Why Search Engine Optimization is Vital in Art

Artsy and all the top New York and London galleries (White Cube, David Zwirner, Gagosian, Pace Gallery, Hauaserwirth) all have one thing in common. They all get most of the traffic to their website from Google.

Google is the most important source of traffic to Art websites.

In addition, if you get your keyword right, search engines will deliver clients who are interested in you and have come to you because they have a question/problem that you can potentially help them with. 

That’s why getting your search engine optimization right is vital, regardless of whether you are an artist, collective, or a gallery owner.

What do Search Engines look for 

Search engines make money by making sure the websites they refer their users to provide relevant information and a great experience. They look for three things.

1. Relevance. – The search engine reads your website – focusing on the text that you direct Google towards (by tagging – more on that later) to match you with users who need you.
2. Authority – The search engine looks at websites linking to your website to determine if your website is seen as an authority by other in your field
3. Technical – Is you website modern and mobile friendly. Will it deliver a great experience.

Keywords & their Positioning is Vital

Having strong authority and a technically strong website might help you rise towards the top of the rankings in Google, but, getting your keywords right is vital to getting the right traffic.

What you want are visitors to your website who are as passionate about what you do as you are. Google will deliver that if you get your keywords right.

Secret to Tagging for Art Websites – Don’t Forget to Tag Your Images

Tag your images as well as your page. Gallery and artist websites are packed with images – so making sure your images are properly tagged will help you rise up the rankings. You also need to make sure your TITLE, DESCRIPTION and H1 tags are right.

Brainstorming Keywords – Context Driven

The first step is to create a long list of keywords and by anticipating what your clients will be searching for and use these terms as your keywords. 

We have already done a lot of this analysis, identifying seven important categories (see the next tutorial) so we can give you a head-start. There are also a number of free tools that you can use online to improve help you brainstorm and identify great keywords (keywordshitter (yep – that’s what it’s called) Quora, Wikipedia and Google Autocomplete).

But identifying the keywords is about common sense. The difficulty is selecting which key words to use.

Secret to Filtering Keywords – Data Driven

At the same time you need to narrow this list down by getting the right mix of keywords, including words. Including words that will

1. Rank you high – because the search volume is neither too high or too low
2. Drive Action – because these are words that users act on

Keyword surfer is a great tool to help you filter keywords because it help you identify these “long tail” keywords that enough people search for to make them worthwhile, but aren’t so popular that you won’t rank high.

Keyword surfer also tells you how much advertisers are pay for specific words (that’s how Google makes money, by auctioning off words to the highest bidder). 

This is different to the search volume because some keywords can have a high search volume, but a low cost, because they are less likely to result in a user taking action.

For example, while more people search for the word “Art” or “Gallery” than for at the word “Mural” or “Exhibition” it is these words that advertisers are keener to pay for because they are more specific and leads to more visitors to their website who are relevant and more likely to take action

Your goal is to identify keywords such as “Exhibition” which will allow you to rank high – because the search volumes are low enough to deliver visitors to your website…

…and at the same time delivering users to you who will convert, follow you, buy from your, support you and help you build your career.  

Secret to Choosing Keywords – Artist, Gallery & Artwork Names Drive Traffic

The top search terms that delivers traffic to leading galleries are the names of the artist the gallery represents. This is because the artist is the bran and turning your profile into a brand is key to building your career.

Galleries know this and will sometime pay Google to be ranked higher for the name of an artist. Top artists also know this and will often buy domain names that prominently feature them. This all goes back to branding your profile and turning your name into a brand.

Secret to Tagging on Your Website – Tag Your Images

Gallery and artist website are filled with images, which Google can only read if you ad information to the image <ALT> tags. If you add the artist name, technique, and description to the <ALT> tags then the unique, interesting information on your website will explode, which will help Google understand how your website is unique and authentic

.In addition, use your keywords in the <TITLE>, <DESCRIPTION> and <H1> tags because this is the first place that Google will look.