You know how there’s always a big to-do list that’s sitting around, growing longer and longer just waiting for you to get to it and it never seems to get shorter? Or is that just me? Well… the “things to update on the Split Gallery website” list just got quite a bit shorter. We’re really excited about some of the new stuff, so here’s a rundown of some improvements we just launched.
Image and Video Galleries
We’ve done a pretty good job documenting all of the shows we’ve had at Split, but hadn’t done the best job at getting all of the photos and videos posted on each of the event pages. Well – we’re now officially all caught up! We were able to find and post images from almost every show we’ve ever hosted and you can now view those on each event’s page. Just visit any past event page to view the available photos (and some videos!) of every show we’ve hosted at Split.
Better Mobile Experience
We’ve also rebuilt the entire site so that it’ll be easier to manage AND work/look a lot better on mobile devices and phones. This is the kind of improvement that might not be a Big Deal in the grand scheme of things, but since more and more traffic comes to us from mobile devices, we wanted to be sure that everyone had as good of an experience on mobile as they do on our full desktop site. Providing a pleasurable experience to Artists and visitors is a part of our core mission, so it had better apply to our website, too.
Improved Communication
One of the things that happens over time as you talk to people and tell your story is that you start to figure out better ways to communicate ideas and how to answer the questions people ask the most. The more questions you get about any one topic, the clearer it is that you need to do a better job explaining. As we figure this kind of stuff out, we’re always making notes. Now we’ve translated those notes into updated writing, better organized pages, and improved forms on our website.
One of the biggest updates is on our Booking form and How It Works page. Since Split works a bit differently than the traditional commercial/representative art gallery or cop-op, we’ve explained the whole idea quite a few times. Each time is an opportunity to clearly communicate the concept and help people understand how they could best utilize what Split Gallery offers.
Now our How It Works section explains everything in much greater and clearer detail. The Booking page has a new form that does a much better job of outlining the major components that are a part of planning an event at Split along with associated costs.
Planning for the Future
A few other things that the latest website build will allow us to do are part of future plans. One of the recurring things we get asked about is how one can best connect with other Artists who are interested in having a show at Split. Making it easy for these Artists to connect is high on our list of Next Things. That’s the next part of the website we’ll be working on.
Other things we’re working on are updated documentation and instructions for Artists in our Split Gallery Artist Handbook. We’ve got a little binder in the gallery with all the info we’ve collected along the way for folks hosting shows at Split. Every event is a new opportunity to refine the handbook, and we’ve got several new pages in the works.
Along with basic how-to’s and instructions, we’re also working on building some tools into our website that will help Artists with planning and organizing their shows.
If We Build It, Hopefully They Will Come
Last but not least, the new site build is also positioning us well for better Search Engine Optimization and online marketing. We’re building out landing pages for specific topics that should help us perform better in search results and attract more attention in topics specific to what we think will resonate well with Artists who may find Split to be just what they are looking for.
While this effort might not seem super exciting on the surface, it will help increase our site traffic. In turn, that will increase eyeballs on future and past events, grow our email list and social media following, bring more visitors to the gallery, and add shows to the calendar.
Increasing traffic both online and in the gallery is one of the best things we can do to help the Artists who choose Split as their gallery. We’re all trying to get our work out there and find new fans/supporters/patrons, so helping more people find the gallery and our Artists is a really good thing.
That’s the news for now – enjoy the updated site and as always, contact us with ideas, feedback, and questions. Split wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for all the support we get from the Artists and community.
Thanks for everything, y’all!