Every artist needs a website – it’s the ideal tool for creating widespread awareness of their work. Follow this guide to easily create an artist website.
As an artist, you want to spend your time creating art, not a website. Still, an artist website is the single greatest piece of marketing material for your artistic venture.
A website showcases your artwork, allows people to discover you, and gives patrons around the world the opportunity to do so They contact you and buy your work.
Reading: How to create a artist website
Creating an artist website for yourself is possible for even the most non-technical person. This guide will show you how.
How to create an artist website
To create an artist website, you use a do-it-yourself website service called Content Management System (CMS). A CMS allows you to create and customize a website without any technical knowledge.
An easy-to-use CMS is a cheap alternative to hiring someone to build the website for you, and some, such as . B. Bolt CMS , you can set up a free website.
Combine a portfolio-friendly CMS with the following steps, and no matter your skill or experience, you can create an artist website your way.
Step 1: Identify goals
First, determine your goals for creating an artist website. Do you simply want to use the site as a digital portfolio of your work? Do you want to sell art online? Is the site also intended for marketing purposes, such as announcing a gallery where customers can view your art in person?
Your goals will determine what type of site functionality is required. This way, you can search for the CMS that best suits your needs.
Tips for identifying targets
You may immediately know part of what you want – e.g. B. Another place to work Showcase your works – but other goals can be murky. Here are some suggestions to help you.
- Research: Do some research on other art websites, e.g. B. those of Gerhard Richter, Wim Delvoye or other well-known artists in your field. This can generate ideas for your own website and will help you identify the qualities that make a great artist website.
- Create a feature list: Brainstorm one List features and content you want on your website. Then prioritize the top three features that are most important to get started. This exercise will help you narrow your focus so you can launch a first version of your site in time.
- Start small: It’s best if you start with a simpler, more restricted website. A simple artist website allows you to get something up and running faster, even if it’s not your ideal. Once your website is live, you can gradually develop it to where you want it – instead of trying to make it perfect from the start.
Step 2: Choose one CMS
Now that you’ve identified your goals, it’s time to find a CMS. An important consideration is your budget. Determine how much you can afford in website expenses each month. This will determine what type of CMS you can buy and what features are included.
Based on your goals and budget, look at CMS platforms that suit your needs. Some CMS options that work well for artists are highlighted at the end of this article.
Tips for Choosing a CMS
The right CMS is essential to building your artist website. These tips may help narrow your choices.
- Set a budget: When setting your budget, consider the cost of the initial setup, any marketing, the You want to perform, and website hosting, that is the monthly fee paid to a service provider to expose your website to the world. The initial setup fees include the cost of purchasing and registering a domain name, which will be the URL for your website.
- Use Templates: The best content management systems provide Templates to get you started. Look for a template with a clean, simple layout that puts your art front and center. For example, a template with a carousel allows site visitors to easily browse your creations.
- Decide if you want to sell online: If you want to sell your art online, do a search Looking for a CMS that supports e-commerce functionality. This includes virtual shopping cart functionality and the ability to accept different forms of payment.
- Prioritize marketing options: You probably want a CMS that supports email marketing and newsletter capabilities. Ideally, the CMS you choose will have built-in marketing analytics, but many require the use of a third-party app, so don’t let that become a deal breaker.
Step 3: Gather website content
The next step is to assemble the content that you will use on your website. One important action is to take digital images of your art to upload to the CMS.
Also consider the website sections you need to create based on your goals.For example, if you want to attract people to an exhibition, you might want to have a separate events page to list the places where people can see your art in person.
Also, think about using your content and its presentation to convey who you are as an artist. For example, you might want to infuse a sense of humor through the text on the website, or even in subtle ways like the fonts and graphic elements you choose.
See also: 10 Key Steps To Building A Great Small Business Website
A website is malleable and infinitely creative So see its strengths.
Tips for creating website content
Creating an artist website involves some nuances in the content composition process. Check out these tips to learn more.
- Define your brand: The website represents your brand and how you present your work to the world. The content, the goal of your site, and the style you use should all work together to convey your work and your personality as an artist. This is called brand positioning. Use an About Us page to share some basic information about yourself, such as: For example, your artistic philosophy or an artist’s statement.
- Respect CMS limits: Make sure these photos are in a format that your CMS accepts. The size of the photo file must also meet the requirements of the CMS. You want high-resolution images to show your creations in detail, but if the files are too large, you won’t be able to upload them. Large files can also load slowly on the page, giving your visitors a poor experience.
Step 4: Build the website
Building the actual company website is simply . The CMS you choose will guide you through the process. Follow the steps, upload your content, and then make the site live. That’s it!
Depending on which functionality you want and which CMS you use, there are further details to consider. For example, you might want your website to include Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques to make it more visible in online searches.
SEO is the technical ability for search engines, such as Google, to find and put your website to people available who are looking for artist sites. Since most websites are discovered through search engines, SEO is important. Luckily, many CMS platforms include some SEO features as part of the package.
Also, some CMS platforms, such as B. Magnolia CMS, offers a range of third-party integrations that add functionality to your website. These options can help you achieve your functionality goals, but you may also need to take additional steps to integrate this functionality into your website.
Tips for creating the website
If you Thinking about how to create a website can seem daunting at first. However, with a practical approach, anyone can do it. These tips can help you focus on what matters most.
- Use the preview feature: Your CMS should provide a preview feature so you can view your site before it goes online. This allows you to see your site as others see it, so you can make corrections before it goes live.
- Ensure Mobile Compatibility: So many people use theirs these days Mobile phones too often perform online tasks, so your website should be mobile compatible. Use your CMS’ preview mode to view your site in your mobile browser so you have a clear idea of how most people will come across your site. This allows you to make adjustments to optimize the website experience for mobile devices.
- Collect visitor information: To later support your marketing efforts, you may want to offer visitors the opportunity to Sign up for your email list or newsletter through your website. Most CMS platforms offer this capability directly or through a third-party integration.
Step 5: Launch and Learn
Once your website is ready and live, you can Your work is not done. Regular administration of the website is crucial, e.g. For example, updating the site with new artwork, as well as information about your latest or upcoming events.
Also, take some time to explore how you can continue to develop and expand the site. Your initial implementation is a starting point. Once launched, you may find that site visitors are having trouble purchasing your art or finding exhibition information.
To find out where your site may be falling short of your goals, collect and review statistics about your site. This data analysis feature is available through your CMS or through third-party tools such as Google Analytics.
Tips to get you started and learning
Here are recommendations on how to further improve your website.
- Use analytics tools: Use Google Analytics or other data tools to learn how long visitors stay on your website. If they look at your site for several minutes, it is an indication that the content on your site is compelling. However, if they only stay for a few seconds on average, it is a sign that something may be wrong with your website.Maybe it loads too slowly over a mobile internet connection, or the first page they see, usually your home page, doesn’t capture their interest. Test different changes to see how they affect time spent on your site, and use the same approach for other metrics you care about, such as traffic. E.g. number of purchases or email subscriptions.
- Employment Marketing : It is recommended that you do some level of website marketing to raise awareness of your work to sharpen. Send emails or a regular newsletter to people who have signed up through your website. Also, consider using inbound marketing to bring visitors to you and explore the other marketing options available through your CMS.
The Best Website Builders for Artists
We have the skinny on the best artist website platforms. Each of the following CMS software options offers ideal features and functionality for artistic websites.
1. Wix
Wix offers a good mix of features, ease of use, and affordability. In fact, the platform offers a free option i.e. H. You can create an artist website for free.
The Wix Website Builder is intuitive and walks you through the steps to create your website. Image Credit: Author
Choose from Wix’s many website templates to get up and running quickly. From there, you can customize the site by changing colors, adding pages, and inserting animations.
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For those who want to spend minimal time building a site, Wix’s ADI option creates automatically Your site after answering a few questions.
Wix also offers excellent technical support and hundreds of third-party add-ons to expand functionality, marketing, and ecommerce options. It even takes care of hosting your website, so you can sign up for a domain name from within the software. Wix is a well-rounded one-stop shop for an artist’s website needs.
2. Squarespace
Squarespace is one of the best tools for creating portfolio websites. It offers a range of beautiful templates to help you make your work stand out. It also offers a range of e-commerce features, making Squarespace a good solution for artists looking to sell their art online.
The templates offered by Squarespace incorporate principles of good design with eye-catching aesthetics. Image source: Author
This CMS integrates website analytics, SEO, marketing options like newsletter creation, and third-party apps. It includes theme features that allow you to control your fonts and colors to enhance the aesthetic of your artist website.
Squarespace also offers web hosting and domain name services. The platform offers many of the core features an artist needs to get a website up and running.
3. WordPress
Wondering if there are free artist websites? Because WordPress is an open-source platform, meaning its software is made available to everyone, it’s always free. This free option is very robust, although you will have to pay a fee if you want WordPress to host your site for you.
Thousands of third-party options in WordPress allow you to add many features to your artist website . Image Credit: Author
WordPress is perfect for artists with unique website feature needs as the platform offers access to thousands of third-party integrations. If you have a very specific requirement for your website, chances are you can find the feature on WordPress via a third-party app.
As a result, WordPress offers a lot of flexibility. This makes it a popular choice and used by thousands of websites. However, this flexibility also means that additional work is generally required to customize your site the way you want it.
Because WordPress has been around for years, it handles the basics of website building well. Uploading content to WordPress is straightforward, and it integrates SEO into its templates.
It’s a bit more complex than other CMS software considering how much customization you can do, but it’s still a right easy-to-use CMS with.
Final words on creating an artist website
Your website acts as an artist portfolio, business card and marketing centerpiece all in one. Therefore, it pays to create an attractive website on which to showcase your work.
To that end, expand your audience by implementing landing pages, which are specialized website pages to achieve a specific marketing goal, e.g. B. to collect e-mails, registrations were created.Check out these landing page examples to get an idea of how they can help customers connect with your business.
A mix of a well-crafted website and marketing efforts that support the Getting visitors will allow you to grow your audience and draw attention to your works. So it’s worth the time and energy to create a website that best showcases you and your art.
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