In today’s fast-evolving digital world, users are more demanding than ever before when it comes to the design and functionality of the websites they visit. If your music store website is difficult to navigate, has a slow load time, or has a lot of broken links, you run the risk of losing traffic.
With so many websites competing for eyeballs, you’ve got to optimize key elements that will keep users on your site AND encourage them to return. That means you must create a user-friendly site that provides an intuitive, convenient, and enjoyable experience.
Before we get into the website building tips, it’s important to consider your site map. Make it as intuitive and simple as possible. Each page should be named appropriately, with the sub-navigation items corresponding to the main navigation options.
For larger sitemaps, you can create a utility navigation—a smaller navigation bar located in the top right of many websites—to prevent overcrowding on the main navigation bar.
Below, you’ll find 9 more tips for building, updating, or redesigning a music store website that your users will want to visit again and again.
1. Build a Responsive Website
Web users need to be able to navigate through your music store’s website with ease, whether they’re viewing it on a desktop, tablet, or smartphone.
If you want your instruments, accessories, classes, rentals, and other content to display properly on any device, it’s imperative that you build a responsive site capable of adjusting to the pixel-width of the screen upon which they are being viewed.
“Responsive websites are the only website format that should be taken seriously on the internet. So unlike mobile friendly websites, responsive sites will never have users zooming, squinting (and probably cursing).
— Sweor
A responsive website design will ensure that all content necessary to maintaining the user experience is preserved, as well as deliver the same level of user experience on every device.
2. Keep Site Navigation as Simple as Possible
Your website’s navigation system functions as a guide—like a roadmap—to all the different areas and content contained within the site.
If, however, your site has complex page names and multi-level navigations, users are going to get frustrated and may even leave your website before they find what they need. To avoid this, name each page clearly and appropriately. Also, make sure sub navigations are kept to a minimum whenever possible.
Another thing you’ll want to do is limit your navigation tabs to no more than seven—the number of items (give or take two) that most adults can store in their short term memory.
Remember, a clean and simple navigation will provide your users with a good experience—which will ultimately result in more business for you!
3. Make Sure Your Music Store’s Logo is Easy to Find
“A website is one of the first and most important places your logo will live,” says Logojoy. “To do your brand justice, you’ll want to display it proudly and avoid common logo fails, such as the logo appearing too small, too big, blurry, or cut off.”
Think about some of the websites you visit every day and you’ll notice that the logo placement is very similar. On the majority of websites, the company’s logo is in the top-left corner, which also serves as a clickable button that takes you back to the homepage.
While you’ve probably seen logos centered—or in some cases, in the top right—research and tradition support the case to lean left.
You don’t want to make users hunt for your logo or brand identity. Since most consumers will expect to see your logo in the top left corner of your website, it makes sense to place it there.
With your logo in the upper left-hand corner of your website, users will be able to identify your brand easily. And making the logo clickable will conveniently direct them back to the home page from wherever they are on your site.
4. Optimize Your Website for Speed
“Today, users have no patience for websites with poor load speeds or inadequate performance,” warns IMPACT.
In fact, a study done by Akamai discovered that approximately 50% of web users expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less. If it doesn’t load within 3 seconds, these users will very likely abandon the site.
But that’s not all. IMPACT goes on to point out that 64% of shoppers who aren’t satisfied with an online store’s experience & loading time will move on to other sites.
In this day and age, you absolutely can’t afford to have your store’s website bogged down by unoptimized images and files. Your users are expecting your web pages to load fast, so give them what they want!
5. Make Your Products Easy to Search on Your Website
As a brick and mortar store, you know how important product location is to your business. That’s why you place your most popular and most expensive merchandise at the front of the store to lure more customers into the store.
“Making your products easy to find and showcasing products that you want your customers to buy is essential in ensuring customer satisfaction and guaranteeing a purchase.”
This concept of product location is equally important for your online business. If you’re not properly categorizing your products and positioning them in the appropriate places on your website, your customers may become frustrated.
Users expect your site to have good product search functionality. If it doesn’t, visitors—and possibly customers— will potentially find a site that’s easier to navigate.
6. Don’t Forget to Include Strong Calls-to-Action
While it may seem obvious to you what action is recommended on particular pages of your website, it might not be as plain to your visitors.
Adding clear calls-to-action on every page—in highly visible and clickable areas—will help you persuade visitors to take the actions you want them to. Check out the calls-to-action examples below:
- “Download Now “
- “Get in Touch With Us Now”
- “Learn More About Our Music Classes”
- “Claim Your Free Guitar lesson Now”
- “Don’t Miss Out! Get Access to Our Exclusive Sale”
Remember…if you don’t give people a clear and compelling reason to act, they probably won’t.
7. Create Content that’s Relevant, Easy-to-Read, and Quick to Digest
Out of desperation to get better rankings, you might be tempted to do things that are good for Google but bad for your website users. As Bluleadz points out, this shouldn’t be the order of importance for website design. “A website should be user-friendly before a company should concern itself with ranking higher on a Search Engine Results Page,” says the marketing company.
You should use simple, concise language, along with including headers, subheaders, bullets, lists and other formatting techniques that make it easy for readers to skim your content. Avoid using music industry jargon. That doesn’t mean you can’t use words that show you’re an expert in your field, but it’s important to understand the knowledge level of your target audience and focus on writing for them.
Also, remember that your content is at the heart of successful online marketing campaigns, so it’s crucial that you provide web users with valuable and relevant material. Essentially, if you optimize your site for the user, you’ll reap the rewards—loyal, recurring visitors.
8. Use a Diverse Media Mix
According to Brafton, media and entertainment websites keep visitors engaged for 26% longer than the average site.
Why is that?
It’s been suggested by Adobe that entertainment sites offer a more diverse mix of content such as videos, photos, and written content.
As Neil Patel points out, “. . . a diverse media mix—from a variety of sources—will raise the bar and appeal to a wider range of media consumers.”
Today, web users read less and anticipate more photos, videos, and other visual elements. That’s not to say you should stop generating text content. What you need to do is find the right balance between text and images so you don’t overstimulate your audience.
9. Make Your Website Content Shareable
Did you know that every day, nearly 2 million blog posts are created, in addition to hundreds of millions of status updates, photos, and videos? That’s the word from Buzzsumo, who says that many businesses assume they can simply create fresh content to grow their company.
The problem is, with so much content being churned out every day, it takes much more than fresh material. Your content must stand out from the masses. It must grab attention. It must wow people. And most importantly, it must be irresistibly shareable.
“Shareable content generates traffic, which generates more shares, which ultimately boosts the bottom line,” says Buzzsumo.
Aim to make your music-related content easy to skim and digest. It must be purposeful, relevant, useful, and entertaining. Information found on Entrepreneur indicates that the articles most shared were not only interesting and surprising but also informative. Furthermore, a study by the NYT Insight Group discovered that 94% of participants assessed the usefulness of content before sharing it with others. After all, one of the main reasons people share is to enrich the lives of others.
“Sharable content is your gateway to success in content marketing. If you can get your users to share your content regularly, or in high enough volume, you’ll gain access to thousands of new potential followers, earn tons of referral traffic, and you’ll gain permanent links that boost your domain authority, and your website’s potential to rank higher in Google searches.”
— Forbes
Music Store Website Conclusion
“A bad user experience as a result of poor website design can ultimately cripple a business,” says Infinity Marketing.
Having a user-friendly website ensures that visitors to your site will have an easy and effortless experience. It means enhancing key elements such as scanability, navigation, load time, and mobile optimization—all of which are designed to help users quickly and efficiently navigate your website and locate what they’re looking for without confusion, frustration or delay.
In today’s digitally-centric world, it’s crucial that your music store’s website stands out from the rest. Use the 9 tips above to optimize your site and provide users with an amazing online experience that will keep them coming back again and again.
To learn more about building an e-commerce music store website, visit Music Shop 360.