This post is by guest author, Marsha Robinett. This article has been edited and published with the author's permission. You should submit an article and share your views as a guest author by clicking here.

You can make this whole thing about Keywords hard or you can make it easy. I don't know about you but I don't have time for even one more hard thing in my life!

Forget about what you would LIKE to rank for and work on the key words and key phrases that you would NATURALLY rank for.

YOUR NAME is what comes to mind first. Name recognition is paramount for an artist which is why it's recommended your name be used in the title of your website and your domain name. Doing this, you will rank at the top of the first page in search. (unless your name is Grace Kelly or Gene Autry...then you may need to add a middle initial)

But for the new artist (new at any age) acquiring name recognition can be a challenge. Name recognition takes place one individual or one small group at a time. For people to find you by name they have to know who you are and what you do.

Proper use of Key Words and Key Phrases can help people find you when they don't know your name and can only serve to compliment your other marketing efforts.

When someone searches for a word or phrase that closely matches text used on your website, it is likely that your website will be one of those that Google displays in their results....how deep on the page list is the issue. The age of your website figures in here also...this is one time when age is a good thing. The goal is to be at least on the first three pages...hopefully page one.

The difficult part is figuring out which keywords to target. For example trying to rank on those first three pages for the phrase 'landscape painter' will only make you frustrated. (Google brings up 16,100,000 results)

So how do you figure this out without making it a full time project?  Since I needed this to be easy, I first ask a few friends to take a serious look at my art and tell me how they would describe it. I also ask them how they would search for it on line if they weren't allowed to use my name. While waiting for their reply...I did the same myself. Comparing the two was quite enlightening.

Next, I checked my stats to see what key words and phrases were currently bringing visitors to my website.

I took all this information and looked closely at the text I had on my website. First taking a good look at the descriptions I had written for my drawings and paintings. I discovered that in many cases I could have included more pertinent key words and phrases by writing more explicitly about the process, the subject, and my inspiration.

For example...mentioning the subject and the medium. If it is a painting of a bridge over the Hudson River...say so...and name the bridge.  Write about the process, any special techniques you may have used and what inspired you about this subject.

Also..from all that I've read, it's good to use the keyword or key phrase 3-4 times naturally on the page as you describe the painting and what inspired you. This repetition is attractive to the search engine.

Next I took a serious look at the titles of my art. Titles are weighed heavier by search engines than text, and this includes page titles and the titles for your blog posts. There was room for improvement here also. I decided many of my titles were people friendly but not so attractive to the search engines.

The title of your art can lead people to you.  An example of this would be the drawing I did of an old Rolleiflex camera. I named this this drawing "Nostalgia"...people friendly but not search engine friendly.  A better title for people and search engines would have been "Rolleiflex Camera, a nostalgic look back".  Granted this title is a little long but the name of the camera IS something one might search for.

So, knowing all this will I go back through my website and make a bunch of changes? Perhaps some...but not extensively. I may work on some of the descriptive text about my art but changing blog post titles or the titles of my art would cause too many broken links.

This little exercise was to show me how to do better going forward. I now have a list of key words and key phrases that I feel I can rank well for in time. I intend to be more conscious of what I write and how I title my art and my blog posts.

The important thing to remember is that Search Engines read text and not pictures. The more text you can accumulate on your website and blog the more information there is for them to 'search' through. If the key words you added to your list genuinely apply to your art they will come up naturally when you write about your paintings and will also be the words or phrases others might use to search for art similar to yours.

Be patient... takes 6-8 weeks for Google to pick up and re-index new information. Results take time. Better use of keywords should be only one small aspect of your marketing efforts.

So, in closing I would say:
1. Analyze the text you are using on your website and blog.
2. Check your stats to see what search terms people are using to find you. 
3. Lastly...be patient. Good marketing is an ongoing project and results take time.

Don't anguish over what you haven't done right in the past, but make some educated changes moving forward. Develop a marketing package for yourself ... and most of all have fun and create wonderful art.



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Artists and SEO - What are the keywords people are using?

The True Value of an Artist Blog

How Would You Promote Your Site if Google Didn't Exist?