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Any SEO tips for Artists?

Posted by Bassagirl • 8/24/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: artists, promotions, SEO, tagging, writers

I will admit, my head swims a little when I hear about SEO and even take the time to learn about it. Like so many other artists, I really enjoy what I do and want to share it with a lot more people around the world - so I'd like to learn how SEO specifically focused on the needs of artists can help us achieve this? The basic format format my blog is I post a painting, sometimes by itself or accompanied by a vignette, essay or poem. If a painting is for sale, I include a link to where it is sold. I created the site to promote my artwork, espouse my views on art (I intend to do this more often) as well as gain fans, collectors of my work and supporters - I also want to network with and meet other artists. I regard my blog as my online portfolio-journal and would like to attract the attention of art enthusiasts and collectors, worldwide.

I know many of the general SEO rules will remain the same, but can anyone come up with some specific SEO tips for Artists?

For example:
I know how to categorize on Blogger, but how can artists tag their blog posts more efficiently so that it ranks higher in search engines?

Also:
How can artists write titles that include search friendly keywords if the titles they've chosen are the title of the poem or painting itself, which might not be so search engine friendly?

if you want to see more of what I mean:

www.bassabassa.blogspot.com

Thanks!

User Comments

8/24/09

CarlLevy

Here you can find an article I did about it "Create Content to improve Search Engine Results" www.ilikesem.com/blog/create-content-improve-search-engine-results/

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8/24/09

timethief

Artists are in the same position as other bloggers when it comes to learning and applying SEO to their posts and blog structure so their content can be found by potential readers using search engines. I'm an artist too and although I do not have an art blog I recommend you learn and apply all the basics of using keywords, in all the places they are effective, and long tail keyword phrases in the natural flow of your text without keyword stuffing.
Basic SEO elements for bloggers
onecoolsite.wordpress.com/2009/08/04/basic-seo-elements-for-bloggers/

In addition, as your blog incorporates images I would recommend that you do not neglect to apply SEO to your images, and to be sure you tag accurately. The Google crawler cannot read image scripts and therefore using the ALT attribute (providing a description) will allow you to tell the crawler what the image is referring to. If you want your images to be indexed by the search spiders then give your images the full treatment (TITLE tag, ALT tag Description).
onecoolsite.wordpress.com/2009/06/27/blogging-images-enhance-your-posts/
Google SEO Starter Guide googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/11/googles-seo-starter-guide.html

A final word on SEO is that there is a lot of claptrap out there so do be careful. I'm a strictly whitehat SEO blogger. I recommend only what Google approves of. I'm not into any gray area stuff, or blackkhat "game the search engines" tactics.

I hope this helps you. Happy blogging.

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8/24/09

Bassagirl

@CarlLevy thanks for that article, I'll read it over a few more times. I'd like to learn more about keywords. In other words, in the title and body of my posts should I use words like, Painting, Poem, vignette, acrylic paint?

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8/24/09

Bassagirl

@timethief that does help. Thank you very much. I hadn't even considered a sitemap before. They keyword info is very useful, too. I will keep reading.

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1. 8/24/09
  
  timethief
  
  Everything I posted is useful and I can guarantee that. It's a step by step approach. That starts with post and blog structure and then moves into blog and post promotion. However, many bloggers do not wish to come to a halt, assess their blogs, and then work progressively to approve them. We live in times when "instant gratification" is the focus for many. [SHRUG]
8/24/09

crpitt

I think a really good 'About Me' page would be excellent to read.

Also as twitter is so popular at the moment, maybe make your twitter thing more noticeable or at least further up the page.

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1. 8/24/09
  
  Bassagirl
  
  @crpitt thanks Great idea. In addition to that, I could stand to update on twitter a lot more often.
2. 8/24/09
  
  crpitt
  
  I really enjoy reading peoples 'About Me' pages and it is also a good place to provide links to all the other social networking places that you haunt.
  
  I took ages to finally put up an 'About Me' page, which in blogger is just a postdated page that I link to.
  
  I use that link for my twitter profile and so forth
8/24/09

Bassagirl

@timethief I hear you about instant gratification. I think many new bloggers might believe that because they have a presence on the World Wide Web that millions of people will automatically flock to their site simply because it exists. The great thing is that the potential for that is there. But if you think it could happen right away then you'll be disappointed, and of course it doesn't happen for everybody. I figured since it's going on a year since I've started my blog that I wanted to really focus on SEO in addtion to creating the art and posting it. I think a lot of it for me has been finally becoming more comfortable with being visible as an artist, personally, and now wanting to learn more about how to translate this visibility more concretely (SEO, exhibits, etc) as I develop my career.

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1. 8/24/09
  
  timethief
  
  Every day we experience new members who have swallowed the line that all they have to do to make an income from blogging get a free hosted blog, start copy and pasting content into it, and make a fortune. Every day I witness new blogs that belong to bloggers, who lack expertise in any niche, who have difficulty with the English language, and who lack writing skills. Every day I hear from bloggers that they want to know quick and easy ways to make money from their blogs.
  
  Well, after I visit their blogs 8/10 I want to tell them to get the hell out of splogging, plagiarism and click fraud (because that's what they are usually already into), and find another way to make a living.
  
  There is no fast track to becoming a successful blogger and making income from blogging. You will not be successful unless you have expertise to share, can create unique content, know how to write, and learn and apply basic SEO to your posts and to your blog. You understand that so I'd say that you are on the right track.
  
  Best wishes for successful blogging.
8/25/09

nonix

yeah I`m in line with u TT.most bloggers have been doing what you said. and it was just obsolete phenomenon to get the right track of making a basic living.but creativity is hard to achieve it`s gonna take long time to stand in this zone of new activity.thanks

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9/02/09

mattseo

Great way for artists to gain new traffic from Google is make sure you name your images like this..

couple-holding-hands.jpg don't forget to also use the image ALT tag and write in couple-holding-hands keep the '-' symbol..

Next stage is to ping your image pages using... pingler.com/ this will help google find your new images fast...

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