How to Leverage SEO in Your Artist Bio

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In the modern market, more art is sold over the internet than in galleries, making it essential to have a good web presence.

Whether you use Instagram to showcase your work, sell on Etsy, or have a digital gallery on your own domain, your goal is to get your art in front of as many eyes as possible.

After all, you can’t make any sales if you don’t have any web traffic.

In this article, we’ll look at the best SEO tips for artists to drive visitors and increase sales.

The perfect “About” page

Artists don’t only buy art. They buy the artist.

Your about page is the perfect place to introduce yourself to your audience, so don’t waste it.

Take a moment to think like your ideal buyer. What are they looking for? What draws them to a painting? Are they interested in local artists exclusively or are they more attracted to certain styles?

Use your bio to answer these questions, but don’t be long winded. The best artist bios should be under 150 words.

Use smarter keywords

Keywords are the heart of SEO, so use them well.

Think of what people are searching for to find your site. What keywords do you want to rank for?

Spread these keywords liberally around your website. Make sure you are using your name regularly—you wouldn’t want to miss customers who are searching specifically for you.

Write better captions

As an artist, you already know the importance of high-quality images of your work.

Unfortunately, search engines can’t see images. They can, however, read captions.

Every picture needs a keyword-rich caption to attract SEOs. Many artists caption their photos with their name and the piece title. This has little SEO value, so try to use the caption as another opportunity to drop some keywords.

Instead of, for example, “A New American Gothic, acrylic on canvas,” write something like, “A New American Gothic is an acrylic painting portraying a provocative scene of modern American life.”

Cast a wide net

How many platforms are you using to promote your art? Do you have a Facebook page? An Instagram? Do you have your own website?

When people search for your work, the search engines are going to scour every platform possible. And if you’re crossposting your art across as many sites as possible, it will only help your rankings.

Search engines don’t only like keywords. They also love it when other websites link to a page. The more external links you have pointed to your page, the more trustworthy your page will seem to search engines.

And every social media page you have that links back to your website is another external link that can raise your search rankings.

Keep updating!

Search engines love new content. If Google is ranking two websites with similar keywords, it’s going to prefer the site with the freshest content every time.

One of the best ways to create new content is a blog.

Make regular updates about your work. Create posts about your creative process, write a feature on a new piece, or just make an update about your day. All that fresh content will boost your SEO and get you ranking higher on results pages.

Curious as to how your artist page stands up to competition? Get your free Site Report Card today.