**Guest post written by Melanie Kealey for Bandzoogle.com.

 

 

 

"As a musician you need a beautiful online presence to set yourself apart from the crowd. Your website is an online home from which you can promote your music, sell your merch, and really create a community with your fans.

Think of your website as the gateway to your career: a one-stop shop to inform fans, booking agents, promoters, and reviewers of everything they need to know about your music.

Updating your band website’s design, much like releasing new music, can revitalize your story and not only make your content feel fresh. It will give you something to work on and promote to your fans, keeping your music top of mind.
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So if you haven't thought about your website design in some time, these tips will help kickstart your creativity. Time to get updating — let’s take a look!

1. Choose a simple website template

When you make a music website, put emphasis on your content first and foremost. You’ll add new music, news, or tour dates, for example — this is the content you want your fans to see.

Knowing what content you have, you can create a streamlined design by choosing a website template that appeals to you. Even if your website is already set up, choosing a new Bandzoogle template won’t affect your content and can give your site a fresh new vibe in just a few minutes.

To create a simple design, use flat colors within a set palette. Defined page sections with different colors or background images are great ways to put focus on a specific promotion, or to separate items within an EPK page.

2. Focus on your main image

The best way to set the scene for a band website is to use a powerful image that conveys who you are as an artist, or shows your band’s musical style.

Making a website design that feels fresh can be as easy as swapping out an image in the header area of your website.

You can further customize the look by adding an image filter and adjusting the height of the area where your header image displays, to make it sit perfectly within your template.

You can also have some fun with the images throughout your website’s content, by making use of shapes in the Image feature.
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3. Make your website easy to navigate

A clear, concise menu is the best way to help your fans navigate your website successfully. Make sure you choose an easy-to-read font for your menu page names. You’ll want to have eight or fewer ‘main’ pages, and use page names that are simple and easily understood at first glance.

You can style your website menu within your template, so decide if a vertical or horizontal option is better for you. Then customizing your page names, hover colors, and font choices are quick and easy. Some website templates include loading animations for the menu — if that’s something you want to try, set those options as well.

4. Try a call to action

A call to action (or CTA) is an element that directs your visitors' attention and influences them to take a specific action on your website. This could be to sign up for your mailing list, to watch a new video, pre-order an album, or check out your fan subscriptions section.

Bandzoogle's Call-to-Action feature makes it easy to draw your visitors' attention — this displays on the top of your page, so it's one of the first things they see when the page loads.

A call to action is also a great way to unify the design of your homepage. Tailor the look of your call to action to tie in colors from your header image and the fonts from your content area. You can tweak the Call-to-Action feature settings in the Edit Theme tab, including its placement within the header area.

5. Use a consistent font

Visually, your website should be cohesive and consistent. Mixing too many font types and colors can quickly make your pages feel cluttered, and drive people away from your website. Ease of use is important, and your website’s font is a key factor in how easily your content will be understood.

Keep your font consistent throughout your website for best results. You can customize your content font style, size, link style, and more. Also adjust your title fonts to be bold and clear — this helps separate content into defined areas on your pages.

Another tip: if you are adjusting colors, make sure that your text stands out as clearly as possible against your background.
+10 Principles of Great Music Web Design

6. Design with mobile in mind

Websites are accessed on mobile devices more than ever, so your website must function well and look great on a screen of any size. Following tips one through five will help ensure that your website looks great in general on mobile, but there are a few specific options you can tweak to take your mobile design a step further.

Choose a main image that is optimized for mobile. This generally means the focus within the photo is in one area, with some whitespace around the subject.

Then set the focal point tool directly on this subject — this will automatically crop the header image around that area whenever your page is viewed on mobile. You can also tweak the header height for mobile, to be sure that your image displays well.

If you're selling anything through your website, be sure to test the shopping cart. On websites built through Bandzoogle, the mobile-optimized cart will sit flush to the side when a visitor adds an item. This allows them to continue browsing your content, and potentially add more items to their cart before moving to the checkout (payment) stream. Make sure this cart looks good with your color selections as well.

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Giving your website design a refreshed look and feel can revitalize the way you — and your fans! — feel about your online presence. We hope you try out these tips and create yourself a website that you are proud to share far and wide!"

 

 

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