Website Prep: Where to Start
It can be overwhelming to begin the process of building a new website. Sometimes, getting over the inertia is the most difficult part!
This guide is tailored to help you get organized and focus your energy at the beginning of building a new site.
First: Site Structure
The structure of a website can change as you get comfortable designing a new site, but before you get started, it really helps to narrow your focus and decide on a few things.
Will your site contain multiple pages, or will it be a one page site?
How do you want to organize your portfolio?
Portfolios can be organized in many different ways. If you have a large portfolio with a huge range of material and subject matter, how can you present this in a digestible way to your audience? Do you have older work that might do best in an archive? Is it possible to break up your portfolio into bodies of work?
What is the most important part of your website?
I.e. where do you want the most traffic?
Do you have events that you want to showcase?
Are you going to have a webshop?
Do you want to offer memberships or online classes?
Take a spin through my website archive to get some ideas for organizing portfolios, or try to name the features and functions that you like about a fellow artist’s website.
Second: Gather
Use folders on your harddrive or folders in a google drive to organize your images, text, and supporting materials.
Here’s what I normally ask for from my clients:
Images
Headshot
Portfolio images
Writing
Artist bio
Artist statement
Any bodies of work statements if they are different from the above two
Supporting material -this is optional, but including supporting materials besides images and text is great!
Publications / magazine articles written about you that you think are important
Podcasts you’ve been on
Articles you’ve written
Essays or curatorial info about you
Videos about you or about your process
Webshop
Inventory information - link to spreadsheet
Testimonials
Shipping preferences
Social media accounts
Instagram
Facebook
Linked in
Youtube
Last: Design!
Use a page like this one to help iron out fonts, colors, and highlight sections before you get going. Squarespace has so many built in features to make your design dreams come true, but when all else fails, custom code can help. Where do you get custom codes?
You can reach out to me
Take a spin through the massive tutorial library offered by inside the square.
Chat with fellow squarespacers in the Squarespace Forums