D.I.Y. Website CheckAn unsigned band's website is not quite like a standard small business website where its main keywords are products or services and is the first point of contact for a customer. The band's main keyword is usually their name and the band's website is often the second point of contact for the fan, the first point of contact might be a flyer. The differences between (what you might call) a "normal" small business website and an unsigned band's website, highlights the need for an additional promotional effort on behalf of the unsigned band.
Give Yourself A Website Check
Here is a Do-It-Yourself version of Unsigned Band Promotion's Free Website Check
Over View
- Loads fast
- Looks good
- Is in character
- All links work
- Is useful
- Is interesting
- Has purpose
- Is different
- Is fun
- Offers an easy mailing list sign-up
- Has a clear privacy policy
- Offers something free
- CDs are easy to buy, download
- Accepts credit cards
- Has a newsletter
- Has very clear navigation
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Band Name & URL
- is URL the band's name?
- if NO, is it relevant to the band?
- what are the top five keywords?
- are the keywords in TITLE tag?
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HTML Coding
- does the page contain a <DOCTYPE> META Tag?
- does the page contain a <title> META Tag?
- does the page contain a <description> META Tag?
- does the page contain a <keywords> META Tag?
- does the page contain a <content-type> META Tag?
- does the page contain a <author> META Tag?
- check HTML with The W3C Markup Validation Service
COMMENT: Keep It Simple, Stupid! Get rid of: Microsoft's smart quotes, frames and bollocks JavaScript, loose ampersands and double quotes.
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CSS Cascading Style Sheet
- is there a CSS?
- check CSS with The W3C CSS Validation Service
COMMENT: if you have not got one, get one! Try not to fix the size of the fonts.
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Authenticity
- shows who is behind the website?
- displays who wrote/created the website?
- is this a real band?
- is there an e-mail address?
- are there any testimonials/press cuttings?
COMMENT: search engines and visitors like authenticity.
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Webpage up-to-date
- is it easy to see if the page is current, is it dated?
- has the page been updated recently and/or date of last revision?
COMMENT: put news or the online press pack on the front page, and keep it updated. Get a blog.
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Overall
- is the website useful and interesting?
- is the spelling and grammar correct?
- is the page in good taste and correct for its intended audience?
COMMENT: under construction signs are a turn off.
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Linking (anchors) and Navigation
- do all the links work?
- is it easy to see from the first page how the site is organised?
- are the links logically grouped?
- is the layout consistent thoughout the website?
- are the links easy to identify and are they clickable?
- is it possible to satisfy the visitors requirements with one click from the opening page?
- is there a link back to the home page on each supporting page?
- are the links' destinations obvious?
- for image links, is there a text alternative available?
- is there a site map?
- are URLs definitive?
COMMENT: if content and links are the same colour, it will make navigation a problem. Google has a free service for providing site search on large websites. Create clean, logical URLs. Use: TITLE="". Pop-up windows are horrid and often blocked by software. Use image maps very sparingly. Create some link code for your fans who have websites and want to link to you.
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Content and Design
- do each of the webpages contain alternative keywords (other than the band's name, that the band can be found for) within the TITLE tag, DESCRIPTION tag and within the main body of content?
- does the website reflect the band's image?
- is the overall look and feel in character?
- is there any relevant textual content on index.html page?
- does the content engage and inform the visitor?
- is the font size and style easy to read?
- do the font styles and background make the page clear and readable?
- are the text/background colour combinations suitable for the colour blind and visually impaired?
- is the text block width small enough for easy scanning (by the eye)?
- is there an easy mailing list sign-up?
COMMENT: avoid: blinking text, marquees, garish backgrounds, unreadable text/background combinations, weird fonts, "best viewed with...", "resize your browser to...", unreadable small text, hit counters and guestbooks.
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Multimedia
- don't use auto-streaming of music on initial load?
- are there text alternatives within images and/or multimedia files?
COMMENT: sounds, graphics and video enhance the site. But use: background MIDI, Flash, and other abominations sparingly!
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Security and Privacy
- is there a clear privacy policy?
- is ANY customer personal data stored online by you or an associate?
- are appropriate online security procedures in place?
COMMENT: Create a clear privacy policy it's a revenue helper.
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Access
- is the website available?
- is there a text-only or non-frame version of the website?
- is the website multi-browser compatible?
- what is the download speed? [should be <5 seconds]
COMMENT: with simple clean code you *almost* don't have to worry about browser compatibility. Most people use MSIE. A typical stats spread would be MSIE 80% Mozilla 17% all the rest 3%. I believe conformance to the W3C standards is important. Use the ALT="" attribute within IMG, text and Braille users need to know what is going on.
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Search Engine Compatibility
- can the website be found in the search engines?
- what is the page rank (PR)? page rank checker
- what is the search engine position ranking? search engine position tool
- how many pages do the search engines list? search engine saturation
- what is the number of incoming links? link popularity checker
- how do the search engines see the website? search engine simulator
Search Engine List
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The Website
- is there a comprehensive home page, index.html?
- is there an obvious mailing list, newsletter and/or RSS feed sign-up?
- is there an up-to-date Blog - highly recommended?
- is there a biography (CV of the band)?
- are there full contact details?
- is there a gig listings page, including: latest news, updates, diary, venue address and travel information?
- is there a press pack available?
- is there a forum?? (I'm a little doubtful if they really work)
- are there reviews with links?
- is there a merchandise page with multimedia downloads?
- are the CDs, MP3s and other merchandise easy to buy?
- does the website accept credit cards?
- is there a free gift?
- are there plenty of images and pictures of the band?
- is there a site map?
- is there a links page?
- are the pages easy to print?
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Resources
- Band promotion for unsigned bands
- How to promote your band via its website
- Website statistics - Extreme Tracker
- Website statistics - Statcounter
- The DMA privacy policy
- PageRank
- Accept credit card payments with PayPal
- The W3C CSS validation service
- The W3C HTML markup validation service
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Unsigned Band Promotion
Unsigned Band Promotion are online band promoters whose promotion techniques focus solely on the band's website. We are continually looking for alternative and new ways to get bands websites noticed by fans, search engines and the music industry - http://www.unsignedbandpromotion.com/
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href="http://www.unsignedbandpromotion.com/website-check.html">D.I.Y. Website Check</a>
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