With extensive experience building artist SEO strategies, I know some of the most common problems that artists run into when it comes to search engines and optimizing for organic views to your content.
Optimize Your Website for SEO
So how do artists optimize their websites for SEO? It can be a daunting task if it’s something you are just starting to work on. Often times, it will take months for you to fully optimize your website, and even understand how to do so, but you’re in the right place!
Meta, Title, & Heading Tags
These elements are some of the most essential to update across your website. Artists commonly use platforms like Weebly or Wix for their artist website, and these platforms will allow you to utilize these features. This is how you can optimize your artist website for SEO:
- Click through each page on your website
- Update the meta, title, and heading tags with relevant keywords
- Ensure you are using the Google Seach Console to monitor search traction
Google My Business for Artists
Does Google My Business work for an artist? Many artists have a local workshop or studio they work out of, and it can be a good SEO move to use Google My Business to generate traffic to your website and increase your presence across Google! You can see in this screenshot, many of the artists near me do not optimize their Google My Business, but this is essential for getting traffic.
You can also see that these artists do not have reviews on their listings! Listings are an integral part of how Google My Business will display your listing across local search queries and will help you, in turn, generate keywords for your domain!
I don’t have a website, help!
This is the first marketing step that all artists should take when they start trying to generate listeners. Websites can sever many functions, but one of the main functions will be to make you look legitimate and give listeners and potential bookers a place to go. I wrote a guide that explains how to make a low-cost website, and this can help you start your path to generating clicks and traffic to your website.
Once you have a website, there are several methods for growing your organic presence once you are online, and refer to some of the steps above to make sure you set up your website in the most SEO-friendly way.
Update Your Social Media Platforms
Although it may not seem like it, social media will be one of your most powerful search engines to take advantage of. Make sure you are updating content regularly across Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to stay relevant across these platforms. So how can I use Instagram for SEO? Between your bio, and creating a hashtag strategy, many people are surprised by the fact that Instagram can actually generate keywords for your website. We will explain how:
Create a Hashtag Strategy
If you want to rank your website for more words, you’re going to want to build a keyword strategy. These keywords will be how you start focusing your actions towards ranking for specific pockets of keywords, and these are keywords that will change over time. Your hashtag strategy should align with these keywords, and even be them exactly! But sometimes, the highest volume keywords on Instagram are not so great
Push People from Social Media to your Website
When it comes to social media platforms like Instagram, SEO actually plays a big part. Instagram SEO comes down to optimizing your content for hashtags and post content. Once you add structured data to your website, you have the potential to generate keywords from this content across other social media platforms.
It’s important to use social media to post your new content and connect with potential listeners. When artists consistently post across all social media platforms, I have seen more consistent levels in engagement and clicks.
Take Advantage of Different Search Engines
With so many different search engines for different types of content, it’s really important for artists to take advantage of all these search engines to grow your presence across the search. Whether you are a photographer, videographer, or graphic designer, there are hundreds of platforms you can use to grow your audience.
YouTube SEO for Artists
For videos and tutorial content, YouTube is essential for any content creator. Because YouTube is owned by Google, in many ways to two search engines work perfectly hand in hand. How should I update my videos on YouTube for SEO? Optimizing your Youtube content for your target keywords and hashtags is a great way to continually generate presence for your domain. Add relevant keywords to your video title, your video description, and the keywords that are relevant to your niche.
Tumblr SEO for Artists
Specifically for photographers and graphic designers, Tumblr has a lot of opportunities to find people who enjoy your art and want to follow you. You can use your website link and content across Tumblr to gain more followers.
Pinterest SEO
Pinterest SEO is essential for CPG brands who are using recipes to generate keywords for their website. We have seen Pinterest generate thousands of users to a website as well as helping recipes gain traction across new platforms. Always great!
Find Your Backlinks and Reach Out
As an artist, you may be published in different magazines or newspapers that are talking about your work or even promoting you. If you are part of events or festivals, there is a chance that your name is posted on a website, but not linked to your website. Can backlinks help artist SEO? Yes! Even though it seems a bit non-traditional, backlinks are a great way to get your new artist website off the ground.
Reach Out for the Right Links
As you generate links to your social media or other platforms, it’s essential to reach out to publications and make sure they are linking exactly where they should be! Backlinks will help to increase your domain authority and can even help you generate keywords from anchor text! If you are mentioned in a magazine or newspaper, reach out to their webmaster or digital department to see if they can help you adjust a backlink.
Stay in the Backlink Mentality
Over time, opportunities for backlinks may come up, and in these moments it’s important to consider how this link may help your website and could generate traffic. As you make relationships with publications and publishers, you should keep your domain as your priority, and ensure these organizations are not trying to take away from your search presence.
Create New Types of Content
As you optimize your presence for SEO, it’ll be important to consider SEO as you start making more content.
I have helped many artists step into the world of tutorials, and SEO is incredibly important for this niche. If you do it right, you can generate thousands of clicks to your tutorial content from your website or even YouTube.
If you want to grow your artist SEO strategy or are an agency or publishing company that needs help with growing organic traffic for your artists, contact us today and we can work to build an SEO plan into 2020.
