Patterson has all this nailed). It makes far less sense to apply it to someone who doesn’t have a book deal signed and in progress. A first-time author should be spending his/her time working on the product, not trying to sell it before it’s done and available. I’ve read elsewhere that it’s a mistake to get a potential customer excited about buying a product, then tell them they can’t have it for another two years.
Those are really good questions, LC.
Blogs and websites are where readers get addicted to a writer’s style. Some unpublished writers are public speakers or have some other sort of existing platform. Others simply wanted to write, started a blog, and started attracting followers. All of them have something to say.
Starting a newsletter is a smart move for writers of any genre. It doesn’t have to be weekly, it can be monthly or quarterly. It’s a great way to update people on what you are doing and any news that you have.
Wow! Great info! It’s a little overwhelming to have to think about all this AND try to write as well.
Thanks for sharing.
All that data can be overwhelming. We just want to make sure that you have it on your radar. There are a number of great writers who have terrible web presence. They get passed up for people who have better web presence and an active audience. That’s just the way that our world is going.
We don’t want that to happen to any of our writers or readers. We want to equip them to be powerful writers with incredible platforms.
Under the heading Google Page Rank, you say that publishers look for a pagerank of 4 or 5. After downloading Pagerank, I checked out a few different websites to get an idea of who ranked in the 4 or 5 area. I found that Michael Hyatt ranks a 5! Is it True that you have to have a Michael Hyatt level platform to be considered for publishing?
Yes, if you want to sell your book based on your platform.
Remember that a PR5 is 10 times better than a PR4. A PR4 is much more achievable for regular authors.
I came here from Google thinkink it’s photography blog, but where are the picutres ? Is it all?
I think all this is over-rated. First, agents and publishers are a dying breed. Check THEIR social media footprint. Pathetic at best. I always love looking at those on social media panels at conferences and checking their social media presence– it’s usually almost non-existent. They preach something they don’t do.
How about a good book?
And then the priority is discoverability, which isn’t necessarily via social media but by reaching the decision makers. Linked-In can be much more valuable than anything else.
Thank you for this information. All these rating systems are impressive and intimidating. It’s all a bit Darwinian, or perhaps gladiatorial. My blog is on the Facebook-Twitter nexus, but I’m not sure that I want to put it in my personal writing website. (The blog tells the story of what is happening after my memoir, which I published recently through a good Indie publisher.) Milton thought that Paradise Lost would maybe attract a “fit audience though few.” It all makes me glad that I had a day job (rather than being a freelance writer) and am now retired. What an enormous effort is going on to rise above the crowd. Wow.
This was great information…I never knew about analytics like Alexa, Woorank, etc..Thanks for the post!
I like the WooRank tool for seo