Improvements Bookstores Should Make To Their Websites

Your website might be the first impression after Google Search Results that a customer has of your bookstore. It’s an opportunity to showcase all of your products, your team, and your brand, so it’s important that you deliver not only the basics like your store location(s), hours, and contact information, but so much more. As that first impression, your website is the first thing you really want to nail before you try driving traffic to it at all through emails, social media, or paid ad for your bookstore.

Here are features you can add to your website to enhance your readers’ experiences.

Website Design for Bookstores

There’s a delicate balance to be found between simplicity and depth. In some ways, we want to ensure your website is clear and easy to navigate and doesn’t have every book available in your shop on the homepage, however, we also want to showcase everything you have to offer and what makes your bookstore unique. 

We recommend finding a way to mirror the in-store browsing experience, allowing folks to easily find specific books they are looking for, but also leaving room for discoverability. 

Bookstores also have an opportunity to have a little fun with their website. Of course, reading can be serious business, but most readers enjoy this hobby for pleasure, so we want to ensure the design of the website reflects that positivity, optimism, and levity. 

Bookstore Website Content Ideas

Of course, Tuesdays are a big day for showcasing what new releases are available in your shop, but there is also opportunity to highlight upcoming releases, or even new releases that deserve a second look from last month.

But not every reader is interested in pricey hardcover new releases, so featuring newly published paperbacks, classics and other great reads is also important. One other opportunity for this would be a place where you highlight staff picks and local bestsellers.

While we hope that most readers enjoy a multitude of genres, we know that some stick to their lanes, so we also want to offer depth within their favorite categories as well.

And not every customer is shopping for themselves; many may be looking for a gift for someone else, so we love the idea of helping them find the perfect book present for their friend, child, or other family member.

All of this content could live in a robust blog on your website that you update at least monthly. Many of your staff may enjoy contributing to this task, as readers often overlap with writers. Perhaps build out a shared editorial calendar of ideas, and interested staff can claim dibs on their favorite content pillars each month! It’s an easy task they can do during slower hours of the week.

Of course, there are loads of products you probably offer beyond books, and those should have a prominent place on your website too: store merch, event tickets, reading-themed products and accessories that make reading easier or more fun.

Technical Considerations for Bookstore Websites

There are lots of behind-the-scenes things to consider when revamping your website. 

One of the simplest things you can do is to connect your email platform to your website. Add a widget to your website that enables folks to subscribe to your emails where you can send them updates on your business, new blog posts as you post them, and of course event invitations and review requests. 

Connecting your online store inventory to your in-store inventory is critical but baseline. You can even connect your CRM and email marketing platform to your website as well!

It’s imperative you have a robust search function that enables readers to search by title, author, and genre. You could also have a widget on each search results page that offers related titles whether that’s other books by the same authors or in the same genre.

There is lots of SEO research to be done to ensure local readers are finding you, and you should also be building out your Google Business Profile with a link to your website, as it helps with local discoverability. The more reviews you have on that profile, the better as well.

Setting up Google Search Console and Google Analytics will help you track and measure your progress as well.

Are you happy with your current website? Are you earning the online sales you wish for? What are the small things you can tackle this week for yourself that will help make incremental positive change? You Got This!