Why do I think that SEO Marketing is useful for artists and art professionals?
Having my art platform for over a year now I have been approached by countless artists and started collaborations on various projects, I have realised that too many of the artists are lacking decent online visibility. Trust me, it is much easier to start a collaboration with someone who has some proven online presence than with someone who has had a website for years but managed to attract just a few people to their website.
"Sometimes it seems to me that the artists have forgotten that this is not the late 18th Century when the artists happily worked in their studios and the art dealers did the marketing for them."
Even today it is really hard for the artists to attract relevant attention to their artwork but thanks to the Internet, there is a way how to get help.
What is SEO Marketing in general?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and if you are already lost then the search engine is eg. Google or Bing. If you search for something on Google then you type eg. red shoes into Google´s search engine and then you see the search engine results in a form of a bunch of websites that you can visit. However, why is it that some websites are listed on the front pages and others not? The answer is that the ones listed at the top were optimized for search engine such as Google. Most people do not realize that what we as humans see is not visible to the search engines and that is the biggest challenge. The content of your website has to be made attractive to the search engines because they do not see the aesthetical value of the artwork. They see everything on your website only as numbers including pictures and videos.
How can I use SEO Marketing to increase my visibility in the online art world?
I am going to give you a practical example of how to work on your search engine optimization. I guess that it comes as no surprise that there is a wide range of tools ready to help you. One of such tools is Ahrefs which is software that is very useful for your keyword research.
What do you mean by keyword research? When you search for something in Google then you just simply type your query into the search engine and then the engine gives you a list of websites that you can click on.
It is natural that some words or phrases are more sought after then others. That´s why it is a good idea to make thorough research on keywords relevant to your field.
What should I do next once I have found my keywords? The next very important step is to make a good selection because during your research you will end up with at least 200 words. That´s quite a lot and simply you cannot rank for all of them. You have to choose max 2 keywords or keywords phrases otherwise you will be wasting your energy.
What are the useful criteria for the right keywords? Apart from relevance it is volume and keyword difficulty.
volume - the number of people searching for the keywords per month
keyword difficulty - says how difficult is to rank for the particular keywords on a scale 0 to 100 (indicates how much competition is out there regarding the keyword)
For example if you use the Ahrefs tool, you will find out that the keyword phrase - art berlin - has volume 1200. The keyword difficulty is 45 which means that there is a lot of competition for the keyword and it will be hard to get listed at the front pages of the Google search.
Therefore you have to think of your niche or specialty eg. textile art berlin. The search volume for this particular keyword phrase is 500 and keyword difficulty is only 1 meaning it is super easy to rank for textile art berlin. My selection is done what´s next? Once you have finished your selection then you have to know where to put your selected keywords or keywords phrases. The first logical conclusion would be to write an article based on those words but the contrary is the truth. It is not enough just to write an article using the keywords. You have to place them into the page title and page URL.
In case your website is done via Wix then have a look at the pictures below.
The first picture shows what you want to change.
The second picture shows how and where to change it. Menus & Pages - SEO (Goggle) - and you will end up at the page above.
Does it sound complicated to you?
Well, you have several options:
you can sign up for help and I do a project for you
or you can enroll yourself in Online Marketing course at DCI using my name and surname. Fill up your contact details and DCI will get in touch with you. The course lasts one year but you will gain a solid understanding of online marketing as a whole