by Nancy Lou Henderson
Please welcome Nancy Lou to the Writers Journey Blog this week with a feature article on how to drive traffic to your Author's Website!
Your Website As Your Wheelhouse
Most, if not all, writers have a website with a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) but are these website URLs being used to their full potential to help the writers?
My website is an HTTPS site which means that the site has a safe and secure server that will not give warning prompts telling you to immediately, “Get the heck out of Dodge!” In my opinion, having a secure server brings more people to my website because they are not frightened by alarming prompts.
Once my website was secure, a good friend, Chuck Bartok, helped set up pages. Each page has a category and a unique URL, including the website URL and the page name. Also, all posts to a page have a URL, including the website URL and the post name.
Examples: My website URL: https://nancylouhenderson.com goes to my landing page.
Example: As page one on my website URL: https://nancylouhenderson.com/love-marriage-book-i/
Example: A post URL: https://nancylouhenderson.com/our-love-begins/
As you can see, each URL will take you to my website, and once you are there, exploration is an open book. (All pun intended).
Now, where am I going with all of this? Choosing to use a website as your wheelhouse, you publish your work on your website, share your published work through a unique URL with a brilliant little introduction instead of the whole post, poem, etc. This method could potentially bring more people to your website, increase your website SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and make your website more visible to search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc., and their users. (Trust me, it works, and I did not figure this out myself. Thank you, Chuck Bartok)
Another thing that I think is important is to make sure your author’s name, Facebook author page name, and website name are the same. If you have a personal profile on Facebook, always share your work from your author page to your profile and group pages. The reason for doing this is that your author page also publishes your work before being shared. Of course, using the URL from your website ensures this also.
Many websites like Twitter do not give you adequate space to type your whole post, blog, poem, or stories, so the URL is your secret weapon for sharing your work.
I have used my website as a wheelhouse since April 18, 2018, and have the extreme pleasure of 429,706 visits to my website by 123,541 visitors. You know what, folks, I am not as prolific a writer as most of you, so your numbers would inevitably be so much higher.
All of the above advice is just for information only, and it is up to you... as to what is the most comfortable for you.
Praying this is not as clear as mud. God Bless you all and keep on writing.
Nancy Lou Henderson
You can click the covers below to buy the books on Amazon or read them free on Nancy's Website at the links in this article.
BIO: Here is a little about the woman, Nancy Lou Henderson
I was born in a little town in the hill country of Texas called Hico on October 6, 1949.
My parent’s names are James and Mary Blakley.
My Daddy went to the Panhandle of Texas to pick cotton to pay the hospital for my birth, to get Mom and me released.
Pretty sure this is true since my Momma is the person who told me the story. I am one of five siblings and the only girl. If you should wonder where I fall in the pecking order, I am number two or next to the oldest.
I married my soulmate, Frank Henderson, on May 8, 1968, in a little Methodist Church in Van Vleck, Texas. We were married by Pastor Henderson, who thought it was unusual and funny to be marrying a girl to a Henderson, which was not him.
Frank was born on October 4, 1949, so after doing the math, we figured out that according to our birth times, only thirty hours separated our ages, so when we married, we were both eighteen years old. With God’s help, Frank and I instantly became one heart and soul, a forever love.
Okay, back to knowing something about me. I am a daughter, sister, Mother, Grandmother, and Great Grandmother. I am Frank’s wife for eternity and have been his widow for twenty-one years. Daughter, Sister, Wife, Mother, Grandmother, and Great Grandmother are all the most beautiful things that I am the proudest of being in this life.
My first two jobs making money were babysitting and selling mail-ordered packaged seeds for fruits and vegetables. I was probably nine years old. Frankly, I don’t remember.
I have worked in a New Hampshire factory, making boxes and heat-treating plastic light up lawn Santa Clauses with a blow torch so the paint would adhere. I might have burned my arm with that blowtorch once, but I’m not telling.
I have been a certified Daycare owner keeping six three-year-old children at one time. Plus, being certified with a Commercial License to drive an eighty passenger school bus, which I did for a total of eight years in two different towns. I loved driving that school bus.
My husband and I bought a florist, and while he did the paperwork, I ordered, processed, and designed flowers. Owning a Florist was never a job to me but a total blessing.
I worked one year as a receptionist in a Doctor’s office, then at the young age of fifty, I studied and took a test in Houston, Texas, which I passed big time, which made me a Certified Pharmacy Technician. I worked in a pharmacy for ten years, then retired at age sixty.
I draw, paint pictures, crochet, quilt, sew, knit, tat, wash dishes, mop floors, vacuum, scrub windows, wash the car, mow, weed-eat, trim hedges, do plumbing, helped roof the house, sing in the shower, and dance when nobody is looking. I also love pearls and lace, which I am known to wear along with my coveralls.
Since the first time I can remember, I have loved God, and I was fortunate to marry a man who loved God as much as I do. God has always been by my side in my darkest moments, giving me strength, loving me, forgiving me, and holding me in His loving arms.
Now you know a little about me, and I am sure that you know by now that I love humor. I believe that humor is the most important thing that we have in this world. The ability to laugh at ourselves and laugh with others is such a beautiful gift.
If you would like to follow me on other media, you can click on this link, https://linktr.ee/NancyLouHenderson