The more traffic your art blog generates, the more opportunities you will have for selling your artwork.
Blog traffic strategies:
- Newsletter
- Social media
- Search engines
In this post, I will talk about search engine traffic and how you can increase page rank with simple SEO.
Increase Page Rank – Optimize Your Art Posts
By the end of this post, you will know…
- Increase Page Rank With Basic SEO
- Increase Page Rank With Keywords
- Optimize Your Post For Search
- Improve Page Rank With Great Content
- Other SEO Strategies that will increase your Page Rank
You have probably heard me talk about the importance of an art blog in previous posts.
An art blog is a fuel that drives traffic to artist websites.
People spend many hours a day searching for content online.
They type in a keyword or keyword phrase in the search bar and scan through the links suggested by Google to see what the best article is for them.
Most people do not go past the first three links.
So it makes perfect sense that the more posts you write and publish, the better your chance of being found online will become.
For example, you will have a better chance of people discovering your artist’s website if you have 100 posts published than an artist who only has 5 posts published.
You will have created 95 additional ways for people to find you online.
But it takes more than just posting articles.
As I said earlier, most people do not click on links lower than the top three suggestions on Google’s search results.
Your job is to write content that satisfies your audience and optimize it for search so Google can rank your content correctly.
With some basic knowledge of how pages are ranked, you will soon be able to watch your traffic increase.
Increase Page Rank With Basic SEO
What is SEO?
SEO (search engine optimization) is optimizing your site and content to be visible in the search engine’s unpaid results. When you search Google’s search bar, the results on the first page have a higher page rank because of their knowledge of SEO and the quality of the content.
Google’s corporate mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
SEO helps Google to know what your website and posts are about. The information Google gathers about your site helps them to suggest your content to your target audience.
Increase Page Rank With Keywords
What are keywords?
Keywords are the words that people use in search engines to find content.
How do you create keyword-rich content?
The best way to write a keyword-rich post is to be very detailed with your content. If you are writing a post about a sailboat painting that you have just finished, you will want to use the keywords “sailboat painting.”
People that are searching for a sailboat painting will be able to find your content and read more about your new painting.
If you do not include the keywords “sailboat painting,” Google will not understand what your content is about, and they will not be able to recommend your content to the right audience.
Your goal is to attract people who are interested in purchasing your art. Help Google understand what your site has to offer, and Google will suggest your site to the right audience.
Think of it this way. When you save a document on your computer, you will name it with a word or phrase that describes the content. This will make it easy for you to find that particular document later.
If you did not name the document or used words that were irrelevant to the content, you would never find the document again, or it would take you lots of time to open every document until you found what you were looking for.
Related post:
How to Use Keywords Effectively in Art Blog Posts
Optimize Your Posts For Search
You mustn’t use the keyword phrase you are trying to rank too many times.
This is called “keyword stuffing,” and Google will penalize you for that. A post that has 1,000 words should not have the keyword more than five times.
I recommend using the Yoast SEO plugin if you have a WordPress website.
Yoast tells you how well your post is optimized for search and offers suggestions to improve your post.
Here are some places to put your keywords to increase page rank:
- Title
- Headings
- Content
- Image title and alt text
- URL
Title – The title is what you find on the search engine results page. This describes what your content is about.
Headings- Headings are like titles for chapters in a book. Headings will make it easier for the reader to scan the content to find what they are looking for. Adding headers and keywords in your headings will provide a better experience for your reader and help Google understand what your content is about.
Content –This might sound obvious, but ensure that you have the keyword throughout your post. Do not overdo it; Google will lower your page rank. Use the keywords naturally and write content for the reader. You want the reader to be able to understand and enjoy what you have to say.
Image title and alt text – Google cannot see images, so you will need to add a title for Google to understand what the image is about. This is also helpful for people who are visually impaired.
URL – The URL is an address for the content.
Improve Page Rank With Great Content
The best way to increase your posts’ page rank is by providing great content.
As I mentioned, Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and helpful. The only way they can achieve this mission is by ranking the best content on the top of the search engine results.
Your mission should be to write the best article about the topic you are writing about so Google ranks you number one in search.
What is excellent blog content?
Neil Patel explains what makes great content in a post he wrote.
- Create Original Content
- Always focus on creating strong headlines
- Make your content actionable
- Be able to provide answers
- Be accurate in your reporting and sourcing of information
- Create engaging and thought-provoking content
- Communicate better by adding images and video
- Write short and pointed content
- Make content updates to your website or blog
To read more visit The Nine Ingredients That Make Great Content
Related post:
How to Write Pillar Content and Why it is Important for Artists
Other Ways To Improve Search Rank
Focusing on keywords your target audience uses in the search bar, putting the keywords in the best places of your blog posts, and writing the best articles that relate to your art brand will increase your page rank.
But there are more things you can do to increase your Page Rank.
Websolutions shares with us how you can improve your search rank for free.
Here is what they had to say:
- Improve your website’s user experience
- Write great content optimized for SEO
- Get more backlinks
- Improve your page speed
- Fix broken links
- Optimize your images
- Use H1 and H2 header tags
- Optimize for local search
- Optimize for voice search
- Aim for “position zero”
You can read more by visiting 10 Google Hacks To Improve Your Search Rank For Free
Conclusion:
Writing blog posts is essential for your online art business.
Put it bluntly, you can not sell your art online if people do not know you exist.
Related post:
6 Blogging Benefits You Can’t Ignore
Many artists become frustrated when it comes to blogging.
It takes time for blogs to build an audience. Every post you write will help you to build a larger audience than you could have ever imagined.
You just have to be patient and ensure that Google understands what your site offers.
I have written this eBook, Optimize Art Blog Posts for Search, to help you optimize your art blog posts so you can build a following quicker.