Being an artist, you would want to showcase your skills to as many people around, which eventually will mark your presence in the artistic world. But there is always a limitation in promoting your artwork through word of mouth publicity and making it difficult for you to attract potential visitors.
So, what could be the best trick to get the most for your art gallery? Well, the answer is Search Engine Optimization or, in short SEO For Art gallery website, which will help your artwork rank on the search engine result page (like Google, Yahoo, Bing, Etc.). It ensures that people actually visit your site.
Most importantly, SEO is no more a trick but an ongoing practice that you can learn from this guide. Let’s start with the basics.
What is SEO and Why it’s IMPORTANT?
When you type a word (let’s say, art galleries) on Google search and hit Enter, it displays the art galleries website list. The sites which are better optimized will be visible on the first page in the top rank. That’s the purpose of SEO Services. Almost 28.5% of the visitors click the first search engine result, while it goes down to 15% and 11% for second and third positions, respectively. These stats show how much difference it makes to be not there on the first-page result.
In other words, it helps you increase the quality and quantity of organic traffic to your website through search engine results. Remember 28.5%, massive traffic, which your art gallery website can also attract being at the number one rank.
Practicing SEO will gradually increase the VISITORS
Generally, people keep asking how much time it takes to increase website rankings. Well, there is no accurate answer as it depends on several factors, and your website can rank within a month, or it can also take up to 10 months to rank.
Moreover, if you have just kicked off with a new art gallery website, then it might take a year to rank. The search engine takes time to build the website authority and crawls your webpage from time to time. Now let’s look at the factors that can work to improve your gallery’s website visibility.
FACTORS to be considered in SEO for Art Galleries website
1. Introduce the Rich and Informative CONTENT
The search engine loves informative content, and it gives priority to the website with high text volume and rich in information. You must introduce a well-researched content on your website that will add value to the visitor’s knowledge. To stand out from the other art galleries, you can strategize the content as follows:
- It would help if you introduced a separate section for sold artwork and new artworks.
- Inform the visitors about the upcoming exhibitions or events and art-related news.
- An introduction page of the artist and if he/she belongs to the local city, then do mention it as well.
- Create an introduction page of your art gallery, which involves a section related to your gallery’s history and an explanation about different artworks.
- Introduce images- Showcase the pictures of your artwork with labeled tags and information. Check out the next section to get a complete overview.
2. Showcase your Artwork with IMAGES
Images are a must when you want to show off the real potential of your artists. And this makes it essential to set the right SEO standards while editing and uploading the images on your website. The search engine cannot understand the context of the pictures, but they can read the text associated with them. Consider these points when you upload the images.
- Use Alt text to describe the images: You must include the keyword and artist’s name in the alt text, image title, and description. The format can be – Artwork title & Artist name.
- The alt text will make the image appear on the results when someone types a particular keyword, as mentioned in the alt text.
- Do not use print-quality images: Set the images under 300 DPI, and it should not be larger than 2000 pixels.
- Posting a too high-quality image will slow down the page loading speed.
3. CATEGORIZE the Sections in Webpage
The sorted website is a reflection of your art gallery. If a visitor is finding trouble navigating the webpage, then most likely, he is going to move out in a few seconds. Categorizing the webpage will give a clear picture of the artwork, and it also gives you a chance to show off the best of your paintings. Make sure to follow these points.
- Create a separate page for different art segments, and writing about them will increase the SEO.
- Write relevant information for a particular segment and avoid the irrelevancy.
- Focus on a single keyword on a particular page.
- Clearly mention the page titles relevant to a particular segment and keep it crisp and precise
- Some examples of the pages are the About section, Artworks, Artist’s introduction, and Contact Us page.
4. Take Help of SOCIAL MEDIA
For an apparent reason, you cannot ignore social media as now everybody has an account with one or another platform. You must diversify your art gallery website across all social media platforms. Some of the popular media are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr, Linkedin, and Flickr.
- Get yourself on all social media pages.
- The more you will be on these sites, the more you will be given the priority by the search engines on the result page.
- These sites are free and exciting to use, as well.
- They will give you a chance to attract the billions of people around on social networking sites.
- Social media increases your interactions with the people, which is again a plus point for better Search Engine Optimization.
- Keep the social media page fresh with new content to get better results for SEO.
5. Keep the Content FRESH and Stay ACTIVE
The search engine bot also looks for a website with inactivities and punishes them by sending them way behind in the search results. That’s why you must keep your art gallery’s website content fresh and update it with the latest information. Below are the best practices you should follow.
- You must keep posting the latest artworks in your gallery on all social media accounts and your website.
- Use the mailing list to send the latest updates to the followers with your website link.
- Look out for ways so that people should know you and search your name on the search engine.
- You should visit the exhibitions, meet new people, and handover them your business card (with your website over it).
- Mantra: Keep your website’s content fresh and keep yourself active.
SEO is a new way to reach out to the maximum visitors organically. Whether you want to increase traffic to your art gallery website or showcase your artistic impression, all you can achieve through a well-structured SEO.
To summarize, you must have a website with clear, concise, and attractive content. If you focus on the users, the search engine will automatically focus on you. Remember, there is no cheat code for SEO, but only practice considering the above factors will make you visible on the result page.