Prepare Your Author Website for the New Year: Day 3

Welcome to day 3!

We’ve cleared our author websites of clutter and broken links. Now we’re ready to complete a content audit to improve the performance of our site.

Even the best writers I know have several blog posts that are underperforming. There are many ways this could happen to you as well. 

It could be that you post content which initially spikes traffic and then it flattens.

Maybe your content used to rank higher but then a search engine algorithm change skewed your ability to attract visitors.

Maybe a post that initially had some traffic now has broken links.

Or, maybe your content never gained traffic or demonstrated a financial return.

Whatever the case, your content could generate more revenue and subscribers than it does now.

So, what can you do about underperforming author content? 

A lot. But it does require more than a one-step process. Here’s what to do:

IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM

Examine your traffic for the past month and compare it to the same month last year. Compare search engine traffic and evaluate how well your content has performed in shares, backlinks, and revenue. 

Identify why your content is underperforming. Yes, you have to examine each post, one by stinking one. Do you have a permalink problem? A terribly written title? Is the content outdated or poorly formatted? 

FIX YOUR UNDERPERFORMING CONTENT

Start with your most important posts. These are your largest traffic generators and, potentially, your income generating content. Focus on search engine traffic rather than the continually fluctuating social media traffic. Again, you have to look at each post.

Check out this search engine optimization tutorial for more info.

And finally, if you can’t improve the traffic for a particular post, consider deleting it as it may be distracting from what works well on your site.

THAT’S IT FOR DAY 3! 

With the decluttering and repair of your author content complete, we’re ready to create your first digital product. In our next article, we’ll look at one of the best ways to generate income as an author.

Inside the Happily Ever Author Club you’ll have a book marketing expert at your fingertips helping you overcome your mental blocks around marketing and institute a marketing strategy that actually works.

It’s our goal to help writers find the audience they need to sustain their career.