For great self-promotion we all know how important it is to be active on all social site. A website can also be a great central location for your fans to find you online.

A website should be two things, clean and intuitive. So what can a website provide that Facebook can’t? While a timeline of your activity can be a good medium for fans keep track of your on goings, a clean all in one area with neatly filed pages for news, events, media, etc. helps fans find exactly what they’re after in seconds.

What to include:
  • News – keep your fans informed on your release dates.
  • Events – tell fans where they can next see you live, with links to tickets.
  • Social links – a place for fans to quickly locate all your official profiles on social platforms, music videos on YouTube and music on stores.
  • About – give a little back story of how you got started in music or how the band came together.
  • Merch – sell your t-shirt and keep 100% of the profits with no Amazon/eBay fees.
  • Blog – got strong opinions or a story to tell, break out of the 280 character Twitter limit.
  • Gallery – fans love seeing what goes on behind the scenes of their favourite artists musical creation.
  • Forum – somewhere for fans to interact with each other that isn’t the mess that Facebook comments has become.
  • Mailing list signups – a mailing list or newsletter is a great way to ping everyone that cares about your music the latest news.
What not to include:
  • Music that starts automatically – this largely died about ten years ago for a very good reason, everyone hates it.
  • Flash – similarly, flash has largely been erased from the web and is quickly being discontinued from browsers. It’s slow and insecure, there’s no need for it in 2020.
  • Splash page – these can be useful for sites to promote new offers or show disclaimers, but are an unnecessary extra step for an artist’s profile.

You don’t need to be a software developer or fluent in HTML to get started. Be it templates, design, ease of setup, loading speed, customer support or pricing, all website builders have there own strengths and weaknesses. Find one that works for you.

Wix even have a selection of templates specifically for solo artists, bands, DJs and producers. This will help guide you in exactly what you should be including based on similar artists.

Make sure everything looks good on mobile. While initially designing and laying out everything for a large desktop screen makes the process easier, don’t forget that over half of your web traffic will come from mobile, so make sure it’s fully optimised to display properly on all devices.

Don’t forget to keep it up to date with the latest info. Most website builders should make any updating relatively easy. Keeping it up-to-date will ensure it ranks high in search results.