To make the most of marketing opportunities available on the internet, you need a unique and effective website. This article shows you five things you need to know to advance the design and effectiveness of your site. 

1. Make sure your website is not non-responsive
A non-responsive website is a site that doesn’t optimize itself for the device used by the visitor. A professional website should detect if a visitor is accessing it from a mobile device, tablet, or PC, then adjust its templates to fit the screen of these devices. Many website design services can create off-the-shelf responsive websites for you by default. If you use WordPress, know that most of the free themes are not fully responsive. Also, most of the free templates on WordPress have been used by other authors; using them won't give your site a unique view.

2. Make use of OpenGraph tags
OpenGraph tags help describe your page content to social media sites. They are crucial to giving good previews of your content on Facebook and Twitter, allowing you to decide the image, text, and description that appears on the previews. Web design tools like WordPress have plugins to help create these previews. Find a good plugin, check Facebook's guidelines, and ensure all your pages have OpenGraph tags. Social sharing is a principal driver of traffic today, and previews can influence users to visit your site. 

3. Create a lead magnet
One of the best ways to build a mailing list is with a lead magnet. Here, you offer users a gift in exchange for their contact information. A lead magnet can be chapters from your book or an entire ebook. If you have written a series, hook your visitors by giving them book one for free. Then contact them by email and get them to buy the rest of the books in the series. You can use a pop-up that shows a few seconds after visitors land on your page to invite them to subscribe to your mailing list. Lead magnets can create a feeling of indebtedness in your visitors that makes it easier for them to give you their email.

4. Don't distract your visitors with elaborate designs
Don't use a couple of different fonts on your site. This mistake is common among amateur designers who want to include every beautiful font and color they can find. Another typical mistake is creating plenty of menus on the navigation bars on the top and sides of the site. Simply select one or two colors that align with the book cover you feature on the homepage. Then add brilliant text that visitors can read. A single-page design is also effective. Excessively jumping around different web pages can be distracting for visitors. Keep your visitors' attention on one thing; it can be your latest release or a lead magnet. 

5. Invest in design and user experience
Investing in your website to make it stand out from the competition is something you should seriously consider. If you want to take your career to another level, then decide what to put into the design of your site to make it outstanding and effective. The best author websites are unique and retain a good percentage of visitors. So, consider working with a professional web designer and knowing what successful author websites look like and what goes into building one.