You are about to build your online artist website but still wonder what an artist website should have? Then this is the right post for you! While it should be clear by now that artists do need websites (and creating beautiful artist websites isn’t hard), these are the 8 MUST-HAVES that make for a good artist website. Let’s get into it!
Every artist wants and needs to showcase their artwork. This is the only way to connect with people who love your art and to offer it for sale. Of course, you can show your art in a gallery or on social media, but your own artist website gives you the most control over how you showcase your art and how you present yourself as an artist.
There are many ways to build an online artist website – and it doesn’t have to be difficult to create a beautiful artist website. There are numerous website designers for artists available that don’t require you to know any code and make it super-easy to create your own artist website!
Excited to build your own artist website? Check out the Best Website Builders for Artists.
In this post, we’ll talk about what a good artist website should have to make it successful and you’ll learn about the 8 must-haves that shouldn’t be missing on your artist website!
Click on one of the links below to fast-forward to the respective section.
These are the 8 Must-Haves that your artist website should have:
… or read on if you are one of those artists who still wonder:
Do artists need websites?
artists do need websites! Why?
Because your artist website is like a gallery visit: people can come to your artist website, view your artwork, buy a piece, and also learn more about the artist.
Your artist website will also be the first thing that comes up when people are searching for you on the internet. Your online artist website will allow you to present your art and yourself as the artist in the way that suits you best. You will have full control over the design of your website and the way you want to communicate with your visitors.
Are you still thinking that being present on social media and art sharing websites is enough to promote your art? Think twice.
Because the truth is that you have no control over your content on social media and art sharing sites. You are always limited to showcase your art within closely defined boundaries. In most cases, you cannot change the look of your ‘portfolio’, and if so, only to a very limited extent.
Social media networks can change their algorithms and community rules any time, remove posts they don’t deem appropriate anymore, or suspend your account altogether. Those networks are interested in their own profit. They might spam your profile visitors with advertisements that have nothing to do with your art or restrict your reach if you don’t want to buy paid promotion. We are currently seeing it happen with Instagram and Facebook…
And we’ve seen it happen before: social networks have become outdated or disappeared altogether – making your hard work and effort to promote your art and build a following vain. Just think of MySpace and Snapchat…
Social media surely has its advantages – but your own artist website is the only place where YOU are in full control. You decide how you want to present your portfolio. You decide how you want to organize your artwork. You choose the design of your artist website.
Plus, you also have the freedom to sell your art at your conditions and you don’t need to share the profit with anyone!
Social media sites are still a great place to get the word out about your art and to drive traffic to your artist website.
Link your social media accounts to your website and the other way round, so that visitors have the chance to connect with you through different channels.
If you’d like to find out more on how to use social media as an artist, have a look at the posts below:
How do I make a good artist website?
Making a good artist website is not as hard as it may sound at first glance. You don’t need to be a very tech-savvy person to build your own artist website.
Have a look at some artist website examples that you like. Chances are these websites were designed with one of the many website builders available in the market. Most of these website builders allow you to choose a beautiful artist website template that you then just need to fill with your own content.
Some website builders even allow you to create a free artist website. However, I don’t recommend that as a long-term solution because you won’t get your own domain name and the provider will display distracting third-party ads alongside your website content!
But don’t worry, there are lots of affordable website builders for artists that won’t burn a big hole in your pocket! Some of the best and most affordable website builders are Squarespace, Wix and Weebly.
As for myself, I built this website with WordPress using the OceanWP template and Elementor. And if I can do it, you can do it too! In this post I tell you how to make an artist website with WordPress in 5 easy steps.
What should an artist website have?
No matter what website builder you eventually opt for, there are always a couple of things that your artist website should have to make it a ‘good’ artist website.
In the following, we’re going to have a look at the 8 Must-Haves that every artist website should have.
8 Things every good artist website should have
Home / Welcome Page
The Home or Welcome Page is the first page your visitors see. That’s why the Home page is especially important. It should make it immediately clear what the website is about
The best way is to choose a website title and logo that instantly show your visitors what to expect.
The title can be your artist name along with something like “Art by YourArtistName.” Your artist name should also be the domain name of your website, if possible, or at least be included in the URL.
If you’re a digital artist, creating a logo for your website should be pretty simple. You can use your initials, your artist name or signature and quickly make a logo with your favorite colors in Photoshop. The logo should be in the website header and always be visible. This will help you build a brand for your artist website.
The visuals on your Home page can be a single artwork as the hero image at the top of the page. You can also show a slideshow of your favorite works, or a collage of your latest pieces. If you work with different media, styles or themes, you can show an example of each.
Just don’t make the mistake to squeeze all of your works on the Home page, because this will only overwhelm your viewers.
It’s better to keep it clean and instead link to your different artwork collections, so visitors can discover everything step by step.
Portfolio Gallery
The heart of your artist website is your portfolio gallery. Of course, you want to show your art in the best way possible and only use high-quality images. If you’re a digital artist, it’s easy to save a high-resolution image in the graphics program you work with.
If you’re a traditional artist, on the other hand, you need to take a high-quality photo of your work first. Just make sure to use a good DSLR camera and have your lighting on point.
It’s important to have the best photos possible because they are the flagship of your artist business. Learn how to save images for the web here.
Just like you shouldn’t show all your works on the Home page, you shouldn’t put all of your artwork in one gallery. If too many works are on the same page, it may quickly become confusing for the viewers and they may leave your site before even having looked at a single artwork of yours.
It’s better to sort your artwork into different categories, according to style, year, or medium.
Think of your portfolio gallery as a museum. When you visit a museum, you wouldn’t find all exhibition pieces in the same section. Instead, you would see similar works of art together on display in the same room. The same goes for your online portfolio gallery.
As a rule of thumb, each gallery should have at least 10 images, and not more than 20 or thirty at the max.
To get an idea of how to organize your artwork, have a look at some online artist websites or check out how I grouped my works into different collections (Surreal Stories, Lip Service, Headshots, Monochrome, Nature & Macro).
What is the best place to create an online portfolio gallery?
One of the most popular website builders for artists is Squarespace. Squarespace is especially geared towards visual creators and offers many artist website templates to choose from. To learn more, read the Squarespace Review for Visual Creatives.
More great places to create a portfolio gallery are:
Another option to showcase your portfolio is on a WordPress site. WordPress is an open-source website building platform that comes with a steeper learning curve than the website builders above. But it also offers the greatest flexibility and scalability.
To help you make an art gallery in WordPress, I have a couple of easy-to-follow tutorials for you:
- How To Create A Portfolio Gallery In WordPress
- How To Add A Masonry Gallery To WordPress
- How To Create A Tiled Gallery In WordPress
To protect your images online, don’t forget to add an unobtrusive watermark with your artist name, logo, or link to your website. This way, whoever downloads your images, won’t be able to claim them as their own.
Web Shop
Have you been looking around on the internet for artist websites that sell their art? No matter what website builder you’re choosing to create your artist website, it’s not difficult to integrate a web shop.
A web shop is another thing that your artist website should have. Why?
Because it’s an excellent place to sell your work without the need of a middleman. You can set your own prices and you can decide what and how much you want to sell. Don’t forget to provide clear purchase and shipping information for your customers.
When displaying your artwork for sale, it’s a good idea to show some detail shots and close-ups of the full artwork, too. Potential customers love to see what the artwork looks like from different perspectives and angles.
Customers also like to visualize how your art may look in their homes.
That’s why you should show them some real-life examples of how a piece looks like when hung up on a wall. If you cannot frame each of your works, think about getting a few mock-up frames. Check out sites like Creative Market and Creative Fabrica and search for “wall mock-up” or “mock-up frames.”
If you display your artwork framed, just be sure to clearly state that the work is sold without frame.
And one more thing that some artists tend to forget: it’s important to clearly price your art.
Not pricing your art and rather waiting for people to contact you for prices is a big no-go. Because you’ll only lose sales if you don’t price your art.
Just like in real life, many people feel uncomfortable asking prices when they see something they are interested in. The majority of people prefer to take a look around at what’s being showcased and check out the prices. Only if they can afford the item will they enter the shop…
That said, it’s always good to offer your artwork in a variety of price ranges.
That means besides selling large-format prints, you can also offer postcard-size prints of your art.
People who buy from an artist they don’t know yet for the first time, tend to buy less pricey items. If they are happy with the item, they are more likely to go for more expensive pieces.
Plus, offering less expensive options gives all of your fans the chance to buy something from you – regardless of their wallet size!
Many artists use Printful and Printify to have their art printed and drop-shipped to the customer. Both printing companies are very affordable and they handle everything for you. You just need to place the order!
If you want to offer special edition or canvas prints, then Giclée Today is a good choice. Giclée Today is a professional printing service that focuses on high-quality fine art Giclée prints at affordable prices. They are the only company to give volume discounts for images at multiple sizes on the same paper. And, they have no minimum order requirements!
The best places to launch your online art shop?
All of the above mentioned website builders, such as Wix, Weebly, Jimdo, Pixpa and Voog, offer you the option to add a full-fledged online shop to you portfolio site.
If your main focus is to sell your artwork online and you already have an established customer base, you might want to go for a specialized ecommerce platform with more advanced selling features, such as Shopify or BigCommerce.
As for WordPress, the absolutely best way to create a web shop is using WooCommerce. WooCommerce is an easy-to-install plugin that comes with plenty of ecommerce functionality. You can sell both physical and virtual products, create variations, upsells and cross-sales, have your shipping costs calculated, and much more.
For more info, check out my ultimate guide to selling art on WordPress with WooCommerce.
Clear Navigation Menu
The navigation menu is the road map of your artist website. When a visitor comes to your website for the first time, the navigation menu must be straightforward enough to keep them on the site and get them where they want to go.
First-time visitors should understand as quickly as possible how to move around on your site and find what they are interested in – be it your artwork, yourself as the artist, or your items for sale.
Sites that lack a clear navigation are often not able to attract and hold visitors. Because if your visitors feel lost, they will leave your website in less than no time – and, in the worst case, never come back. And lost visitors also means lost exposure and lost sales…
That’s why it’s important that your navigation menu is clearly structured and doesn’t have too many items, so visitors know exactly where to start and where to go.
"About Me" Page
The “About Me” page is the place to present yourself as the artist. Think of it as your ‘artist profile’.
What should an artist profile include?
You can include your artist statement, biography and CV in this section. You can describe who you are as an artist and what your art is about.
Don’t forget to add a picture of yourself, because your visitors will want to see the artist. For example, you can show a picture of you working in your studio, with your drawing tablet, a finished artwork, or something similar.
Do you still have the first ever tool you started to create art with? Then show your visitors a photo of how you started out.
My About Page, for example, shows me with my first ever digital art pen and tablet – a Wacom Bamboo that’s still working great ten years in.
You can also show a more personal side of yourself. That doesn’t all have to be on the “About Me” page itself. Instead, you can link to something like 20 Facts about the Artist. That gives your fans to opportunity to get to know you better as a person.
Your artist statement can include your CV, gallery exhibitions you took part in or magazines that published your work. This information is particularly useful when you are applying to galleries, entering art competitions or offering art commissions.
Your artist statement should be as simple and relevant to your art as possible. Avoid using too ‘artsy’ language. Instead, be as authentic as you can – as if you were describing your art to a close friend.
Contact Page
Including a Contact page in your artist website sounds like a matter of course, but you’d be surprised how many artists don’t have contact information on their site or make it extremely difficult for people to reach out to them.
One place to add your contact information is in the header or footer of your website. But it’s better to have a dedicated contact page that is linked in your main menu.
You can include a contact form that makes it easy for people to get in touch with you. That way, potential buyers are more comfortable contacting you if they are interested in one of your pieces or want to ask for a custom order.
Additionally, you can display your telephone number, and gallery or studio address, if you have one.
One-stop website builders like Squarespace and Wix provide you with inbuilt contact forms. If you are using WordPress, you can get some good contact forms that are easily adaptable to your personal needs from WPForms or Constant Contact.
Newsletter Opt-In
Growing your audience is key to connect with new fans and potential buyers. You can grow an audience on Facebook and Pinterest, but your social media followers may come and go. People happen to delete their social media accounts pretty often.
Plus, you are at the odds of the social media network. If the network decides to change its algorithm and limit your reach, you may lose a lot of your followers.
Having a list of email subscribers, on the other hand, allows you to keep in touch with your fans no matter what. People change or delete their email address much more seldom than their social media profile. Apart from that, email subscriptions are much more personal than social media followers.
People don’t just give away their email address, unless they have a very good reason to do so. The people who have given you their email have a genuine interest in your art. Isn’t it great to know that all the people whose email you have really love your art?
Oftentimes, it may be a good idea to offer people something for free in exchange for their email addy. This is called a lead magnet. The offer can be a free eBook, a discount code, an online course, etc.
To allow people to subscribe to your email list you need to have an opt-in on your website. AWeber is a great platform for getting started with building an email list. It’s really easy to use and completely free when you have less than 2,000 subscribers. Other options are ConvertKit and MailerLite.
- The Best Lead Magnet Ideas To Grow Your Email List
Art Blog
The last thing that an artist website should have to be successful is a blog. ‘Why should I start blogging? – I’m an artist and not a blogger’, you might think.
Truth is your art blog is a great way to engage with your audience and drive traffic to your site.
First of all, you can use your blog to announce new artwork, upcoming exhibitions, or speak about your creative process and the meaning behind your art.
Secondly, your blog will help your artist website rank higher in search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. Because the more art-related content you have, the easier it will be for search engines to find your website when someone searches for art like yours.
While a blog is not absolutely necessary, it will be very helpful to keep your website updated and boost your SEO!
Learning some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies is essential in this regard. But all in all, optimizing your website isn’t difficult. There are tools to help you get your content on point.
Website builders like Squarespace, Wix, Weebly and Shopify come with pre-installed SEO tools. If you are a WordPress user, you can choose between YoastSEO and RankMath, which are both great for search engine optimization.
Those tools show you on a traffic light color scale whether your blog post is optimized or whether and where it needs improvement. Red is the no-go flag: stop, here’s something you can do better. Orange is ok, and the green light means you are all good to go!
Here is what the optimization scale for this blog post looks like with YoastSEO. The search engine optimization is all good, but the readability could do with just a lil’ bit of improvement.
