Please congratulate newly-published author David McKeon on his brand new WordPress website! Dave is an award-winning author of unpublished short stories who recently wrote a four-book thriller series!
The protagonist is an ex-commando named Lou Gault, who wants to be living a serene life in the wilderness of New Brunswick, and yet, keeps getting pulled into action.
Writing the Lou Gault thriller series was Dave’s response to his movement being restricted during COVID-19. An avid traveler, he had to cancel trips to Europe, the Caribbean, Alaska, Carolina’s Low Country and New England. He reasoned that if he couldn’t travel physically, he could travel in his mind, so Lou Gault action takes place in locations near and dear to Dave’s traveling heart.
The first two novels are published and available for purchase on Amazon. The third is with the publisher right now, and the fourth is going through the editing process and is expected to be available for purchase in early 2024. As each thriller becomes available, it will be added to Dave’s page on Amazon.
Our Website Development Project
- Meetings: We met via Zoom two to three times.
- Communications: In between Zooms, we primarily used email, then phone calls.
- Schedule: I created an agreement that included start and end dates. Dave and I loosely stuck to the dates. We worked around his meetings with and progress made by the publishing company.
- Preferences: Before our first meeting, Dave shared some website preferences.
- A list of websites that he liked of very famous authors. He also provided a list of other famous authors’ websites that included aspects that he did not care for and wanted to avoid having on his own website.
- His desire to have the website developed in WordPress because he knew that WordPress would let a non-tech person like himself add short stories and write in the blog.
Business Requirements for this WordPress Website
From the get-go, Dave had a feel for the content that he wanted to display on his website including a books overview page that led to individual pages about each of the books, and the ability for his followers to view online and download chapters of books and short stories.
Dave wanted:
- Easy access to all website content
- Easy process for writing blog posts
- Easy process for uploading book covers and PDFs
- Easy navigation scheme for visitors
- The format of the home page to be similar to the websites that Dave liked
- The home page design to be darker and more mysterious than crisp and tidy so that it matches Dave’s action thrillers writing genre.
- Functionality:
- Ability for visitors to “See inside” or “Flip through” a book, chapter(s), and short stories.
- Ability for visitors to download PDF samples of his work and short stories
- Ability for media and fans to contact Dave
- Ability for Dave to edit pages and add blog posts
- Ability for visitors to easily and intuitively traverse the website
The development of this WordPress website was pretty standard.
We had the most conversations about the different sections on the home page. We went through several iterations of reviewing background images, colored and black and whites, and solid-colored backgrounds, discussing whether the “current” made sense for the section and flowed easily to and from the sections above and below.
See-Inside Functionality Emulated via WordPress Plugin
One fun technical thing about this project is that I got to research plugins that provide online viewing similar to the “See inside” functionality on Amazon. The best fit for this project was 3D FlipBook. It is WordPress plugin that provides built-in flip technology for three different types of viewing (PDFs, Images, HTML). I wanted it for the PDF flip functionality.
3D FlipBook was easy to install and worked immediately with Dave’s PDFs. Now his website visitors can read chapters from upcoming novels and some of his short stories.
Communicating with Fans
Also, so that Dave’s fans can stay abreast of his latest writings and upcoming appearances, I set Dave up with an email service program called MailerLite. The basic, free version includes exactly enough functionality to serve Dave’s purposes at this time.
In Dave’s account on the MailerLite website, I created a form for fans to express their interest in following Dave.
Then, on Dave’s website, I installed the MailerLite plugin. The MailerLite plugin easily integrates the components of the email service (forms and lists) with a WordPress website. I used the plugin to embed the form into a page. When fans are on Dave’s website, fill in the form, and submit it, they are automatically added to the “Keep me Informed” list which lives on the MailerLite website.
Now, when Dave wants to let the world know that his third book is available on Amazon, all he has to do is log into his MailerLite account, compose an email, choose the “Keep me Informed” list, and schedule the send. Easy peasy communication with his followers.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization tactics were applied to the website and to each page as they were being developed.
I will continue to tweak each page over the next month as I notice additional opportunities to add SEO components, and, also, as I receive feedback from Google’s Search Console.
As far as keeping the SEO-friendliness going when Dave assumes 100% responsibility for the website, I installed the Yoast plugin. The Yoast plugin measures how well a piece of content matches to current SEO rules and norms.
Yoast uses a traffic light scheme to inform content writers as to how SEO-friendly a piece of content (webpage, blog post) is. When content is rated with an orange or red traffic light, Yoast includes hints about where to go and what to fix in order to “earn” a grean traffic light. When you achieve a green traffic light, Yoast is effectively saying that you have done a good job including the SEO components applicable to this piece of content. The Yoast plugin is a good SEO guide for non-techs who add content to their WordPress websites.
Website Traffic and Tracking
In order for Dave to know how his SEO tactics, in-person and online networking, and other marketing efforts are working, he’ll want to check on the number of visitors to his website, the most popular pages in his website, the paths that visitors tend to take, etc. Maybe he’ll even want to compare mobile phone visitors versus desktop visitors.
In order for Dave to be able to view this kind of information in a user-friendly way, I set up Google Search Console and Google Analytics an integrated them withe the website using the Google Site Kit plugin.
Now, whenever Dave wants to check on activity happening on his website, all he has to do is log into his website and view the WordPress Dashboard.
Brand new WordPress website development wrap up
So, there you have an overview of our process and the major components included in developing this brand-new website using WordPress for a brand-new author!
If something that you are looking for in your WordPress website development project is not mentioned here, please do not assume that it was not included. Instead, connect with me and ask about it. It just might be that it slipped my mind because I tried to cover many topics here.
I’m looking forward to working with your on your project.