Carrd vs WordPress for Authors: Cost, SEO & Features Compared

If you have just published a book, you may be wondering whether you really need a full website—or whether a simple one-page site is enough.

That is where the Carrd vs WordPress question usually begins.

You may have seen Carrd recommended because it is inexpensive, fast and remarkably easy to build. You may also have heard that WordPress is better for SEO, blogging and long-term growth.

Both statements contain some truth.

But there is a more important question:

What do you actually want your author website to do for you over the next three to five years?

If all you need is a beautiful page containing your photograph, book cover, short biography, purchase links and newsletter signup, Carrd can be an excellent choice.

But if your goal is to build an author brand that can grow into a searchable library of articles, multiple book pages, email subscribers, direct book sales, speaking opportunities, resources and organic Google traffic, I would lean strongly toward WordPress.

I have worked on websites from the practical side—not simply looking at screenshots and comparing features. One thing I have learned is that authors often choose a website platform based on what they need today and forget to ask what they will need after their next book, next launch or next 50 articles.

That distinction can save you from rebuilding your website later.

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Carrd vs WordPress for authors: the short answer

Choose Carrd if you need a simple, attractive, low-maintenance one-page author website.

Choose WordPress if you want to build a long-term author platform that can grow with your books, content, audience and business.

Here is the comparison at a glance:

Feature	Carrd	WordPress
Simple one-page author site	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ease of setup	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐
Cost to start	Very low	Low to moderate
Multiple books	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Blogging	Limited/not its main purpose	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
SEO content strategy	Basic	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Email signup	Yes, with integrations	Yes, through plugins/services
Direct book sales	Possible through integrations	Excellent flexibility
Online store	Limited	Excellent with suitable plugins
Author blog	Not ideal	Excellent
Resource library	Limited	Excellent
Long-term expansion	Limited	Excellent
Maintenance	Very low	Ongoing
Design flexibility	Good	Extremely high
Ownership/control	More platform-dependent	High with self-hosted WordPress
Best for	Simple author landing page	Growing author brand

The important point is that neither platform is automatically better for every author.

The right choice depends on the job you want the website to perform.

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What is Carrd?

Carrd is built around a simple idea: create responsive one-page websites quickly.

That simplicity is its greatest strength.

Carrd describes itself as a platform for building simple, responsive one-page sites, and its free version lets you create up to three sites. Its Pro plans add features such as custom domains, forms, analytics, custom meta tags, embeds and payment-related integrations.

For an author, this can work beautifully.

Imagine your page looking something like this:

Your Name

Author of Your Book Title

[Book cover]

A short paragraph about your book.

Buy the Book

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Direct

About the Author

A short biography.

Join My Reader List

Get a free chapter or bonus resource.

Follow Me

Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | TikTok

That is a perfectly legitimate author website.

And if that is genuinely all you need, why pay for something more complicated?

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What is WordPress?

WordPress is a content management system that gives you a much broader foundation for building a website.

Instead of thinking of your website as one page, think of it as a growing property.

You can have:

• Home
• About
• Books
• Individual book pages
• Blog
• Speaking
• Media
• Resources
• Free downloads
• Newsletter landing pages
• Contact
• Store
• Course pages
• Author events
• Reader communities
• Searchable articles

And you can keep adding to it.

That difference becomes extremely important when an author moves beyond the first book.

WordPress also has a huge plugin ecosystem. WordPress.org currently lists more than 71,000 free plugins, which illustrates just how expandable the platform is.

That flexibility is both its greatest advantage and one of its biggest disadvantages.

You have more control.

But you also have more responsibility.

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Carrd vs WordPress: which is cheaper?

At first glance, Carrd wins this comparison easily.

Carrd Pro Standard currently starts at $19 per year and includes features such as custom domains, forms, widgets, analytics and custom meta tags.

That is remarkably inexpensive.

Suppose you maintain the site for three years:

$19 × 3 = $57

Even five years would be:

$19 × 5 = $95

That is hard to beat.

But comparing the Carrd subscription with WordPress alone is not completely fair.

A self-hosted WordPress website normally involves:

• Domain registration
• Web hosting
• Theme
• Plugins
• Security
• Backups
• Maintenance
• Possibly professional development

Some of those costs can be zero or very low.

Others can become significant depending on what you build.

A simple three-year illustration

Expense	Carrd	WordPress
Platform	About $19/year for Pro Standard	Depends on hosting
Domain	Separate	Separate
Hosting	Included in Carrd service	Required for self-hosted WordPress
Premium theme	Usually unnecessary	Optional
Premium plugins	Usually unnecessary	Optional
Maintenance	Minimal	Required
E-commerce	External integrations	Can be built into the site
Potential 3-year cost	Very low	Low → several hundred dollars or more

These aren’t fixed universal prices. Your actual WordPress cost depends heavily on your hosting company, theme, plugins, email system and whether you hire someone to manage the website.

So don’t choose WordPress simply because someone tells you it is “free.”

The software may be free.

The website is not necessarily free.

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But here is where the cheap website calculation can become misleading

I have seen authors focus so heavily on the cost of building a website that they overlook the cost of rebuilding one.

Imagine you create a beautiful one-page Carrd website when you have one book.

You have:

• One book
• One biography
• One email form
• Three retailer links

Perfect.

Two years later, you have:

• Six books
• Three book series
• 100 blog posts
• A newsletter
• Free reader resources
• Speaking engagements
• Media appearances
• Direct sales
• A course
• Several lead magnets

Now your original website may no longer fit what your business has become.

That doesn’t mean Carrd was a bad decision.

It may have been exactly the right decision at the time.

The mistake is assuming that a platform designed for simplicity must also be the best foundation for every future stage of your author career.

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Carrd is excellent for the author who needs one thing

If your goal is simply:

“I need somewhere professional to send people when they search for me.”

Carrd makes a lot of sense.

For example, imagine you are a first-time novelist launching your first book.

You have 2,000 followers on Instagram.

You post a book announcement.

Your bio says:

Read more about my book → myauthorname.com

The visitor lands on your Carrd page.

They see:

1. Your photograph
2. Your book
3. A short description
4. Purchase buttons
5. Newsletter signup
6. Social links

That’s enough.

You don’t necessarily need 50 pages.

You don’t need a 3,000-word blog post about writing.

You don’t need a complicated navigation menu.

You need a page that gets the visitor from interest to action.

For this type of author, Carrd is difficult to criticize.

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When Carrd starts becoming uncomfortable

The problem appears when your website becomes more than a digital business card.

Suppose you start writing articles such as:

• How to self-publish a book
• How much does it cost to publish a book?
• How to format a book
• How to write a book description
• How to market a new book
• How to build an author platform
• How to sell books directly
• How to start an author newsletter

Now you are no longer simply displaying information.

You are building a content library.

That changes the equation.

This is one of the biggest weaknesses I found in many Carrd-vs-WordPress comparisons: they talk about “a website” as though every website has the same purpose.

It doesn’t.

A one-page author landing page and a 150-article publishing website are completely different projects.

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WordPress becomes much more attractive when Google traffic matters

This is probably the biggest reason I would choose WordPress for a serious long-term author website.

Suppose you write an article called:

How Much Does It Cost to Self-Publish a Book?

A reader searches Google.

They find your article.

They read it.

At the end, they discover that you are an author.

They see your books.

They join your email list.

Perhaps they eventually buy a book.

That is a completely different traffic model from someone clicking your Instagram profile.

Instead of repeatedly paying or posting to get attention, you are building a library of content that can continue attracting searchers.

Google itself advises publishers to anticipate the words readers search for while keeping the content useful and people-first. It also specifically emphasizes first-hand expertise and comprehensive coverage.

This is where WordPress has a major practical advantage.

It is designed around publishing and managing content.

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Does WordPress automatically rank better on Google?

No.

This is an important distinction.

WordPress does not automatically rank because it is WordPress.

You can build a terrible WordPress website that receives almost no organic traffic.

You can also build a very effective simple website on another platform.

Search visibility depends on many factors, including:

• Content quality
• Search intent
• Relevance
• Site structure
• Internal linking
• Page experience
• Technical accessibility
• Authority
• Competition
• Links and mentions
• User satisfaction
• Your ability to consistently create useful content

So don’t buy WordPress because someone promised:

“WordPress ranks higher on Google.”

That is too simplistic.

The better argument is this:

WordPress gives you a much stronger environment for building the kind of large, structured content library that can support an SEO strategy.

That is a very different claim.

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Carrd vs WordPress for SEO

Here’s how I would think about it.

Carrd

Carrd Pro supports useful SEO-related features including custom meta tags, canonical URLs on higher plans, analytics and other controls.

So Carrd isn’t “bad for SEO.”

That misconception needs to go.

But Carrd’s fundamental design philosophy is still centered around simple sites.

WordPress

WordPress gives you a much more natural environment for:

• Categories
• Tags
• Blog posts
• Pages
• Archives
• Internal linking
• Content clusters
• Search-friendly URLs
• SEO plugins
• Structured content
• Large content libraries

That matters if organic search is part of your long-term marketing plan.

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A real-world example: one book versus 20 books

Let’s imagine two authors.

Author A: Sarah

Sarah has written one romance novel.

She doesn’t intend to blog.

She doesn’t want to sell products.

She simply wants readers to:

• Learn about her
• See her book
• Buy the book
• Join her newsletter

Sarah probably doesn’t need an elaborate WordPress website.

Carrd is a reasonable choice.

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Author B: David

David writes nonfiction.

His first book is about personal finance.

He intends to publish more books.

He wants to write articles.

He wants Google traffic.

He wants to collect email addresses.

He wants to sell ebooks directly.

He plans to create downloadable guides.

He eventually wants to offer courses and consulting.

David should probably start with WordPress.

Why?

Because the website is not simply displaying a book.

The website is becoming part of the business.

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What about an author with multiple books?

This is where the difference becomes obvious.

Suppose you have five books.

On a simple one-page website, you could display five books.

That works.

But what happens when each book needs its own:

• Description
• Purchase options
• Reviews
• Excerpts
• Author notes
• Reader resources
• Discussion guide
• Blog articles
• Related books
• Newsletter campaign

Now you are effectively creating a small publishing platform.

WordPress handles that type of structure much more comfortably.

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What about selling books directly from your website?

This is another important question authors often overlook.

Your website doesn’t have to be merely a signpost pointing people toward Amazon.

You can eventually build a direct-sales strategy.

For example:

Reader → Google → Your website → Book page → Checkout → Customer → Email list

That gives you a relationship with the reader beyond one marketplace transaction.

Carrd can support payment-related integrations and third-party widgets on suitable Pro plans.

So Carrd isn’t incapable of selling.

But WordPress gives you considerably more room to build the entire sales environment around the book.

You can create:

• Product pages
• Landing pages
• Bundles
• Discounts
• Order forms
• Digital downloads
• Customer accounts
• Upsells
• Related products
• Email integrations
• Analytics
• Content marketing

That is one reason I would not choose Carrd if I already knew I wanted the website to become my primary book-selling platform.

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Your email list matters more than your website platform

There is another issue I wish more authors considered.

Your website is not the ultimate asset.

Your relationship with your readers is.

A visitor who lands on your site today and disappears tomorrow may never return.

A visitor who joins your email list is different.

Now you have permission to communicate with that reader.

You could offer:

• A free chapter
• A devotional
• A writing checklist
• A reader guide
• A book launch notification
• A discount
• Exclusive articles
• New book announcements

Carrd can collect email addresses through supported forms and integrations.

WordPress can also do this through numerous newsletter and form integrations.

So the question isn’t:

“Which platform has an email form?”

Both can.

The better question is:

“Which platform will support the kind of reader relationship I want to build?”

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What if I only have one book right now?

Then don’t overbuild.

This is one of the most important pieces of advice I would give a new author.

You don’t need to spend months building a giant website before you launch your first book.

If you have:

• One book
• Limited budget
• No intention of blogging
• No immediate plans for e-commerce
• A strong social media following
• A need for a professional online presence

A simple Carrd website can get you moving quickly.

Done is better than an unfinished masterpiece.

You can always expand later.

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But if you know you will publish more books, think ahead

There is a difference between planning for growth and overengineering.

If you already know you will publish:

• Book 1
• Book 2
• Book 3
• A devotional
• A workbook
• A companion guide

then I would rather see you establish WordPress from the beginning.

You may spend a little more time setting it up.

But you won’t have to rethink the entire architecture when your author business grows.

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Carrd vs WordPress for blogging

This is probably the easiest category to decide.

Carrd

Good for:

• Landing pages
• One-page profiles
• Book launches
• Simple author pages
• Lead-generation pages

WordPress

Excellent for:

• Author blogs
• Publishing articles
• Tutorials
• Reviews
• Book marketing content
• SEO content
• Long-form guides
• Content clusters
• News and announcements

If you want your author website to become a publishing machine, WordPress wins decisively.

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What about website speed?

This is where Carrd has a very attractive advantage.

A simple Carrd website can be extremely lightweight.

There aren’t dozens of plugins fighting for attention.

You don’t have to worry about someone installing twelve unnecessary WordPress plugins because a YouTube tutorial recommended them.

WordPress can also be extremely fast.

But it requires proper implementation.

Your speed can be affected by:

• Hosting
• Theme
• Plugins
• Image sizes
• Fonts
• Scripts
• Caching
• Third-party integrations
• Poorly built page builders

So:

Carrd gives you simplicity by default.

WordPress gives you control—but you have to use that control properly.

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What about maintenance?

This is one category where Carrd wins comfortably.

A simple Carrd site doesn’t require you to worry about:

• WordPress core updates
• Plugin conflicts
• Theme compatibility
• Database optimization
• Plugin vulnerabilities
• WordPress backups
• PHP compatibility

With self-hosted WordPress, these things matter.

That doesn’t make WordPress bad.

It means WordPress is a more serious website platform.

A car gives you more freedom than a bicycle.

It also gives you more things that can require maintenance.

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The hidden cost of WordPress: your time

Let’s say your WordPress website needs two hours every month for maintenance, updates and troubleshooting.

That’s:

2 hours × 12 months = 24 hours per year

Over five years:

24 × 5 = 120 hours

That is five full days of continuous time.

And that’s before you write a single article.

For an author who hates technology, this matters.

If you’re constantly fighting your website, you’re not writing books.

That’s why a simple Carrd site can actually be the better business decision for some authors.

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Carrd vs WordPress for author branding

Both can look professional.

This is important.

Don’t assume a WordPress website automatically looks more professional than Carrd.

A poorly designed WordPress website can look amateurish.

A well-designed Carrd website can look excellent.

Your branding depends heavily on:

• Typography
• Colors
• Photography
• Book cover presentation
• Layout
• Whitespace
• Mobile responsiveness
• Copywriting
• Navigation
• Calls to action

The platform is only part of the equation.

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What pages should an author website have?

Whether you choose Carrd or WordPress, think about the reader’s journey.

At minimum, I would consider:

1. Home

Tell visitors who you are and what you write.

2. Books

Show your books clearly.

3. About

Give readers a reason to connect with you.

4. Contact

Make it possible to reach you.

5. Newsletter

Give readers a reason to subscribe.

If you’re building a more serious author platform, add:

6. Blog

For discoverability and relationship building.

7. Speaking

If you speak at churches, conferences, schools or events.

8. Media Kit

Useful for journalists, event organizers, podcasts and publishers.

9. Resources

For downloadable guides, worksheets, excerpts and bonuses.

10. Individual book pages

One dedicated page per major book.

This is another area where WordPress begins to pull away from a simple one-page platform.

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Don’t build an author website that only talks about you

This is a mistake I see frequently.

The homepage says:

“Welcome to my website. I am John. I have been writing since 1998. I love books. Here are my achievements…”

The reader is thinking:

“Okay. But what is here for me?”

Your website should answer the reader’s questions.

For example:

Looking for practical help with self-publishing?

Start here.

Want to read my latest book?

See the books.

Want a free resource?

Download the guide.

Want to invite me to speak?

Here’s my speaking information.

The website should not simply be an online biography.

It should be a useful destination.

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What I would choose for a first-time author

If you came to me and said:

“I have one book. I have almost no budget. I don’t blog. I just want a professional page.”

I would not tell you that you need an expensive WordPress website.

I would say:

Start simple.

Carrd can do the job.

Get your domain.

Create the page.

Put your book in front of readers.

Collect email subscribers.

Start promoting the book.

Don’t let website perfection delay the launch.

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What I would choose for a serious long-term author

Now change the scenario.

You tell me:

“I want to publish several books. I want Google traffic. I want to write weekly. I want an email list. I want to sell books directly. I want readers to find my articles. I may eventually sell courses and other products.”

My answer changes.

Use WordPress.

Not because WordPress is fashionable.

Not because WordPress magically ranks.

Not because every author needs a complicated website.

But because you’re describing a content-driven business, not simply an author profile.

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A simple direct-sales calculation

Suppose you spend:

₦500,000 on publishing and launching a book.

Your selling price is:

₦8,000

Your variable cost per book is:

₦3,000

Your contribution per sale is:

₦8,000 − ₦3,000 = ₦5,000

Your break-even point becomes:

₦500,000 ÷ ₦5,000 = 100 books

So you need approximately 100 sales to recover the ₦500,000, before taxes and other costs not included in the calculation.

This is why I don’t recommend choosing a website platform simply because it is cheap.

The real question is:

Can the website help you build an audience and generate enough value to justify its cost?

That is a much better business question.

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One mistake I would avoid: building a website around Amazon alone

If every button on your website says:

BUY ON AMAZON

you are effectively using your website as an advertisement for another platform.

That isn’t necessarily bad.

Amazon can be an important sales channel.

But your author website can do more.

You can use it to build:

Search traffic → reader → email subscriber → relationship → book buyer → repeat reader

That is why I consider an email signup almost as important as the book purchase button.

A book sale is valuable.

A reader relationship can be valuable for years.

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Can you start with Carrd and move to WordPress later?

Yes, but don’t assume the move will be completely painless.

Your domain can remain yours.

Your branding can remain yours.

Your content can be recreated.

Your links can be redirected where appropriate.

But moving platforms may require rebuilding pages, reorganizing content and checking links.

If you have only one simple page, this isn’t a major problem.

If you have accumulated hundreds of articles and resources, migration becomes a much bigger project.

That is why I like this rule:

Choose simplicity when your needs are simple. Choose scalability when your plans are already scalable.

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Carrd vs WordPress: my final score

Category	Winner
Cheapest simple website	Carrd
Fastest setup	Carrd
One-page author site	Carrd
Low maintenance	Carrd
Simple book launch page	Carrd
Blogging	WordPress
SEO content strategy	WordPress
Multiple books	WordPress
Large content library	WordPress
Direct selling	WordPress
E-commerce expansion	WordPress
Custom functionality	WordPress
Long-term growth	WordPress
Ease for nontechnical beginners	Carrd
Complete website control	WordPress
Best for a serious author platform	WordPress

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My recommendation

Here is the simplest way I would make the decision.

Choose Carrd if:

• You have one book.
• You want a one-page website.
• You don’t plan to blog.
• Your primary traffic comes from social media.
• You mainly need book links.
• You want extremely low maintenance.
• You have a very limited budget.
• You need the site online quickly.

Choose WordPress if:

• You plan to publish multiple books.
• You want Google traffic.
• You want to blog.
• You want individual pages for your books.
• You want to sell directly.
• You want to build an email-driven audience.
• You want downloadable resources.
• You expect your author business to grow.
• You want maximum flexibility.

And if you’re still undecided, ask yourself one question:

Do I need a website, or am I building an author platform?

If you need a website, Carrd may be enough.

If you’re building an author platform, I would choose WordPress.

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Don’t make your platform decision based only on today’s book

Your first book is important.

But it shouldn’t be the only thing you think about.

Imagine where you want to be three years from now.

Maybe you’ll have five books.

Maybe you’ll have 10,000 email subscribers.

Maybe a Google search for your name will bring up your website.

Maybe readers will discover your articles before they discover your books.

Maybe you’ll sell books directly.

Maybe you’ll have speaking engagements.

Maybe another author will discover your publishing services through an article you wrote.

Your website can become the infrastructure underneath all of that.

That’s why I don’t think the Carrd vs WordPress debate has one universal winner.

Carrd wins when simplicity is the goal.

WordPress wins when growth is the goal.

Choose the platform that matches the business you’re actually building—not the website you happen to need this week.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Carrd good for an author website?

Yes. Carrd is particularly good for authors who need a simple, attractive one-page website containing a biography, book information, purchase links, social links and an email signup. Its Pro plans support custom domains, forms, analytics and integrations.

Is WordPress better than Carrd for authors?

For a long-term author platform, I would generally choose WordPress because it provides much greater flexibility for blogging, multiple books, SEO content, resources, e-commerce and other functionality.

For a simple one-book author website, however, Carrd may actually be the better choice because it is easier and requires much less maintenance.

Is Carrd good for SEO?

Carrd can support basic SEO requirements and its Pro plans include features such as custom meta tags and analytics.

However, if your strategy depends heavily on publishing dozens or hundreds of articles to attract organic search traffic, WordPress is generally the more practical platform.

Does WordPress rank higher on Google?

Not automatically.

Google does not give a website a ranking advantage simply because it uses WordPress. What matters is the quality, usefulness, relevance, technical accessibility and overall experience of the website.

Can I sell books from a Carrd website?

Yes. Carrd’s Pro features support payment-enabled forms and third-party widgets such as Stripe and PayPal, depending on the implementation.

For a larger store or more sophisticated direct-sales operation, WordPress gives you more room to expand.

Should a first-time author build a website?

If you plan to build a long-term author brand, I believe having your own website is worthwhile.

It gives readers one official place to find your books, biography, resources and contact information.

The important thing is not to overspend on the first version.

Start with what you genuinely need and expand when your audience and publishing activity justify it.

How many pages should an author website have?

There is no magic number.

A simple first-time author may need only:

• Home
• About
• Book
• Contact
• Newsletter

A more established author may need individual book pages, a blog, media kit, speaking page, resources and other sections.

Build around your reader’s needs rather than trying to reach a particular page count.

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Build the website around your books—not around the technology

Your website platform should ultimately disappear into the background.

Readers shouldn’t care whether your site uses Carrd, WordPress or anything else.

They care about whether they can:

Find you.

Understand what you write.

Discover your books.

Trust you.

Join your reader community.

Buy the book.

Come back.

That is the real test of an author website.

And if you build with that objective in mind, the platform decision becomes much easier.

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Need help building your author website?

If you already know that you want a professional author website but don’t want to spend your writing time dealing with hosting, design, mobile responsiveness, SEO structure and technical setup, Creativity Publications provides author website design and publishing support.

We can help you build a website that does more than display your book—it can become the home for your author brand, content, reader audience and future books.

You can also explore our guide on why every author needs a professional website and our resources on self-publishing a book before deciding what you need.

The goal isn’t to build the biggest website.

It is to build the right website for the author you are becoming.