SEO Tips For Artists
Working on SEO is a task many artists put on the backburner but should be one of the top priorities for any online art business.
It would be near impossible for art collectors to discover your website online if your website is not optimized for search.
SEO does not take a lot of time, and once you become familiar with some of the basics, your site will start ranking higher in the search, making it easier for potential buyers to discover your artwork.
Implementing the SEO tips outlined below will improve your website’s SEO and increase.
SEO Basics – Keywords For Artists
Before you can start working on SEO, you will need to take a few moments to think about who your target audience is so you can make a list of keywords you will be optimizing your site content with.
A target audience is the demographic of people most likely interested in your product or service. (Source: The Balance Small Business)
The more you know about your target audience, the easier it will be for you to create a list of the keywords you want to rank in the search.
Keywords are ideas and topics that define what your content is about. In terms of SEO, they’re the words and phrases that searchers enter into search engines, also called “search queries.” (Source: Moz)
Your target audience will be people who like the subject, artistic style, and medium you use to create your paintings or drawings.
For example, if you paint nautical scenes, your target audience will like the beach, boats, islands, etc.
If your art style is rustic, your target audience will like the country, woods, camping, wildlife, etc.
The keywords you are trying to rank for should describe your artwork and be the words your audience is using to discover content in search.
For example, if you painted a Cape Cod scene, describe where the inspiration came from, and what makes it so unique.
People searching for a nautical painting of Cape Cod will use those keywords in the search bar.
Below are some free keyword search tools I use for my keyword research:
These tools will make it easy for you to build your art keywords list.
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To find a list of keywords that relate to your niche, simply type in a word or phrase in Ubersuggests search bar and click Search.
A list of related keywords will appear along with monthly traffic for the keywords, trends, Cost Per Click, Paid difficulty, and SEO difficulty.
Moz Keyword Explorer and Keyword Planner are similar to Ubersuggest.
They will provide you with related keywords and other information to help you choose your art business’s best keywords.
SEO Keywords For Artists
Below are some of the most popular keywords for artists.
Use the keyword tools listed above for more suggestions.
- Paint
- Deviantart
- Gallery
- Pop art
- Abstract
- Art
- Artist
- Wall art
- Acrylic paint
- Abstract art
- Watercolor
- Art gallery
- Oil painting
- Art supplies
- Watercolor painting
- Modern art
- Artwork
- Fine art
- Fine arts
- Art world
On-Page SEO
On-page SEO is optimizing individual webpages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. On-page refers to both the content and HTML source code of a page that can be optimized, as opposed to off-page SEO, which refers to links and other external signals. (Source: Moz)
Below are some easy ways to optimize your post for search.
Add Keywords To:
H1 Tags (Title Tags) – An H1 tag is the title of your post. Try to keep your keywords at the beginning of your post title.
H2 Tags – H2 is a subheading that separates the key points of your post.
H2 tags are bold, larger font, and beneficial to your readers and search engines.
H2 tags make it easy for your readers to scan and find the information they are searching for in longer-length blog posts.
Tags also tell Google what your content is about, so Google can index your posts correctly.
Click on the Paragraph drop-down menu in your WordPress editor to change the H tags in WordPress.
The next step is to add keywords to your image alt tags and image descriptions.
Optimizing your images is important because Google can only understand what your pictures are by image alt tags.
You can do this by adding your keywords to your image name when you save it on your PC, or you can do it when you upload images to your WordPress site.
SEO Website Optimization
An easy way to get your artist’s website ranking on Google faster is by using a credible platform like WordPress.
Bluehost highlights the benefits of using WordPress in a post they published:
- Open source and always free
- Easy to install and use
- Always Accessible for authorized users
- Mobile-friendly with responsive themes (I use StudioPress Themes for WordPress)
- Versatile and scalable for the life of your business
- Complete customizable and control
- A built-in business blog
- SEO friendly features for higher rankings
You can read more by visiting the Benefits Of Using WordPress For Businesses.
Bluehost is an affordable hosting service for WordPress that allows you to purchase a domain name and have your artist website live in just one click.
With Bluehost, you can build an artist website that will separate you from other artists using third-party websites.
After launching your WordPress website, you will want to install an SEO, optimized, responsive theme.
Themes are templates that make a website look and perform a particular way.
Responsive themes look good on all devices, including PC, mobile, and smartphones.
You have an option of free WordPress themes or premium WordPress themes.
If you are operating a business, you will want to consider using a premium theme like StudioPress.
Write High-Quality Content
You can have the best-looking website built on a credible platform that receives no traffic.
The real work begins after you have launched your website.
If you want to rank on page one in search, you have to help Google write content that describes your art and art business.
Google wants to provide the best content available to its audience.
Publishing the best posts related to your art and art business is how to get your art on google’s first page.
How do you write the best blog posts that relate to your art?
The first step you will want to take is to take the list of keywords you created and search on Google.
Take a look at what google ranked for those keywords.
- What do the top three posts provide to the reader?
- What additional information can you add to make the blog posts better and more valuable for the readers?
- How many images do the posts have?
- Is there a video?
- Do they separate the content with H2 tags?
- Is the content easy to scan?
- Does the content solve a reader’s problem?
Use the top three posts as a draft and make your blog post more valuable.
Do not copy the posts. Instead, ask yourself how you can write a post that will be more valuable for the reader.
What would make the reader want to dive deeper into your artist’s website and share your site with their friends?
Related Post:
How Long Should Your Artist Blog Posts Be For Best Results
Internal Links
Now that you have a website built on a credible platform, a list of keywords, and you have researched the top three posts for each keyword on your list, it’s time to talk about an easy way to make your posts more valuable.
What is valuable content?
In Google’s eyes, valuable content is content that people read from beginning to end, engage with, and share.
Google analyzes how long a person stays on a page if they leave comments on the post and share it on social media.
Your job is to write posts that keep your audience on your site for long periods.
The longer a person stays on your site, the better.
An easy way to keep people on your site longer is by linking to other posts you have written.
The links should be linked to a more detailed post about a specific topic you are writing about.
For example, let’s say that you are writing a post about a horse painting you have created, and you talked about framing the artwork.
You might want to link to a post that explains how to frame a painting or the best frames for original artwork.
Inbound links benefit you in two major ways. First, they provide an opportunity to receive more visitors, called ‘referral traffic.’ Secondly, Google can identify how many inbound links your site receives and will put more value on your site over another website with less. (Source: Zero Gravity Marketing)
Related Posts:
- How To Insert Links On WordPress Blog Posts
- Benefits Of An Outbound Link Post And How To Write One
- Use Internal Links To Increase Art Blog Traffic
Be Consistent With Your Blog Posts
The last thing I would like to talk about is being consistent with your blog posts.
SEO will not give you instant gratification. Instead, SEO will provide you long-term growth.
SEO Basics Overview:
- Be consistent with the tips outlined above.
- Publish your posts on a regular schedule.
- Use keywords that relate to your art and your art business.
- Update old posts.
- Link to older posts.
- Be patient.
Final Thoughts For SEO Tips For Artists
The SEO artist website tips outlined above will help you drive a tremendous amount of traffic to your site.
There is a lot involved with selling art online. The main objective of a digital marketing plan is to rank in the top three in search results.
The only way you can accomplish this is by developing a search engine optimization plan.
Keep in mind that it will take a few months before you see any results.
But if you are consistent with your efforts, your traffic will continue to grow.
Stick with these art blog SEO tips and continue to learn more about more advanced SEO SEO tips for artists.
Related Resources:
Optimize Art Blog Posts for Search eBook by Dave Nevue
You Might Also Be Interested In:
- SEO Checklist for Artists Selling Art Online
- How to Use Keywords Effectively In Art Blog Posts
- Content Writing – Online Marketing For Artists
- WordPress Categories and Tags – SEO Basics
