You work hard on creating your artwork. You work hard on building a brand that will separate you from all of the other artists online. You are working hard on your content and social media marketing strategy. But are you becoming frustrated with the lack of traffic your artist website is receiving? In this post, you will discover 7 mistakes that hurt your art blog and how you can fix them.
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7 Mistakes That Might Be Hurting Your Art Blog
It is easy to understand that if your artist’s website is not receiving traffic, you will not land any sales.
If you are planning on selling your art online you need to have people visit your artist website.
But how do you get people to visit your site?
Ramona Sukhraj shared her thoughts about how blogging benefits businesses.
Ramona went on to say:
“You’ll notice some trends are changing, but there are several things that remain the same. For example:
- Business blogging is steadily on the rise
- B2B companies with a blog receive more leads than those that don’t
- A B2B blog has tremendous SEO benefits and organic search attracts high-quality leads
- A company blog has more long-term ROI than traditional marketing efforts”
There is no secret that it will become difficult for you to reach your following on Facebook in the upcoming months.
Mark Zuckerberg made it clear in a blog post that there will be major changes in 2018.
You can read more by visiting How Facebook’s New Goals Affect Artists.
Expect to see similar algorithm changes from most of the large social media platforms in the near future.
Ramona also shared some eye open statistics about blogging that you will want to become familiar with.
Here are just a few statistics from her post:
- 53% of marketers say blogging is their top content marketing priority. (HubSpot)
- In 2017, 66% of marketers reported using blogs in their social media content. (Social Media Examiner)
- 65% of marketers planned to increase their use of blogging in 2017. (Social Media Examiner)
- Websites with a blog tend to have 434% more indexed pages. (source)
- The Number of Bloggers is expected to reach 31.7 million in 2020. (Statista)
- 47% of buyers viewed 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep. (Demand Gen Report, 2016)
You can read more by visiting 28 Little–Known Blogging Statistics to Help Shape Your Strategy in 2018
It is easy to see that a content marketing strategy (blogging) will help you to grow your art business for the long term.
If you are happy with a few post likes and social media shares then yes focus on social media. But if your goal is to sell your art online, you will want to develop a content marketing strategy.
Avoid These 7 Mistakes That Hurt Your Art Blog
Below are 7 common mistakes new artist bloggers do that prevent them from growing their audience quicker. The tips outlined below will show you how to run a successful art blog.
Images
Images help readers to distinguish what your content is about and serves as an introduction to the post.
Many readers will leave a post if it is not scannable. Images separate the sections making the post scannable. Most of the time, readers scan through a blog post to find specific information. A tiny percent of people will read every word of a post to find the information they need.
For example, a person will not read a 5,000-word post to determine what cleaning supplies they need to use to clean a frame. They want to know what works best and where to buy the product.
The negative side of adding images to posts is that they will slow down your website’s speed. Site speed is essential for ranking high in Google’s search.
You can compress the image size by using ShortPixel. The reduced image size will help make your page load faster to rank higher in the search results. ShortPixel is a lightweight WordPress plugin that optimizes every image you upload to your WordPress website.
Pin It Button
Blog posts make it easier for people to discover you in Google’s search, but it takes time for new blog posts to rank. To get the ball rolling, many bloggers have found that pinning blog posts on Pinterest will help their latest blog posts get discovered quicker.
The problem bloggers face is that Pinterest images are large, taking up too much space on a blog post. The solution is to use the Social Warfare plugin to hide the Pinterest image. When a reader clicks on the “pin it” link on your post, a Pinterest image that you designed will appear for them to pin to a board on their account.
The more people who pin your posts, the more people will discover you on Pinterest.
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“Read More” Links
Have you ever visited a blog and the home page was a full-length blog post?
Did you stay on the site for a long time, or did you find a different website that made it easy for you to find the information you were searching for?
A short snippet that describes the post and a “Read It” link will allow your visitors to find exactly what they need quicker. This will keep them on your site longer, which will benefit you in numerous ways. One benefit is that the reader will revisit your site because you made it a pleasant experience. Another advantage is that they will see your artwork more frequently, encouraging them to make a purchase.
To learn more about how to insert a “Read More” link visit, How To Properly Use The More Tag In WordPress.
Promoting Blog Posts
You have started an art blog to promote your artwork online. The objective is to reach more people online so you can increase your art sales. Unfortunately, one mistake many artists are making is not promoting their blog posts.
They will publish a new post and forget about it, hoping the blog post will drive thousands of new people to their website. Like we have mentioned earlier, blog posts will drive a tremendous amount of traffic to your artist’s website, but it takes time. So first, you have to get the ball rolling. This is accomplished by promoting your blog on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and other social media platforms you are using to market your artwork.
Sharing a post once on Facebook is not enough. You will have to share it several times throughout the month to have more people notice the new post. The objective is to have more people read and share your new blog post.
Keep Your Promise
Your blog’s title will be the crucial factor if someone clicks on the link to read more or scroll past it.
Catchy titles are essential for your CTR (click-through rate) but are more important than keeping your promise.
Did you ever click on a link that had a catchy title, but the content you read was not what you were expecting? That is known as clickbait. Yes, the blog post will get many visits, but the downside is that the website will be seen as untrustworthy, and readers will not return to the site.
The best blogs are blogs that write helpful content, and the title of the post explains what the post is about, nothing more, nothing less.
Respect your audience by delivering content that supports the title.
Writing valuable content that supports the title will help you to build a loyal following. Google will take notice of this and start to see you as an authority in your niche.
To learn how to write headlines visit, The Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Powerful Headlines.
Valuable Content
You will hear us say, “Write valuable and high-quality content,” over and over.
What does this mean?
Your objective is to provide value to the reader by solving a problem they might have.
For example, if you sell paintings, a buyer might want to know how to care for art they have purchased. Writing an in-depth post on taking care of a painting will solve the buyer’s problem, and have you seen as an expert in your field.
The reader will continue to go to your site for valuable information, see the new art you are creating, and possibly purchase or share your work with their friends and family.
You might have heard that the more blog posts you publish, the more traffic your site will receive. This true only if your content provides value. Don’t be fooled by blogging for beginner tips that say you have to publish a new post every day. You will see better results over time if you produce quality over quantity.
Easy To Navigate
The last mistake many bloggers make is that their site is not easy to navigate.
There is no structure of flow to the site and trying to find content is near to impossible.
If you want to sell your art online, you need to focus on creating a site that your readers will want to continue to visit.
StudioPress Themes for WordPress make it easy to build a professional-looking website that will be easy to navigate.
Final Thoughts On Mistakes Bloggers Make
Your artist blog will be the fuel that drives traffic to your art listings. To build your following quicker avoid these 7 mistakes that hurt your art blog.
If you find it challenging to write blog posts, make a list of some popular blogs in your niche and start reading their posts. You will begin to notice what is working best for them then you can start to incorporate those tactics to write better blog posts.
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