| FineArtViews - The AMP Newsletter
Hi There,
At FASO, we really try to ensure that our artists get to spend majority of their time and energy on creating in the studio while we take care of the "behind the scenes" on your FASO website.
In the article below, I discuss the importance of creating and utilizing a mobile responsive website to market and sell your art. The good new is that mobile responsiveness is coded right in to every FASO website so you know that your users are having a great experience when they land on your website.
Sign up for your free-trial FASO account today to join the 14,000 members who know and trust FASO with their art website.
Please reply to this email and let us know if you have any questions about your website being mobile responsive
Enjoy, Clint Watson
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Every once in a while we end up writing about very technical subjects that relate to your artist website. Whenever we do, it's because the technology that we're discussing can have a major impact on your art sales. Today we'll be talking about one of these technologies called Mobile Responsive Websites.
Not making sure that your website is mobile responsive is a very common mistake that lots of artists make. Don't make this mistake and jeopardize your traffic and sales.
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| If handled properly, Mobile Responsive Websites can help boost your visibility on search engines and convert visitors on your website to collectors.
If handled poorly, it can spell disaster for your art sales.
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| Let's begin with a quick description of this technology. Mobile Responsive Websites employ a styling technique using something call Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS for short. If you want to learn more about CCS, you can check out this description on Wikipedia (although I warn you, it's a very technical description). If you're not a techie, all you need to know is that this technique enables you to create website content once, and then present that content in different ways depending on the device that a visitor is using.
Here's an example from a website of one of our favorite artists, Jeremy Lipking:
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Notice how the content on Jeremy's website stays the same, but the layout and the size of images change depending on whether you are viewing it on a desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone. Each layout is tailored specifically for that particular device to ensure a great viewing experience.
If you don't have a Mobile Responsive Website, chances are that your website doesn't look that great on smartphones and tablets. The font on your website may appear very small, making it hard to read. Or sections of your website may be cut-off, making it hard for visitors to see all of your artwork and navigate your site.
In some instances your website may look radically different when viewed on a desktop versus a smartphone, which may confuse site visitors. Your website may also take longer to load on mobile devices, which can be frustrating. |
| So why are Mobile Responsive Websites so important to get right? Well, it boils down to two factors.
The first relates to trends in how most people are consuming content online (and this includes art).
The second relates to changes in how Google's search engine works.
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Let's begin by discussing the trends in online content consumption. The chart below shows the amount of time adults spent consuming digital content by device type. In 2014 something groundbreaking happened. People started consuming more digital content on mobile devices than desktops devices for the first time since this data was first captured. In 2017 that trend continued to accelerate, with over 55% of digital content being consumed on a mobile device.
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This data shows the daily hours spent with digital media per adult user up to 2017, but the numbers have far surpassed what's shown for 2018 - 2020. So what does this mean for artists trying to sell their art online?
It means that chances are that people visiting your website are doing so on a mobile device. It also means that if you're website doesn't offer an engaging user experience on mobile devices, then chances are you'll lose most visitors long before you ever make a sale.
Here's another interesting data point. The chart below highlights just how prevalent multi-device internet usage has become across all age groups. Multi-device internet usage refers to people who view your website on more than one type of device.
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This statistic is important because it highlights how important it is to have a consistent look and feel across desktop and mobile devices. |
| Most of your visitors will view your website on multiple types of devices, so if your website looks very different on mobile devices versus desktop devices, your visitors are going to get confused and will likely not buy your art.
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Let's discuss the next factor, namely Google's search engine. Just like more and more people are viewing digital content on mobile devices, more and more Google searches are occurring on mobile devices as well. This led Google to announce back in June 2013 that they were going to start penalizing websites that offered poor mobile experiences.
They later followed that up with another announcement that they would also begin penalizing websites that loaded slowly on mobile devices. Then in February, 2016 Google made a major change to its search layout to make it more mobile-friendly. They moved to a single column format for their search results, in effect eliminating sidebar search results. They also expanded the number of paid search results in that single column and reduced the number of natural search results. The net result of all these changes was greater competition for first page natural search results, and a strong emphasis on rewarding websites with great mobile experiences.
What does this all mean for artists? Well, if you want to ensure that you rank well on Google then you better have a website that looks good and loads quickly on mobile devices. As a matter of fact, you should probably make sure that your mobile experience is even better than your desktop experience. Because if it isn't, all of your search rankings may suffer.
So what's an artist to do? Our FASO members have access to our platform that is built from the ground up to deliver beautiful, engaging Mobile Responsive Websites that load very quickly. Best of all, there's nothing special our members have to do.
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Until next time, remember that Fortune Favors the Bold Brush.
Regards,
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Clint Watson BoldBrush/FASO Founder & Art Fanatic
PS - When you sign up for your free FASO trial, you'll get instant access to our easy-to-create artist websites and our built-in ecommerce functionality to sell your art directly on your site. And once you decide to become a member, we'll help you promote your art and exhibits to over 49,000 collectors.
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