Many people have portfolio online, especially artists. It’s a great way to show people much of your work in one easy to get to place. However, unless you only want the people you specifically tell to find your portfolio website, you will need to take some step to attract them.
Those steps can greatly revolve around the use of SEO. Keywords are one of the best ways to get your website found, and if you use them right they can get you ahead on the search engines. But how should an artist use keywords?
Local Keywords
As an artist it is pretty likely that you are going to want to get the word out on a local level, when it comes to the work you do. Maybe you want to sell at local stores, do local art fairs, or maybe even get your work showcased at a local art gallery. That means that the locals need to be able to find you.
You may simple want to use the city and state you are in, or maybe even be as specific as an “area,” like Heritage Hills in Grand Rapids, MI. You may want to use a keyword phrase that specifies where you are and the type of art you do, such as “fine art Heritage Hill.” There are many different options when it comes to this. Or, you may want to mention a particular gallery your art is located at, as a keyword.
The most important thing to remember is that you want you keyword phrases to make sense. If it sounds odd to you it’s going to sound odd to the person reading it and it could chase them away. Not only that, but the Google Algorithm may pick your site out for a penalty for bad SEO tactics.
Art Related Keywords
Local shouldn’t be your only focus, especially if you plan to try to sell your art online. You need to also use keywords related to you (if people already know your know) and art related terms. If you do mostly pottery, then that is an important keyword for your site.
If you do multi art styles you’ll want to use more keywords, and each should be used on their respective pages. Don’t trick people by using the key term pottery on your acrylic paintings page. People like sites that are honest with them.
Building Links Is Also Important
SEO is about more than just focusing on keywords. You also want to work on link building, which can actually be fairly easy. You simply need to link to other quality websites within things like blog posts, but you need to do it the right way.
Your links should lead to a place where people can learn more about something you’ve talked about in your post. Maybe you mentioned that your art piece was inspired by a certain classical artist, so you share a link to a profile about that particular artist.
If you give people something to look at and something great to read, they’ll keep coming back for more. It’s really as simple as that.
