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Website Homepages: Common Mistakes Galleries Make

When galleries think about their homepages, they usually think about making a great first impression. Even so, many gallery websites include one or more of these common mistakes.

The end result? A poor experience for their website visitors, higher bounce rates, and lower conversion rates.

Mistake #1: Too much content

The goal of a homepage is to pique people's interests so they want to explore your site further. In other words, it's merely a jumping-off point.

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Many galleries fall short by cramming in far too much information. They end up with a busy, confusing homepage that causes their website visitors to leave.

How to fix it:

  • Limit the amount of copy text - your homepage is not the place for lengthy descriptions
  • Include plenty of white space to make it easier for your visitors to consume information
  • Keep your design clean and visual so people can find what they're looking for

Clean and simple gallery homepage

Mistake #2: An overwhelming navigation menu

The best websites make it easy for visitors to find what they're looking for, and a proper navigation menu can go a long way towards keeping people engaged on your website.

Concise, easy-to-use navigation menus also convert website visitors better and improve search engine optimization (SEO), boosting your gallery's rankings in search results.

So where do many galleries miss the mark? They overwhelm their website visitors with navigation menus that contain far too many options.

How to fix it:

  • Limit your main navigation menu to 5-6 options - anything more than that is too much
  • Keep in mind that every page on your site doesn't need to be accessible from the navigation menu; instead, use hyperlinks on top-level pages
  • Don't list each artist's name in a long dropdown menu; visitors should be driven to an artists page that links to individual artists via thumbnails

Mistake #3: Not optimizing for mobile visitors

So much web browsing is done on mobile devices these days, and a homepage that looks bad or is hard to use on a smartphone is a big no-no. In fact, Google uses mobile-first indexing, primarily relying on a website's mobile version for indexing and search rankings.

How to fix it:

  • Start off by checking out your website on a variety of different smartphones and get a feel for how easy - or difficult - it is to use your site
  • Choose a site builder that utilizes responsive web design so that your website looks great on any device
  • Whenever you add new content to your site, always view it on a smartphone

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