An author website is a powerful marketing tool. It’s where readers go to find out more about you and your books. Therefore, it is crucial that your website portrays you in a pleasing light and that you lead (or link) readers to where they can buy your books.

You can hand over the responsibility of building your website to a professional or you can take on the task yourself. Yes, even if your website-building knowledge and skills are limited, it can be done. To guide you through this project, here are the top ten rules when creating an author website.

Look at other author websites. This is an often overlooked, but very important item in this list of top ten rules when creating an author website. Scan the websites of fellow authors – especially those in your genre – to get a feel for what you want (and what you don’t want).

Choose a good platform. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on this. There many easy and fairly inexpensive platforms that shouldn’t cost more than a hundred dollars a year.

Choose a good name. This is crucial. Ideally, to make it easy for readers to find you on the Internet, your website name should be your name. If for some reason that isn’t possible, use your book title or series title.

Keep it simple. Your website should be so easy to navigate that a five-year-old could do it. Map out the website in such a way that visitors can quickly find what they are looking for. Don’t make them dig. A clean and uncluttered design is always best.

Write a bio page that reflects the real you. Use your own photo, not an avatar. Consider having a professional take a nice headshot of you. When writing your bio, use a personal tone but don’t overshare. At the bottom, put a link to your contacts or press kit page.

Get visual. Of the top ten rules when creating an author website, this one is mostly about balance. Display the covers of your current and most recent books. Keep the covers of older books smaller or maybe put them off to the side. Display a video book trailer of your latest release prominently.

Hook them in. Post excerpts, not entire books.

Link, link, link! This should go without saying; still, #8 on the top ten rules when creating an author website is connect. Create links to where readers can purchase your books and links to where fans can find you on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and elsewhere.

Create a blog page. One of the best ways of initiating reader interaction is to start a blog, get a blog following, invite comments, and kick off conversations with readers.

Make it easy for people to reach/find you. And last but not least, provide lots of different ways through which readers, fans, agents, and publishers can contact you.

Whether or not you’re building an author website by yourself, this is a good guide to follow for author website success.