Don’t give your web visitors an excuse to hit the “back” button
Someone is checking out your website. You’ve done something right — announcing your URL from stage, optimizing your site for Google search, doing targeted advertising on Facebook, etc. — and here they are, checking out your online headquarters, waiting to be dazzled.
But that’s only half the battle.
You now need to KEEP them on your website for more than 5 seconds if you want that person to buy a CD, book you for a festival gig, download a new track, review your latest album, attend a show, or sign up for your email newsletter.
If that potential fan or music industry professional gets annoyed, they’re going to back out of there in an internet minute.
Here are a handful of common website mistakes you should avoid making!
1. Autoplay — Do NOT leave your audio player on auto-play. People may have their speakers turned up all the way; they might be at work; they might not want to hear that song in the first place!
2. Scarce or outdated content — Was your last blog post or news item from 2011? That’s a sure sign that your website is a ghost town. If you’ve quit updating your site, don’t expect visitors to stick around for long. Check out “10 Kinds of Content to Keep Your Blog Posts Funky Fresh.”
If you don’t have a lot of content to begin with, just be sure to put the important stuff front-and-center, and then get busy recording more songs, writing more blog posts, shooting more videos, etc.
3. Vague descriptions — Oh, so you’re an “outfit” from Ohio with a completely unique sound? Great. Next!
Put some real thought into your band bio and style description. You need to capture people with WORDS before they’ll actually spend the time to listen to your music. Check out “The Art of Tasteful Boasting: How to Write a Great Band Bio.”
And when it comes to the basics of a band bio, be sure to name each band member and the instruments they play. It’s crazy how many bands don’t do that!
4. No call-to-action — Contrary to most aspects of life, when we first visit new websites, we like to be told what to do. If you don’t have a call-to-action on your website, PUT A CALL-TO-ACTION ON YOUR WEBSITE!!! If you don’t know what a call-to-action is, check out “Boost Sales by Using Better Calls-to-Action on Your Website.”
5. No web store — If you don’t give people the ability to buy your music when they’re visiting your website, when do you think they WILL buy your music? Probably never. So don’t miss out on those sales opportunities; embed a music store on your website. It’s easy!
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What are your website pet-peeves? What mistakes do you see musicians making with their websites? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Chris Robley is an acclaimed singer-songwriter and award-winning poet from Maine.
His Beatlesque indie-pop and milltown Americana songs have been praised by The Associated Press, No Depression, KCRW, The LA Times, Boston Globe, NPR, American Songwriter, and others.
His poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, Prairie Schooner, The Poetry Review, and more.
Robley has received a Maine Literary Award in Poetry, Boulevard’s Emerging Writers Prize for Poetry, and in 2016 was selected by former US-poet laureate Robert Pinsky as a finalist for the Dorset Prize.