Planning a new Website

Building a website is all about preparation, here’s some points to get you ready.

DOMAIN NAME

What will you call your site - yournameart.com / .com.au / .net / .shop - choose what works best for you but keep it as simple as possible.
See if it is available on somewhere like www.crazydomains.com.au
While you are choosing a domain, see if the same name is available on Social media platforms - makes life much easier if all are the same
Domain names typically cost around $20-30/year
If you already have a domain name it can usually be easily transferred to a new host.

WHAT IS ITS PURPOSE

PREPARATION IS KEY

You can’t start building a website without plans - like building a home
Write down everything you’d like to see on your site
List it in a logical order, like the “Pages” below
Write the words you want on every page - create a Document for each page.
Once you’ve written all the words, read them again, get someone else to read them, do they make sense, do they tell an interesting story.
BE CONSISTENT!!!! Write out words that will be used in multiple situations. For example - descriptions of products - write it once, get it perfect, then copy and paste the same thing everywhere it needs to be.
Prepare your list of key search words for every image, just like on the form we give you to fill in for our site.
Prepare all the products, sizes and prices you want to offer in a spreadsheet. You can also copy lots of this info from www.buyartnow.com.au for art that is already listed.
Decide what colour scheme you’d like for the site but be flexible - keep it simple, no more than 5!
If you are paying someone to build your site, the more information you can provide already prepared will save you money. They can’t write your stories - that’s not the job of a web designer.
If you are doing it all yourself, do this work first, it will help you when putting the site together.

Determine what platform you will use - Squarespace, Wix, Shopify etc

Choose a platform and take the time to watch the basics videos on how to do stuff if you aren’t sure. They are really quite helpful.
Check the costs of each platform and the benefits they offer - choose the right one to suit you. Typically you get a better deal if you pay for a full year rather than by the month.
Choose a template and refine it as you go - in many cases you can change templates once you’ve added some pages and images to see if another might suit you better.
Work your way through each step as suggested in the site setup to ensure you don’t miss anything.
If you come across something you don’t understand, use the HELP section of your platform, the answers are almost always there.

WHAT PAGES SHOULD YOU HAVE

Home - Keep it neat but interesting - don’t put “About You” stuff here!
About You - your biography, awards, acheivements, exhibition etc go here.
Gallery - could just be a gallery of work without any shopping options
Shop - a gallery that allows viewers to purchase your work
Commissioned Works - if you offer them, talk about what you do.
Classes/Workshops - if you do them.
Terms of Service - especially important if you have a shop - must include information about, privacy and returns policy, freight, delivery times and payments policies.
Contact Form - make it easy for people to contact you
Pop-Up Sign-up form - for newsletter - remember, data is gold!

SITE DESIGN

Don’t reinvent the wheel - use a template, much easier to maintain
Use a recognised service like Squarespace, Wix for WYSIWYG sites - no coding required.
Keep in mind how it looks on mobile phones and small screens - the sites mentioned above are really good at that.
Wordpress has paid “Turn Key” solutions, or free for self hosted, however this requires intermediate web knowledge

~~High Resolution~~ NO! Appropriately sized photos

always use the smallest file possible (pixels AND kilobytes) to help with load speed.
product image with no zoom - 1000px long edge
product image with zoom - 2000px long edge - or as the service you use recommends
general images - 500px long edge
background images - 2500px
png for transparency
jpeg with high compression for fast loading

Optional features you definitely need.