SEO for Artists and Crafters: Make Art Sales with SEO Magic!
Key Takeaways
SEO is an acronym for "Search Engine Optimization" which is a marketing strategy artists can leverage to get eyes on their art.
You’ll need to consider four areas of optimization for SEO: Site health, Keyword Research, Backlinks, and On Page SEO.
For best results and keyword accuracy, you should invest in a keyword research tool.
You can optimize your art website in three main places: your product descriptions, blog posts, and by optimizing on page SEO for all website pages.
SEO blogging is not for everyone. It depends on your strengths and what you’re selling. You should also avoid common mistakes like images with very large file sizes.
Make sure to track your traffic using free or paid analytics tools like Google Analytics.
Let me start off by saying, SEO is magic.
And I'll follow up by saying...it can be confusing. In fact, most people *especially artists*, have no idea how it works.
But to summarize, it's a FREE marketing tactic you can weave into your online craft business to bring your ideal customers straight to your products like flies to honey.
Personally, SEO by way of blogging has pretty much always been the primary driver of income in my creative business. I picked it up accidentally in the early days, implemented it into my business, and now I also work on the side doing freelance SEO blogging for other businesses because I've gotten pretty good at it.
So, while I'm the weirdo that thinks it's fun, this works to your benefit because I'm also super creative and can help break it down in crafty terms for you.
If you dream of making "passive" income (still doing the upfront work of course), by selling crafty digital products that you don't have to ship, or just growing a consistent flow of ideal customers that see your art everyday, you should be using SEO.
The goal of this post is to hopefully help you better understand what SEO is, and how you can leverage it to grow your handmade business. While I understand that not every artist will bother to learn this skill, it can be a very powerful form of marketing that I want you to at least understand and get curious about! So let's go :)
SEO BASICS
SEO stands for "Search Engine Optimization". This is just a fancy way of saying you can optimize your website so that when your customer types something into a search engine (ie: Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc), your products and website pop up towards the top as the solution to what they're searching for.
For example, let's say you sell handmade silver rings. Well for your customers to find you online, they are at home pulling up Google and typing in things like "floral silver rings", "handmade silver rings", and "silver stacking rings".
If your website has those terms sprinkled around in your website pages, blog posts, and product descriptions, guess what? Google is going to pick up on that and suggest your website as a solution to their search, aka, their 'query'.
That's when you show up in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) aka the page that shows up after you hit enter for your search. However, it's going to display results on the order it decides is the most relevant and helpful to the person searching. So 'showing up' might look like your website appearing on page 1, page 7, or even page 137.
Obviously page 137 does you no good. And honestly, how often do you even make it to page 7 of your search results? Very rarely I'm guessing. Usually you can find what you need on page 1 or 2 most of the time and don't need to continue searching beyond that.
So that's why you need to follow Google's rules so you can rank as high as possible. And there's a lot more to it than just throwing a few of the right words into your product listings.
If everyone did that, search engines only ranked based off that, it would have no idea which jewelry site was the best solution or what to suggest first. There are actually many many many other factors that go into ranking on the front page of Google apart from just adding in the right keywords which we’ll talk about next.
why SEO for artists?
When it comes to SEO for artists, the most common question I get is, "Why is my website not showing up on Google?"
Well, let me ask you this - what have you done to get found?
Google doesn't just rank your website on page 1 because you published a website! There are no participation awards in SEO because we are competing for money, honey.
If you see a website ranking on the first page, it's because they EARNED that spot. Google put them there because they consider them an authority on their topic. It does not see your brand new site as an authority of anything. In fact, for months it may not even recognize your website because it's brand new and you're still getting your sea legs.
Keep in mind, every website on the planet is also trying to be number one because being on page 1 means you're getting traffic, and traffic means you can make money (if you know how)...so understand that you need to put in the work before you can compete.
What Goes Into Ranking On Google And Beyond
Ranking with SEO is part keywords, part community, and part website health. There are also factors that go far beyond my knowledge of SEO because they are super technical (and you don't need to know everything to have success!), but this post will cover some basic SEO principles that you should understand if you want to get found online. Let's break this down:
1. Your overall site health
You can do all the SEO you'd like, but if your website is full of broken links, broken images, has a super slow loading speed, and is an overall mess, Google won't recommend you as an option. This also includes your website authority score (aka DA, or domain authority) This number runs on a scale between 0 and 100, (100 being the best, most trusted websites) and basically measures how legit Google thinks you are based off their requirements.
2. Backlinks
The number of backlinks you have represents the number of times another website has linked to your website. One example would be if your products were featured in a shop or on someone's blog. They might create a link on their website that links back to your website. That counts as 1 backlink. Networking and getting creative with collaborations can really go far here in making your website grow and stand out online.
3. Keyword Research
It's really important to know what words and phrases your ideal customers are searching for online so you can start positioning yourself as the solution to their 'problem'. You can start by doing some basic online sleuthing to pick up on clues, but ideally you should invest in a keyword research tool to help you find the EXACT phrases they are typing in. These are the magic SEO keywords for artists that you can slip into your product descriptions, blogs, etc, so that your brand pops up in the SERP during their search.
4. On page SEO
Making sure every page of your website is fully optimized will help Google understand how to present your offers in the way that you want. You should regularly check for any errors, as well as fill out new title tags and meta descriptions as you grow your website.
How To Optimize Your Art Website For SEO
First off, you're going to need the right tools. Ideally, you'll be starting with a keyword research tool. While there are plenty of free ones floating around the internet, they may or may not be feeding you accurate data. And in my opinion, this is important enough that I'm willing to pay for a good tool.
My thought process is, if I'm spending hours on end creating high quality blog posts to outrank my competitors, I need to know that the keywords I'm using are the right ones. And I can't be sure of that unless I have accurate data.
A lot of you won't be starting a blog on your art website, which is totally fine, but it's still good to have a grasp on what your ideal customers are searching for online. That way you can put in a little extra work to make sure they can actually find your products.
Now that you understand why SEO for artists is so valuable, which keyword tool should you invest in?
Keyword research tools for artists
Depending on your goals and how deep you want to dive into this area of your creative business, there are two tools I really like and have used myself.
If you just want an accurate tool that doesn't cost a ton and is straightforward, I recommend this one.
If you (like me) are weirdly fascinated with how this all works, want to start a blog on your site, and dig deeeep into the details (and way more than you’ll ever need to know!) you'll want this one.
Option 1 is less expensive, and for most artists, it's all you'll need! With this tool, you'll already be ahead of most artists in understanding what exactly your customer wants and is willing to pay for.
3 ways to get your art found onLINE using SEO
So, you've invested in the right keyword research tool or done some in depth research online to find out what your customers are searching for...now what? Here are a few ways you can start to sprinkle in those keyword phrases so that Google starts paying attention.
1. Optimize your shop listings and descriptions
The easiest way to get started with this is to update your product listing pages and descriptions. You'll want to first make a list of all the keywords that your customers are searching for, then start adding them into your website listings.
Here's an example of what that process might look like:
Let's imagine that you sell handwoven raffia bags. After a little research, you find out that people are searching for the terms:
raffia tote bag
small raffia bag
raffia bucket bag
raffia and leather bag
raffia bag
ysl raffia bag
loewe raffia bag
raffia crossbody bag
While this might not seem that exciting, these keywords are clues. Add these words into your product titles and listing descriptions (only if they are relevant of course). These can also give you valuable ideas on what other products you might want to add to your shop in the future, since people are already looking for them, for example, adding a raffia and leather bag to your existing collection.
2. Add keywords into your blog posts
You can also add these keywords to your blog posts, although there are a lot of rules and other things to take into consideration with blogs that come with that (I teach you this step by step process you need to know inside Handmade & Paid!) While we're on the topic, you might be wondering what the point of having a blog on art website is. Well let me open your eyes to the possibilities, friend.
While it totally depends on your goals and what you want to sell, blogging is great for a number of reasons. If you only want to sell handmade products, you can use a blog to show off your products. You can promote them, share how to use them, even highlight happy customers. This creates trust and encourages sales.
If you want to sell handmade products and also create some educational products around your craft, for example, an e-book on how to weave raffia into cute accessories, you can share blog posts promoting this as well. Blogging is excellent for selling educational products in a non-salesy way.
In addition to selling things, if you are driving enough traffic, you can also put ads on your site or work with companies and have them pay you for sponsored posts, or embed affiliate links. This is easy money once you have the right traffic coming to your website.
3. Optimize your On Page SEO
Another area you'll want to make sure to optimize is each individual page. Each page of your website has its own unique title tag and meta description. You can actually add in relevant keywords in these areas to make them appear in search which is easy to do.
Alt tags are another place you can update with keywords. You can do this for the images in your listing descriptions, or other images around your website. Google uses these alt tags to 'read' your image, helping it also pop up in Google image search results! Double check where to put this information on the specific website you are selling from to make sure you're putting keywords in the right place. It varies between platforms.
is Blogging right for my art business?
Just a not so quick note on this topic so it’s very clear!
Blogging is not the most efficient way to make sales as a brand new handmade business owner.
Althought I believe SEO for artists to be a very valuable marketing channel - I still tell my art clients to add it in (if they want to) only after establishing their foundation, and dialing in another faster form of marketing FIRST. That way, you can get some quicker wins before building a big mama traffic system.
Creating momentum with blogging is as fast as pouring molasses...like 6 months delayed results slow; however, you can make a lot of money from it if it's a good fit for what you're offering, if you enjoy writing (this is a must or you won't stick with it), and you want to invest some time into learning best practices.
It's the same deal if you're wanting to learn any other type of marketing, like Instagram. You'll need to stay up to date with the algorithm and what type of content IG wants you to post. Same with blogging, except it's a lot more stable and slow motion.
I like to think of it as the slow and steady marketing engine that is always working for me behind the scenes...bringing new potential customers to my website daily, new subscribers, and more eyeballs. Those all equal more chances of sales.
So if blogging has a learning curve and takes forever to create momentum, why would you even bother? It really depends on your strengths and your handmade business goals.
Blogging is ideal for you if you're an artist that likes to share your process, you want to make money teaching others your craft process, if you're selling some kind of creative service, if you're selling some kind of digital product, or if you love to write and want to grow your website traffic without being on social media.
Another reason why it's great is because it's fairly stable when compared to social media platforms where you need to be constantly active. If you can commit to posting regularly (not every day!), Google will notice and start sending people your way. Add in the SEO aspect, and with a little time, you'll have a steady stream of ideal customers seeing your work every day.
Common SEO Mistakes
Once you get the hang of it, SEO is not too difficult. However, there are some silly mistakes you might run into that can mess up your progress.
The first mistake is replacing text with an image file instead of html. Confused? It's simple really, if you're making cute graphics with important text in Canva that you're planning on uploading to your website, that's great!
The problem is that Google sees that as an image, not text. That means it can't read it and know if what you wrote is important or not to suggest it. So before you go overboard making cute visuals, make sure your text is created in your site builder and leave the photos and images to Canva.
Another common mistake is having enormous photos all over your website. Bigger does not always mean better. Instead of uploading a bigger file size, scale it down size wise and then compress it with an app like tinypng.
This will keep your photos looking sharp but not risk slowing down your page loading times (basically a death sentence when it comes to ecommerce or the internet in general!). You can usually do a handful of images for free before needing to pay for a subscription.
How to Track Your Traffic
Now that you've done all the hard work to optimize your site, I bet you're bursting at the seams to see who's been poking around on your website! Good news, there's an app for that :)
While you can usually get some stats from your Shopify, Squarespace, etc, I highly recommend getting your website linked up to Google Analytics. This will just give you a lot more details and demographics about who is visiting your site and how they found you. Trust me, the more information you can get, the better you'll understand your audience, what they want from you, and how you can grow.
While all this data can be a little scary to look at first, you'll pick it up over time and eventually get excited to check in regularly to track your progress and see what's working. Also, it's free! I know, right? Go do it now!
it’s time to take the next step
While blogging might not be for everyone, SEO is something you should definitely be taking advantage of if you are in it for the long haul. If writing is one of your strengths beyond being super crafty, it might just be that SEO blogging is the perfect fit for your handmade business.
Now that you understand some basic SEO principles, you can start optimizing your site to attract more of your ideal customers and eventually…making more sales!
Not ready to do this on your own? This is just another topic we cover inside Handmade & Paid. It’s your one stop shop for any question you run into while growing your craft business from scratch. Want to find out if it’s the next step for your small business? Book a free call with me below and let’s chat about your creative goals :).
Frequently Asked Questions
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To put it simply, SEO makes it easier for search engines like Google to recommend your website to a potential customer online if it believes your site to be the best solution for their search. By optimizing your website for relevant keywords, you make it easier to become recommended.
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Depending on what you’re selling online, your ideal keywords will vary. You can search online to see what people are searching for, or you can choose to invest in a keyword research tool to get accurate data.
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It depends on your goals and strengths. If you enjoy writing and find it easy to use a blog as a way to promote and sell your crafts, then that’s a great marketing channel for you. If not, you can easily find a better option that you’ll stick to over time.
