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The internet is the artists' playground. In fact, it's more than that –it's an artist's gallery. And a global gallery at that. With the click of a mouse the entire world can see you artistic endeavours. Never before has the artist been so fortunate to have not only the basic tools (paintbrush, easel, imagination) at his disposal, but also the technological tools (the World Wide Web).
But it's one thing creating a website that showcases your art. It's another to have your own URL that generates thousands, even millions of hits, generates enthusiasm for your artistic imaginings, and gets the punters interested and coming back for more. In other words, there is – literally – an, erm, art to making your art website successful.
Avoid Free Web Hosting
Web hosting that advertises itself as free is very rarely free – plus your site is constantly beleaguered by adverts and irritating graphics. Generally, these sites look a mess as all your work is buried under a deluge of commercial nonsense.
Free sites also give the impression you can't afford your own site and that you don't care so much about making a good online impression. Most basic, paid-for websites nowadays look very good and function extremely well.
Compatability
Make sure your website looks the same on all the internet browsers, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari. It often happens that the same website looks fantastic on one website but terrible on another – or worse, work on one browser but not work at all on another. Best advice is to check and test your website on all the major browsers before you go live and public.
Importance Of Social Networks
Make sure you link your website to all your social network pages – this will ensure that visitors to your site can move between them quickly and easily. Social websites have now evolved to the point where they're one of the most effective ways of driving traffic to your site.
This amalgamation of the website as a reflection of your art with social networking to reflect you as a person, is a fantastic and extremely effective mix.
Keep Their Interest
Hosting your own website is all about transparency – and that means presenting your art in a fashion that's easily understood and accessible. The people who are familiar with you, your art and your website are fine – they know how to navigate your pages.
The strangers and newbies, however, are a different matter, especially those who land on your website by chance. Widening your fan base is everything, so if someone randomly lands on your site you want to do everything you can to engage their interest and keep them there.
Easy Navigation
This might seem standard, but you've just got to trawl the internet to witness the often horrifying coterie of websites that get it wrong – they're labyrinthine pages of dead ends, confusing galleries and perplexing pay layouts make their sites far from accessible. Learn from their mistakes. Easy navigation is essential, so make sure that your site pages are concise and clear – bio, CV, contact information, for example. Ultimately, lost visitors means lost sales – and you don't want that. Linking your pages back to your main page is also a good move.
Keep Text Brief
The main purpose of the page and its primary focus is your art – so text should be kept to a minimum. Keep things short and sweet, and that includes bio, techniques, and art descriptions. If you want to elaborate on yourself and your art, link to another page. People want to look at your art, not read your life story.
Intro To Your Art
Again, keep the text brief, but a short introduction to each piece or the main categories of your work is a good idea – just a few paragraphs is enough; a few sentences that explain your artistic intentions and background of the piece, just to deepen people's understanding of our work. Remember, Google and other search engines search by text, so it's a good way for your descriptions to be picked up in other searches and clicked on.
Sensible Image Sizes
Not everyone has a high-speed connection, so use images of your work that aren't any larger than 100-200K, possibly smaller. Photoshop and other digital programs allow you to format images for websites and images without compromising their quality.
Easy Access
If there's anything guaranteed to put people off a website it's having to sign up, register, join up, get passwords or fill out forms. People want quick, easy access to your site – so don't put unnecessary obstacles in their way. It's like asking someone to show their passport or driving license before they enter a real gallery – it wouldn't happen in real life, so it shouldn't happen online.
Also, keep 'cookies' to a minimum (these are files that attach themselves to hard drives to track visitors' movements around sites) – they're intrusive and an invasion of privacy. The same goes for special effects, audio, plugs ins, complex visuals, and other extraneous gimmicks.
A Way To Get In Touch
What's the point in going to all the effort of setting up your website only to not provide any way for people to contact you? Make yourself as contactable and accessible as possible – and that means email address, telephone number, mobile number, even perhaps your studio address. If you don't, the general impression will be that you have something to hide. People like to know who they're buying art from. It's all about communication and openness, no anonymity.
A Few Other Things
It's also important to be able to justify your prices, if someone asks. Make your selling, return and refund policies clear, and specific, concise instructions on how people can buy your artwork. Also sell your pieces at a variety of prices to cater for different budgets. And – contrary to popular opinion – don't show too much of your art as 'Sold'; you might think it looks good (and to a certain extent it does), but potential buyers also feel as though they're being left with the crumbs when all your best work has been snapped up.
With these nuggets of advice – from creating affordable artwork to being contactable - your website is sure to be a hit. And it won't be long before you have a throng of visitors clicking on your site and your artworks are selling like they're going out of fashion.
Do you run your own art website, and have you got any suggestions yourself? Share in the comments.
Author Bio
Elise Leveque is a freelance translator who loves all things social media and arty. She recommends Art Gallery.
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