SEO Tips for Artists: 4 Steps to Help Your Artwork Get More Visibility on Google Search (Based on a Real Client Deliverable)
By Ethan Lazuk
Last updated:
Introduction: why I created this guide
When I was in college studying anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies, I once told my professor, “I’m not really interested in international relations. I’m more into the music, art, and culture.”
“But defense is where the money is!” he exclaimed.
I get it. He was looking out for me.
But I love art and music. Always have.
Some of my favorite modern western artists are Ralph Steadman, Alex Gray, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. When I was a kid growing up in small towns in Montana, Charles Russel was also prominent. (He’s really a “western” artist.)
But I also love works from throughout the world, from ancient Islamic architecture to the early 20th century paintings of Marc Chagall or the contemporary work of Ai Weiwei.
If you check my other blog posts, you’ll see I often try my best with DALL-E to feature original images that have a thematic message.
Then again, I’m not the best at drawing, sculpting, etc.
My dad went to art school before he redirected his career to be a hydrogeologist, of all things! He paints now in retirement, though, which is cool.
I never had much art talent, unfortunately, but I do have an SEO company. 😉
So while I can’t contribute to the world with artwork, I can still support those who do by getting their artwork more visibility on Google Search.
That’s why several months back I started offering free SEO help for artists and musicians.
I know, I know. No such thing as a “free” lunch.
But I meant it.
Before I started in digital marketing, I worked at nonprofits. It wasn’t lucrative, but I enjoyed the work and its impact on people and their communities.
That instinct hasn’t changed.
About this guide’s contents
Recently, an artist in Eastern Europe reached out to me for SEO help. She makes “posters designed to uplift spirits on challenging days” and found me on Google.
After looking over her brand’s web presence, I determined the best course of action would be to give her a list of SEO recommendations, and we could go from there.
But afterward I thought, “Well, if she needs these tips, maybe other artists do, too. So why not just put them in my blog?”
If you search on Google today for “SEO guides for artists,” you’ll find several.
I looked at a few myself after writing this. Their advice was generally ok, but some of it was a little elementary or dated. And from what I could tell, most of the guides were written by artists who’d used SEO, but not by professional search marketers.
I’ve included the tips I found relevant from those guides in a “resources” section at the end of this post, as well as other resources that can give artists additional marketing and business context.
But the rest of this guide will be a little different than other SEO tips artist may find on Google.
Oftentimes, content will be created for SEO by looking at what pages are already ranking for a keyword and then trying to improve upon it.
Inspiration is one thing, but imitation is another.
I prefer to take an original and people-first approach to content and to SEO on the whole. That usually means skipping the competitive analysis and instead focusing on satisfying the search intent of an intended audience.
To that end, this guide was repurposed from a real client document with SEO tips for an artist. I made a few changes to protect her privacy and ensure the advise was applicable to all artists, but this is real SEO advice.
No matter what artistic medium you work with, or whether you’ve got a single webpage or a full website currently, if you’re an artist looking to get more visibility for your work in Google’s organic search results, I’m confident these tips will help!
We’ll start with four key tips for SEO that I think artists can benefit from, followed by additional tips and resources based on other sources online.
Table of contents
If you have any questions along the way, don’t hesitate to reach out!
Artist SEO 101: basic steps for artistic websites
We’ll first go over four basic steps for how to get your website appearing more visibly in Google’s search results for prospective buyers to find your artwork.
Let’s start with your website’s title tags. Being that it’s a slightly visual element, it feels appropriate for step one. 😉
Step 1: title tags
A title tag is like the label of a webpage.
It shows in the tab of a web browser, when a page is shared on social media, or on Google Search.
Homepage title tag
The title tag for your homepage (the main page of the website) should mention your brand and (if there’s room) a description of the the website (a main keyword).
For example: Brand: Main Keyword
Here are examples from other artists, where the blue text is the title link, influenced by the title tag:
If your current homepage title tag is a default like: painterly-designs
It could be: Painterly Designs: Digital Wall Art to Elevate Your Office
Or maybe: Painterly Designs: Digital Wall Art by (First and Last Name)
A title tag should be concise enough so the details fit on Google.
Around 50 to 70 characters is a good rule of thumb, but it can be longer or shorter.
The goal is to use the right keywords and branding to tell your users and Google what they’ll find on the page, and also to help it stand out in search results. (Titles contribute to keyword rankings and clickthrough rates.)
You can use this free tool from Portent to preview how your title tag might look on Google.
Other website page title tags
If your website has other pages besides a homepage, each page’s title tag should focus on the main topic (or keywords) of the page, usually with your branding at the end.
For example, an about page could look like: About Us – Painterly Designs
A page with certain types of artwork (category page) could look like this: Large Size Wall Art (24in x 36in) – Painterly Designs
A page for a single piece of artwork (product page), could look like this: Paw Print Wall Art – Painterly Designs
We’ll talk more about different types of webpages a little later.
Meta descriptions
A meta description is a short summary of a page’s content. It’s usually around 120-160 characters, but can be longer or shorter.
You’ll usually add the meta description in the same place in your CMS where the title tag is added.
Ways to optimize a meta description would be to mention your brand or the types of artwork (products) you create.
While Google can usually pull descriptions from other content on a page, a meta description is still helpful, especially if your page doesn’t have a lot of text.
The title tag and meta description usually work for social media previews as well (when you share a page link).
However, you can also change the open graph (OG) settings to show a specific title, description, or featured image on Facebook, X, Slack, etc.
Step 2: page content (text, headings, and images)
The content of each page on your website should be unique to the theme of that page and describe it completely, so a user gets all the information they need.
If your site has only a homepage, you’ll want to describe everything there, including who you are, what type of art you do, and mention individual art pieces (products) and how to buy them or contact you.
For the content itself, you can focus less on which “keywords” to include and more on explaining the information as accurately and with as much detail (from an artist’s vocabulary) as makes sense for your buyers.
For example, instead of saying “it will look good on your wall,” you could say, “our modern large-size prints will look good on your wall.”
If you write your content naturally and use an artist’s vocabulary, you’ll create the context for Google to understand your pages and rank them for relevant keywords.
If your website has multiple pages, each one’s content should be unique.
Rather than saying the same thing in two or more places, you can have a summary in one place (a parent page) and link to another page with more detail. More on this later!
Text in HTML vs. images
Google needs to be able to understand the words on your pages to index and rank them in search results.
This means your content should be provided in HTML.
Avoid putting your text in images, as Google may not see that.
For example, this text is in an image, so Google may not see it:
Instead, add text directly using a text editor.
Alt text can help Google understand text in images, as well. We’ll cover that soon.
Text formatting
Write your body text in paragraphs (<p></p>), when possible.
You can use styling like bold, italics, or links to enrich its context.
Links are particularly helpful for SEO, as they connect pages together for users and help Google find pages or make connections.
Whether you use links in the menu or page content, the anchor text should help readers (and search engines) understand the link’s destination.
For example, use anchor text like “see my Happy Thoughts print” instead of “click here.”
As for sections of page content, you can use headings to organize them.
Every page can have an H1 heading that describes its main topic or keywords.
For your homepage, the H1 could be your brand name or a description of your art, like “Digital Wall Prints to Cheer You Up.”
Each subsection of the page can also have its own heading, usually an H2.
For example, you might have H2 headings for “About Me,” “My Artwork,” or “Contact Me” sections.
If you have sub-subsections in those H2 sections, you can use smaller headings, like H3-H6.
An example of how headings are used might be:
Digital Wall Prints Artist (H1)
My Artwork (H2)
Laughing Print Wall Art (H3)
Contact Me (H2)
A page’s heading structure is helpful in different ways for SEO.
Ultimately, though, you want the page to be easy to scan and understand by people and search engines.
Image optimization
Images not only add context to your pages, but they can also surface on Google in other ways, like in Image Search.
Ranking in Google Images can be important for artists because your buyers may be shopping visually for designs they like.
Here are tips to optimize your images for SEO:
1. File names:
Give your images a descriptive file name. Instead of xyz123.jpg, label it love-life-print-36×48.jpg.
2. Alt text:
The alt text helps Google and vision-impaired users understand what your image is about. Try to describe the image in easy-to-understand detail, with the main words within the first 100 characters or so. For example, a print might have alt text like, alt=”Black and white Love Your Life print with a geometric heart and stylized text.”
3. Image sizes:
Images should be high-quality but also not too small or large. Make the size appropriate for desktop users, but remember it will need to load on mobile, too, and large files can slow down pages.
4. Image compression/formats
In addition to resizing your images, you can use an image compressor (like TinyPNG) and try alternative formats (like WebP from Google) before uploading them. You can also look into lazy loading images or work with a developer, if needed.
5. Structured data:
This is a little more advanced, but you can use image metadata and structured data (like product markup) to help Google show more information about your art in Image Search or free product listings. (You might also want to explore Merchant Center in depth.)
Artwork (product) descriptions
In addition to showing images of your art, detailed text descriptions can also provide buyers with details they may want to know.
Such details about your artwork could include:
- The name (usually as a heading).
- The size or dimensions (so they know if it will fit their space).
- The inspiration or message of the artwork.
- The type of medium or materials used (if applicable).
- The price (including shipping cost and time).
- How to order it.
Step 3: website pages
Your homepage is your website’s most important page. It’s what will rank most often when buyers search for your name or brand.
However, the more pages your website has, the more opportunities you’ll create to rank for different keywords on Google Search.
While it’s possible your homepage will rank for multiple keywords – like your brand name, the type of artwork you sell (ex: “downloadable wall prints”), or the names of your artwork (ex: “Safe Place print”), you’ll have more luck linking to a dedicated page for each topic, but only when it merits having its own page.
You’ll want to avoid creating useless pages, for instance.
If a page doesn’t have enough information to be helpful, or if it has essentially the same information as another page, that could actually hold back your website, if you have too many like that.
Instead of lots of potentially lower quality or thin pages, make each new page as high quality, detailed, and useful as possible before creating another new one.
Here are examples of pages your website could have:
1. Homepage:
The main page of your website, mentioned earlier.
About page/our story:
Describe who you are as an artist, your philosophy, and other details buyers may want to know. (This helps build your reputation with Google, as well, especially when the details about you match other sources on the web. You can also link to your social media or other artist profiles.)
2. Category pages:
These can list multiple examples of your artwork in the same category. For example, you can have category pages for print sizes (small, medium, or large), themes (happy prints, thought-provoking prints), or other categories, like artistic medium, price, or design. Ultimately, the categories should make sense to your audience and be related to what they might search for on Google.
3. Product pages:
These are pages where you have individual pieces of art. Each product page should include a heading with the name of the art piece, a description (its content, medium, size, inspiration, etc.), multiple images of the art from different angles and distances, pricing and shipping or purchase details, a button or link to buy the art or contact you, and related artwork buyers might be interested in.
4. Contact page:
This page has your contact information or a form to get in touch, should buyers have questions.
5. Other pages:
You can also create pages like a photo gallery (maybe showing examples of your art on display), a blog with informational posts where you talk about art or video content, a page for return policies, a privacy policy, and more.
Remember, not all of your pages need to have SEO value.
If a page isn’t meant to show up on Google, you can use a meta noindex tag to prevent it from showing in search results.
This can be applied to new pages you’re creating but aren’t finished with, as well. (Just remember to remove the noindex when the page is ready for Google.) You can also work on pages as drafts until you’re ready to publish them.
A few more SEO considerations for your pages
The URL structure and internal linking of your pages can help you organize them for users and search engines.
For example, if you have a category page for “large prints,” the URL path might be: example.com/prints/large/.
If you have products on that page, their URL slug might be: example.com/prints/large/live-happy/.
Your about page, meanwhile, might be, example.com/about/.
Depending on your CMS, you may have to use the default URL structures, or work with a developer.
That said, you can add links to your important pages from your website’s menu, homepage, or other important pages.
Related pages should link together, as well. This helps users and Google find and understand them.
You can also have breadcrumb links on pages to help users navigate them, like: Home >> Large Prints >> Live Happy.
These internal linking practices and URL structures help users find the artwork they’re looking for and Google discover the pages.
You can also have a “search” feature on your website, but you’ll want to use the noindex tag mentioned earlier to block those results from appearing in search results.
Keywords and SEO
As a final point, it’s helpful to understand the relationship between keywords and SEO, especially today. (I have an intro to SEO post where I talk more about this.)
To find your website and artwork on Google, your buyers will typically type in keywords.
Those search terms can tell you what topics to create pages around, but more broadly, they tell you what your buyers are looking for.
Your goal isn’t necessarily to use those keywords on your page.
Certainly, that can help, like if a user finds your page and sees their keywords mentioned, they’ll know they’re in the right place. Google uses keywords to rank content, as well.
However, Google’s systems are smart and don’t rely on exact matches of keywords.
When creating a page, try to answer what the keyword suggests the buyer is looking for.
In other words, your content doesn’t need to have the same keywords as what someone searches. It just needs to satisfy what they’re looking for the best.
If every page on your website covers a unique topic, and you use descriptive headings, text, and images with natural language, that will help your pages rank on Google Search and show up when users search related terms.
Try to be specific and rely on your artistic expertise and vocabulary, plus your knowledge of your buyers, to anticipate what they want to find.
Having said all of that, keyword research can get you started.
If your website is about “wall art prints,” for example, here are the types of keywords that might be relevant:
This screenshot is from Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator, which you can use by putting in a seed topic and looking for related terms.
Audience questions can also be helpful for understanding your audience’s needs or finding ideas for content.
Here are examples of questions buyers might have related to wall art prints:
Those are People also ask questions on Google returned by AlsoAsked.com, a tool with a free version.
Another place for keyword ideas is Amazon.com.
You can search Amazon for your type of artwork and look at the ways similar products are described (ex: bedroom, retro, minimalist, etc.) or the terms buyers use in their reviews:
There are many other free keyword research tools, as well.
Popular options include Answer The Public, Google Keyword Planner, or WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool. You can also try resources like Google Trends.
By putting in a starting term (seed keyword) related to your artwork category, you can look for ideas for variations or ways people describe the art to give direction for your page topics or content.
If you don’t know where to start with, this guide about what to do when you don’t have an obvious keyword can help.
Step 4: set up Google Search Console
Once your website is ready to appear on Google, you can verify it in Google Search Console. This is a free tool.
While it’s not required to get your website on Search, using Google Search Console will help the search engine discover your pages.
You can also use it to see which keywords (queries) your pages rank for, how much traffic (clicks) they get, and from which countries or devices, or identify technical issues or opportunities.
Having Google Search Console verified with historical data also helps an SEO, if you’re working with one, to better understand your site’s performance.
To verify your website in GSC, follow these steps:
1. Visit Google Search Console: https://search.google.com/search-console/welcome
2. Log in using a Gmail account.
3. Put your website’s homepage address in the URL prefix box:
4. Use one of the options to verify your site.
If you have Google Analytics already set up, that’s the fastest way. If not, the HTML tag is usually the fastest. This tag goes in the <head></head> section of your homepage.
Most website CMS’s (like WordPress, Wix, etc.) will have built-in SEO settings or plugins available (like Yoast or RankMath) to help you with the setup, as well.
5. Submit your website’s XML sitemap.
This is done in the Sitemaps tab on the lefthand side in Search Console. Your XML sitemap is usually found by putting /sitemap.xml or /sitemap_index.xml on the end of your homepage URL.
6. Within a few days, your data should begin populating.
Other ways to help Google discover your website (or its pages) can be to link to them from other websites or your social media profiles or posts.
Summary & resources
An SEO strategy is a holistic effort that can touch many aspects of your website and online presence. This guide has only covered a few of the basics. 😉
That said, these SEO tips should help you improve the visibility of your artwork with buyers on Google Search.
To recap the steps laid out
- Optimize title tags
- Make sure all text is in HTML (not images)
- Format text with paragraphs, headings, and styling
- Optimize images with file names, alt text, and sizing/compression
- Ensure all artwork (products) have a detailed description
- Verify the site in Google Search Console
- Create new website pages (using keyword research and other insights)
If you currently only have a one-page website but want to build a full website, you can start with category and product pages along with an about and contact page.
I would suggest a website option like Wix. It’s fairly affordable and user friendly to set up. There’s also Shopify.
WordPress.com is another popular option, but it requires a little more technical knowledge. (There’s also WordPress.org.)
In fact, there are many website CMS options available.
Ultimately, the one you should choose is about your budget, goals, and familiarity. What matters most for SEO is ensuring your website is user friendly with quality content.
Additional SEO tips from other guides
I took a look at some of the other SEO guides available for artists. Here’s my summary of what I think is valuable from them:
1. Use Social media
This guide from Julie Erin Designs mentions promoting your work on social media. While that’s not necessarily an SEO tip, it is an important marketing tip.
Especially for a visual medium like art, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and other social platforms can help you spread awareness of your brand. You can also reference your website to grow awareness or even get referral traffic.
Something I’ll add is that Google Search has shown more social media content in its search results lately, including with Perspectives. So contributing to social media (as well as video on YouTube) can be another way to build awareness for your art in Google Search.
2. Earn Backlinks
This guide from Artwork Archive mentions getting links to your website from other websites, which are called backlinks.
Backlinks can be an influential factor for organic search rankings because they help distribute PageRank to your website pages, giving them more authority. That’s a bit technical, but the main takeaway is that when other relevant webpages link to your webpage, it’s like an endorsement of your page’s quality, and Google pays attention.
The best backlinks are organic, which means someone chose to link to your website because they found your content worth sharing or referencing. You should never pay for backlinks or exchange your artwork for them, as this is a form of spam and violates Google’s webmaster guidelines; it could result in penalties.
Related to the previous tip, if you share your website content on social media, that can be one way to raise awareness and get backlinks. You could also share images of your artwork but ask that people give you credit as the artist and link to your website as the source.
3. Be patient
This guide from Very Private Gallery mentions patience when it comes to SEO. That’s great advice.
Especially if you’re building a relatively new website, it takes time for Google Search to trust you. It could be months or even years before you start to reach your potential.
Ways to make SEO results go faster are to focus on quality over quantity — as we mentioned in the content creation sections earlier — as well as spread awareness of your website. If more people start visiting your website in search results, and linking to it (our previous tip on backlinks), that can help establish its authority sooner.
Also, building a brand is an essential part of establishing a successful SEO strategy for a website. When people recognize your website is associated with your brand, and your brand as an artist is trusted, that can help influence people clicking on your results in Google Search versus others.
4. Measure results
The last point I’ll make is to measure results. We talked about Google Search Console. You can also set up Google Analytics 4 or use the analytics tools in your CMS (if available) to pay attention to which pages get the most traffic, what keywords they rank for, and how a user’s journey through your site contributes to sales.
If you notice certain pages perform well, perform poorly, or seem to be roadblocks in a user’s journey, those can all be clues as to where to focus on making improvements. Don’t be afraid to update pages to make them better for users, but just be sure to monitor the results from your efforts.
Extra resources artists might find helpful for SEO, marketing, and business
- The Basics of Search Engine Optimization for Marketers & Businesses (2024) – This is my intro to SEO article that links to a bunch of SEO starter guides in the last section.
- Optimizing the searchability of your Canva website – a lot of artists use Canva websites. This explains how to do basic SEO for them.
- Image SEO: Optimizing images for search engines – image search is important for artist websites, and this guide from Yoast goes into a lot of detail.
- 5 Key Steps for Building a Marketing Plan for Your Artist Business – this is general marketing advice for artists from the Chamber of Commerce.
- How To Sell Art Online: The Complete Guide (2024) – this Shopify guide from Dayna Winter is packed with tips for all phases of running your business online as an artist.
“To hear the softly spoken magic spells”
I’ll continue to work on this guide to make it as complete and helpful as possible. I’m also available to help you, no strings attached.
Or, if you have other questions, feel free to reach me at ethan.lazuk@gmail.com.
Best of luck in your artistic endeavors!
And until next time, enjoy the vibes:
Thanks for reading. Happy optimizing! 🙂
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