4 Mistakes Musicians Make with their Websites

By | 2020-08-04T12:44:28+00:00 August 3rd, 2020|musician career, website|Comments Off on 4 Mistakes Musicians Make with their Websites

4 Mistakes Musicians make with their Websites

by Sammy Hakim

There’s no doubt that with so much music promotion being done online these days, a website should be considered a crucial part of any musician’s visible presence. And we’re lucky because it’s easier now than ever to make one on your own.

However, that freedom also creates a few common pitfalls. There’s a lot of room for error and to overlook some crucial aspects of creating an effective website for your music.

To help you avoid that, here are four mistakes musicians make with their websites.

1. You’re not stating the obvious

Usually when someone says the phrase “you’re stating the obvious, it’s meant negatively. In terms of your website however, it’s absolutely essential that viewers aren’t confused about what they’re seeing—and what you’re all about.

You want to make things obvious: where to buy your latest album, who plays in your band, on which page can your bio be found, etc. It sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised at how quickly your artistic knack for wanting things to be unique and creative leads to confusing, abstract, and often missing information.

Secondly, what might be obvious to you isn’t always so for your fans. This is where helpful site organization and layout comes in. If a fan comes to your website for the first time, they probably don’t want to spend hours searching for popular key information, such as: your next show, your latest music, and a short bio.

Make that stuff easy to access, quickly. And speaking of which…

2. Not providing easy access

Your website needs to be easy to find, and act as a hub for fans to find your other platforms easily as well.

Let’s talk about the URL first. You could certainly go the silly route, and create a web address that has nothing to do with your music, but five years from now, you’re going to have lost a ton of SEO power and search ability.

Name your website after your band, make sure your band name appears multiple times all over your website (for keyword optimization), and go conservative with your URL, and your website will capture fan interest with little to no resistance.

Now let’s talk about access to your other pages: social media channels, music streaming services, blog, your booking agency, label, media kit, etc. The most common way for bands to use websites nowadays is simply as a hub for all of these other pages, so make sure they’re easy to find and displayed clearly and prominently.

You never know which platform on which your fans prefer to engage with you, so give them options and present them smartly.

3. Aesthetics that don’t quite line up

Something that’s often overlooked on band websites is having one single overarching aesthetic concept. I’ve seen punk artists with floral designs and “sunny” dance club DJs with nothing but black wallpaper covering the walls of their site, and I’ve seen websites with different designs on every page.

Everyone has personal taste when it comes to design, but a fully-integrated color and font aesthetic is going to help draw people in—and not matching those to your music just ends up creating unnecessary friction. Colors play a big part in human psychology and if you want to attract the right humans, you want to make sure the design and aesthetic of your website makes sense alongside your band’s message.

4. Missed opportunities for email capture

These days, one of the most effective ways to mobilize a band’s community is via their mailing list. Despite how popular Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are as fan engagement platforms, you never fully own the attention of your community on these sites that often charge you for access to your own audience. With a website, and equally with a mailing list, you don’t have to worry about that.

Add a mailing list sign up on your website. Incentivize your community to join your list with exclusives, discounts, advance news updates, and other opportunities. Also, see – creating an effective website for your music:
https://bandzoogle.com/blog/how-to-make-a-website-for-your-music

 

Sammy Hakim is an up and coming young songwriter based in Los Angeles. Bandzoogle makes it easy for musicians to build a stunning website and store in minutes with beautiful themes and friendly support. https://www.bandzoogle.com/

 

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