Artist help writing copy for your website.
Your website can, and should be your best ally. As an artist help, what constitutes good copy is not only text that reads well and does a great job relaying the key messages of your work, but text that drives visitors to your site in the first place.
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This particular book is not the right place you get you up to speed on good SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) practices, but be sure to have a tech guru handy that can advise you about copy placement as a generator of views and hits.
A key factor for being findable on the web, for instance, is having relevant, searchable text on your home page. Make certain that a handful of key words and phrases (such as your name!) appear on the home page of your website.
Aside from optimising your site with keywords, make it a goal to have clear, compelling and concise content. Here are few guidelines for crafting effective web copy.
Craft a short paragraph for your home page that contains key words that people might use when trying to find you, or an artist like you. Being mysterious will get you nowhere.
Headlines within your site should be clear and searchable. You can be more creative in the body copy, but keep headlines functional.
Create a jargon-free zone on the home page, but be sure to explain your process and medium elsewhere on the site. Using jargon can alienate people. If your work involves a specific technique that people might be searching for on the web (such as encaustic or camera obscura) you may want to include those words on your home page and in searchable headline text.
Do not necessarily use other sites as models. Don’t assume other artists know how to portray themselves -they don’t.
As with your resume and curriculum vitae (cv) list your education, press, fellowship, work experience, and shows and exhibits, in a correct and consistent manner.
Avoid imposing blocks of text. When web surfers see lots of copy, they can get overwhelmed. That doesn’t mean you can’t provide the information; just be careful how you present it.
Aside from optimising your site with keywords, make it a goal to have clear, compelling and concise content.
Use frequent paragraph breaks and bulleted lists, and spread information across several pages rather than putting it all on a single page.
Proofread, proofread, and proofread. A first impression rife with spelling and punctuation errors is not a good one.
Buyers are much more likely to put their faith in you if you present a professional image. And that extends to the copy on your web site.
As you think about creating or updating your site, grab a notepad and spend some time doing a little prep work.
Create 3-5 personas. Think about WHO would come to your site and WHY. Gallery directors? Collectors? Agents? Journalists? Develop characters and then test your site to make sure all their potential questions can be answered. Personas are a key part of developing the “persuasion architecture” of a site.
In the corporate world, this exercise identifies audience segments and set goals and objectives for the website based on an understanding of what drives and motivates each segment. Similarly, you are positioning your site to be meaningful to a range of different visitors.
Generate a list of keywords relevant to you and your work, such as your hometown, genre, style, influences, etc.
Write three unique statements about you and your work. Experiment with ways to frame your work. If you like what you come up with, make sure those points of view are expressed somewhere on your site, visually, thematically or in writing.
Another thing to be understood when creating your website is to only use a good quality images, this is imperative. Sort through all the images thoroughly before you upload them and make sure that when you do upload them, all of the links from your thumbnail pages open up into the detailed photograph of each particular image. Not only is it frustrating for the viewer if there are broken links, it is also a no-no for search engine spiders. They don’t like broken links.
