I’ve mentioned before how blogging can help artists by bringing in visitors via the search engines, but to be honest it’s not automatic. You’ve got to blog a certain way to see results.
To help you do that I’m starting a new series called SEO for Artists, and today’s article will focus on describing your artwork for Google.
By the way, I understand that some artists enjoy posting images just for friends and family. If that’s you, then the following tips won’t be necessary. However, if you’d like a lot of complete strangers to find your art then keep reading.
First things first:
Google (and other search engines) only see words.
So you’re just posting images of your artwork on your blog, that gives Google nothing to work with. In fact, to a search engine all your artwork looks like this:
Not much to go on, is it.
To really tap into the power of Google, you need to always use words. And here’s a hint: the most important words of every blog post are in the title—so choose THOSE very carefully. (This is where being a little detail-obsessed can help, too.)
For example, a title like “Aquarium Fish” probably makes perfect sense to anyone reading your blog because they can see the actual artwork and know that the title refers to your painting of fish from the aquarium.
But since Google can’t see your art, it will read your title literally and assume that your blog post is actually about aquariums and fish.
What kind of traffic do you think you’ll get from that title? Maybe an ichthyologist or two (fish scientists), but probably not someone looking for art. And the same thing goes for titles like “Wildflowers” or “My Mother’s China.” Google doesn’t know it’s art that you’re talking about.
So how should you title your blog post? Very thoroughly. Use words in your title that completely explain your art. Like this:
“New Oil Painting from the Aquarium! Silver and Blue Fish Artwork.”
It’s a little long, but that’s OK. Just look at all those potential keywords that will help visitors find your artwork! Perhaps they’ll be searching for “aquarium art,” or “silver and blue artwork,” or “oil paintings of fish”—all of those might bring up your blog post.
Of course, the title isn’t everything. Google also checks your article for the same words that are in your title—so terms like “oil painting,” “silver and blue,” “fish,” “aquarium,” and “artwork” should DEFINITELY appear in the blog post as well.
I’d suggest writing at least 3 solid paragraphs in the body of the post, either describing your artwork, comparing it to other art, or even talking about other artists. Writing more always gives the search engines a better idea of what’s on your page, as long as it’s on topic with your title and everything else.
Plus, if your blogging program allows it, make sure that all the images you upload have a title or alt tag description that relates as well. In this case it would be something like “Silver and Blue Fish Painting.”
And that’s all there is to it. By making all the different parts of your blog post—the title, the body, and the image description—as clear as possible for Google, you’ll greatly increase your chances for natural traffic to your blog.