Are you currently building or planning out a website for your art? Your artist website is a vital part of running a successful visual art business. Your website should be your own unique space; however, there are five things that every artist website should include.
Here are five things that your website should contain.
A homepage that encourages visitors to browse and engage with your website. Use solid images that represent your work, along with a brief description of your work. Help viewers to understand a bit about you at first glance. Get to the point. Keep words concise, punchy, and compelling to hook visitors and get them to explore deeper into your site.
An About page the tells people about you and your story.
People want to know why you are an artist. What goes into the effort to create your work? What makes you and your work special. Avoid making your About page too long or tedious. Let potential customers see who’s behind the art, but get to the point. Pictures of you working in the studio are a great addition to an About page.
A Gallery of Your Work
Present images of your work in an organized fashion. If you have different types of work, organize the work into logical categories. Images are key. Be detailed enough so that what you create and sell is clear to visitors. Also, by being clear in your language, you better optimize your pages for search engines, and this means it will be easier to you find your site.
A great addition is to provide an in situ page where customers will be able to see your work installed in home and businesses. Seeing your work this way helps them to visualize what it might look like in their space.
Contact Page
How can I get in touch with you? As well as providing essential contact information, including your email address, phone number, and address, your contact page should encourage visitors to connect with your business on the social media channels you use as well.
If you have a studio or gallery that is open to the public, include directions and possibly a map. Many website platforms today make it easy to embed an interactive Google map, so visitors don’t get lost. Be sure to include your hours of operation.
Call to action
What do you want people to do? Would you like them to visit your studio or attend an event? Can you help them to find your work in a gallery or retail store? Can you ask them to subscribe to your mailing list? Make sure that you are specific about what people need to do to find you, your work, or connect with you. Place the call to action on whichever page you think makes the most sense.
Future posts will cover other enhancements that you can make to your website. Start with these five, and you will have the foundation for a reliable place where people can learn about you and your work and connect with you.
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