Yes, You Need a Videos Page on Your Bands Website

Its no secret that video is one of the most popular content formats online. So a great way to keep fans on your website is by embedding videos on your site. In fact, we think videos are important enough to have their own page on the main menu of your website (Read our post: "The Magic 8: Essential Menu Options for Your Band Website")

However, many musician websites either dont have a Videos page, or simply send people away to YouTube. Having a Videos section on your site with embedded videos allows you to curate which videos people see. With YouTube, there might be hundreds of live videos filmed by fans that might not be the greatest quality. Embedding videos on your site allows you to control the video content that visitors will see so you can put your best foot forward.

And remember, once you send someone away to YouTube, youve lost them from your website, and you've sent them away to a site that is filled with distractions. YouTube is a noisy site with tons of ads and lots of other unrelated videos to watch (cat videos anyone?). In todays music industry, a fans attention is the most precious and scarce commodity. Dont waste it!

Here are some tips for setting up a Videos page on your website:

Organize the Videos

Embedding video on your site allows you to showcase your best quality videos in a controlled environment, but chances are you have several different types of videos to choose from. Similar to how you would organize photos on your website, create different galleries for each type of video and post a few for each category. For example, you could create separate galleries for Official videos, Live videos, Cover songs, etc.

For more ideas on the types of videos you can create, check out the blog post Musicians: 8 Killer, Cost-Effective Videos To Add To Your YouTube Strategy

Dont Overdo it

Remember, the point of embedding videos on your site is to curate the content, so dont overdo it. Having too many videos creates a similar problem for the visitor as going to YouTube: which video should they watch?

Plus, embedding tons of videos on your page really slows down your site, taking more time to load, and chances are a person is not going to keep scrolling down and down to find more videos. Having between 2 and 8 videos embedded on your Videos page is probably the sweet spot.

With fewer videos, you should also take advantage of the design flexibility you have with your own website and embed large videos. Dont make people watch tiny videos on your site, or worse, force them to click away to YouTube to see large versions. Give them nice big videos to watch right on your website.

If you really want to lots of videos on your site, one option is to create a playlist for specific types of videos and embed the playlists onto your site. Not sure how to create a YouTube playlist? Read this post: How to add a video playlist to your band website

Add Context: Titles & Descriptions

By posting videos on your website, it also allows you to add context to them. Sometimes embedded videos from YouTube dont show the video titles, so first make sure you add a title for each video.

Then to really add context, write a description for each video, telling the story behind it. Is it for a cover song? Why did you choose that song? Is it an original song? From which album? Where was the video shot? By who? Did anything funny happen during the shoot? Is there anything youre particularly proud of with this video? Give people as much information as you can to encourage them to click play.

Keep it Fresh

And finally, dont let your Videos page go stale. Have a new official video? Add it to the top of the page. Older videos feeling a bit stale? Filter them out. That being said, if you have older videos that are still getting lots of views, by all means, keep them on your site, but if you have videos that are performing better and need the space on your site, don't be afraid of doing a little cleanup on your Videos page on a regular basis.

Your website should not be static. You should update your site on a regular basis to give fans a reason to keep coming back, so youll gain valuable data about where theyre coming from, get them signed up to your mailing list, and shopping in your Store. Videos are a great way to drive fans to your site, so make sure youre using them to drive people to your own site, and not a site you dont own or control.