- Always buy your domain with a .com. If someone else owns it, pick a different domain name. Branding is so key in the modern era of business entrepreneurship that having a unique name and brand is an important way to build your platform.
- Your website and all of your social media or online presence need the same brand name. Meaning your usernames for Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, blogger sites, website domains, and more all need to match your printed postcards, personal identifier, and your business card. Do your research to see if your brand names are available, then pick your name or brand identity, now stick with it.
- Never say “click here,” ever. Not on your website, not on a blog post, not on social media. It’s self-evident with a link that is clickable so you are being redundant. It also looks novice. Learn how to embed links in text for a clean appearance or use language to drive calls to action.
- Also, make links open up a new webpage when people click your link, otherwise, you are redirecting people away from your website.
- Update the copyright year of your website. If you don’t have a copyright symbol on your website, update your site to have one. It’s as simple as putting the copyright symbol and current year on your site, usually at the bottom. Remember to update it annually when you also update your site.
- Update your website annually. While this isn’t always a realistic goal or in the budget, an update every other year works well too. If you rarely update your site, what reason do people have to come back to view your art. Keeping it relevant and updated keeps them coming back.
- Make your site navigation easy to understand. Have someone (a friend or fellow artist) click through your website pages and give you feedback on the navigation and organization.
- Have enough website pages to organize your content. A good number of pages is seven or fewer. You get to determine your pages but always tailor them to your brand. Here are some page considerations: home, about, portfolio, contact, FAQ, shop, commissions, etc.
- Curate, curate, curate your material….a website is a professional portfolio (or gallery shop) it’s not an all-encompassing site. This means only select art should be on the site. This can get tricky when you’re a multimedia artist; feedback from an outside source can be helpful.
- Have an additional way people can get in contact with you besides a website form. Forms seem great and are easy to pluck into a site, but are usually a one-way form of communication that many visitors don’t like to use. List a phone number (look into Google Voice for a secure number) or list an actual email.
- There is oftentimes a debate about listing prices online, the Art School Blog believes you should list your prices. If you don’t have a price, how does anyone know it’s available to buy? The prices in your shop should also match the price at a local gallery or in an art show. So, your prices should be consistent.
- Consider creating a Google business account to boost your SEO. You can link Google Maps to your studio, list reviews, post open studio hours, and link to your website.
