The most visited pages on an artist's website are:
1. The About the Artist Page
2. The list of galleries that carry the artist's work
3. A page showing available artwork
I was curious which pages people visit most often when visiting an artist's site, so I delved into the stats of several of the higher traffic artist who host with my company,
FineArtStudioOnline.
The above list shows you which pages, other than the home page, are the most visited. I deliberately left the home page off the list because home pages tend to get a lot of "looky-loo" traffic that ends up on your site by "mistake" and immediately leaves.
This list brings to my mind a few ideas:
1. Your "About the Artist" page should be current and should change
I would suggest thinking of your "About the Artist" page as an overview of who you are, what you're currently working on, and a guide to your web site. Don't think of it as something that you write once and then mark off of your "to do" list. Update it with your current projects, link to your favorite pieces on your site, include an image or two of current works (that you change often). I also think this evidence shows that the "About the artist" page needs to have a place where you, as the artist, direct your reader to sign up for your email list.
2. You should have a list of "dealers"
If you don't show in galleries, don't despair. I think the high traffic on the galleries page simply shows that people want to know "where can I find this artist's work?" Make sure you have a navigation link for "dealers", "galleries", "venues" or something similar. Heck, you might even call it "Where to find my work."
3. You need an "available artwork" page
People want to know what's available. Don't make visitors figure it out. Just make a page that shows your available artwork.
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Your post is straightforward, practical, and certainly makes sense.
Web site improvements are never done.You have offered quality guidelines for making my site more user friendly.
I think adding a newsletter invitation and even a link to my art blog into the body of the "about artist" page would be easy enough and a smart way to keep people looking.
That "available artwork" page will need constant monitoring, but I have to admit that's a page I look at myself on other artists' sites.
"Where to Find My Work" is more challenging as my venues change frequently. Still, just calling it that is more user friendly than what I have been doing.
Thanks for the homework, Nancy