Is Your Website Still So 2009?

Technology marches on, and as we know, the pace seems to get faster and faster all the time. The problem is, we all have to keep up in order to both stay relevant and keep our fans engaged. Now comes some research courtesy of getsharesquare.com that are an eye opener about the majority of artist websites in terms of just how up to date they really are.

• Not all that many use social networking buttons. 29% have a Facebook Like button, 12% have a Twitter Follow widget, and only 6% have a Google +1 button.

• About a third are still using Flash, which can result in missing or broken content. iPhones and iPads don't use Flash, and most people hate it these days anyway.

• 90% of sites don't recognize mobile browsers, and don't forget, the world we live in now is a mobile one.

• Some are still using Framesets, which went out around 1999 or so. Come on people, get into the real world!

• The most popular music player is Soundcloud, followed by YouTube, Vimeo, Bandcamp and jPlayer.

• 33% of the survey respondents said their most frequent complaint about an artist site was text that was so small that it required zooming.

• 31% stated their biggest complaint was video content that was broken or unavailable. 

• 28% said they hated when buttons or links were too small to click.

• 20% hated when streaming music was broken or unavailable.

• 17% complained that recent news and event info was difficult to find.

• 29% said that most missed the ability to exchange an email address for free content.

• 25% said they really missed the ability to download an artist's song.

• 21% complained that they couldn't purchase tickets or merch directly from the website.

This is a fascinating report in that it indicates that a lot more commerce could be going on if only artists would pay more attention to their websites. Many artists take their site for granted, but it should be the main point where all of your fan contact is directed since it's the one portal online that you have total control of. Now get going on redesigning your site (I am as well.).

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