If you are an emerging artist, you should think of creating a personal website along with profiles on social media platforms. This is very important as online presence is highly recommended if not obligatory for business, art, and sports. To present your art website to the masses, you have to promote and optimize it for search engines. This article explains how you can boost your website ranking and provides more details on backlinks as the most powerful method to achieve that.

Art website: first steps

Before bringing the website to the top of searches, you should create a stable base for it. It is necessary to select a reliable site builder and assign a suitable domain name to your art online platform. This sets up a decent base for future optimization of the website.

Select website builder

While there are many website builders these days, you should rely on the most convenient and credible ones. It is not enough to proceed with the one that appears high on the search results. You should take into consideration the pieces of advice of those people who have also used website builders for creating their art websites. The website building platform should guarantee that your website loads fast, you can select the preferred domain name, and apply search optimization activities without any constraints.

As a rule, most website-building platforms offer a set of predefined templates for art websites. You could select the preferred one and adjust it to your needs at any time.

Select domain name

To reinforce the optimization efforts for your website, set a clear and recognizable domain name. There are lots of services like GoDaddy and Namecheap where you can verify whether the preferred domain name is available. Also, you can buy the domain you like and reserve a place for it on the hosting platform.

The introduction of the .ART domains in 2016 was an ingenious way for artists to differentiate their websites, from the average website domain, and to emphasize their artistry. To search .ART domains, click HERE.

Art website advancement

As your art website is designed, created, and tuned up, it is the right time to apply SEO techniques to it. In particular, you should consider investing much time and enough resources in link building.

Gain backlinks

The fastest way to make your website highly visible on the web is to gain backlinks from other online resources. Various techniques allow you to do that in different modes, though the objective remains always the same.

One of the primary methods for link building is outreach to other websites via email or other communication tools. That might not always be easy, though you establish cooperation with different instances that way.

Another popular backlink-gaining procedure is by using an automated link building service on the web. Find a credible provider that has a large database of various online platforms and websites that would gladly link back to your website.

If you are keen on writing an article, you can also gain links via guest posting. This is a reliable approach to gain traffic to your art website as well as to increase awareness of your art brand.

Control on-page SEO

Besides link-building practices, it is also crucial to guarantee that your website functions properly. Use dedicated tools for controlling the page load speed on your website, cleaning up your website code, and checking other technical characteristics. This will help to make sure that users stay on the website for long after they find it on search results and follow it.

Analyze website performance

Your website ranking progress can’t be properly estimated in case you do not use proper analytic tools. One of the most popular and effective ones is Google Analytics, which is free to use. There you will be able to see all the characteristics and user behavior statistics on your website, Based on that data, you would be able to derive what could be done better on your website to boost its ranking further.

Create e-shop

Even though the art website optimization is crucially important, you should also consider creating your small representation instance on world-known platforms for selling art objects. These could be Etsy and Artspan - the art marketplaces offering creative people the possibility to set up their online storefronts.

Art platforms for creators have embedded optimization mechanisms that allow your art products to be visible on the web by embedding certain keywords. Also, you can insert backlinks to your website from there, thus linking back from credible resources and improving your website ranking.

Mary Hunter is a successful American freelance lifestyle blogger with advanced writing skills. She is currently working for linksmanagement.com. Mary has experience in editing, marketing, and her works appear in different publications and website articles.

Read more helpful art career and marketing articles in our archives HERE.

As an artist, you want people to see your work. After all, the more people get to appreciate your art, the more you can advance your career as an artist and ideally sell more art. One way to do this is by marketing yourself online, either on your own or with someone’s help. Read on to find out the top 10 marketing tips and trends you can use to increase your art website traffic.

#1 Master SEO Basics

Start by learning all the SEO basics. You need to know how to perform keyword research and how to use these keywords in your content. Learn about on-site optimization to further improve your website (e.g. proper navigation, creating a sitemap, etc.)

#2 Optimize Visual Content

Pay special attention to all the visual content you publish because it is crucial for you as an artist. Your images and videos need to be of high quality, but you should also add all the right details to them for SEO (e.g. alt tags for images, descriptions and keywords for videos). Don’t forget to add social sharing buttons to let your audience share your artwork elsewhere.

#3 Start Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is one of the best ways to get more backlinks to your website. If you don’t have time to do it yourself, there are professional writing services you can reach out to for assistance. When you publish your content on someone else’s website or blog, you can include a link to your own site which will guide their audience to you.

#4 Develop Your Link Profile

In addition to getting more backlinks, you should also develop your link profile by using both external and internal links in your website content. Internal links will help you keep users on your website longer while external links (especially to the sources of the facts or statistics you used) will help you look more reputable in the eyes of your audience.

#5 Utilize Social Media

Social media is essential for marketing you and your art. Create your profiles on different social media platforms and regularly remind your followers about your website. Don’t forget to use social media marketing techniques to successfully promote your content on those platforms (e.g. hashtags, tagging, locations, commenting, live streaming).

#6 Promote Word-of-Mouth

Word-of-mouth can easily spread the word about you, but instead of waiting for someone to start talking about you, you can promote word-of-mouth yourself. Reach out to your fans, followers and collectors of your work and ask them to provide a review or testimonial of your work. Then, you can post these on your website and share on your social platforms to get people interested in your art.

#7 Connect with Other Artists

Instead of relying solely on your own efforts and being a lone wolf, it’s a good idea to reach out to other artists like yourself and promote each other. You can partner with other artists to create unique art, host giveaways, and promote each other in different ways. Having these connections will also play a role in helping you advance your career.

#8 Engage with Your Audience

Engagement is important not just for your metrics but also for connecting with your fans. Encourage discussions in the comment section on your website and social media profiles, reply to comments, and so on. All of this shows that you are a friendly person who is happy to engage and connect with their audience.

#9 Make A Posting Schedule

To stay consistent, you will need to create a posting schedule for all the content you publish on your website or social media profiles. This way, you will always have a steady stream of content for your audience to discover and consume.

#10 Measure Performance and Improve

Last but not least, don’t forget to measure the performance of your web content and your website itself to improve your future digital marketing activities. Your updated strategy needs to have the necessary changes that will improve your metrics. Take into account everything – traffic, average session time, conversion rate, comments, social shares, and so on.

Wrapping Up

There are quite a few ways you can successfully reach a wider audience, but the most important thing is to be consistent with your marketing activities. Use the tactics in this article to help you generate more traffic on your website and find new fans and, ideally, buyers of your art.

Anna Medina is a specialist in different types of writing. She graduated from the Interpreters Department, but creative writing became her favorite type of work. Now she improves her skills while working for the writing services review websites like Best Writers Online with content of any type, but, mainly, assisting students all over the world.

Today, the most successful artists are creative, dedicated to their craft and leave nothing to chance when they present their art either in person or online. 

If you study our top 10 category winning artists, you will see that they have one thing in common.  All of the art they submit that places high in our art competitions have been prepared and presented flawlessly. 

Every month we receive many excellent art entries but, if the artist’s overall presentation is not as good as their art, their work will then place at a much lower level in the art exhibition!

We receive images as entries that are not sharp and are of a generally poor quality.  Many of them need to be color corrected or properly cropped. 

What must an artist due to present their art at the highest quality possible?

• Provide high-resolution images. This does not mean large and oversized images.  It simply means that an image has been processed properly with the highest possible quality. 
• Straighten the horizons on your images.
• Size your images properly.
• Crop images and be sure all backgrounds are trimmed properly.
• Color correct your images (Only the artist knows what the most realistic colors are for their art).
• All images (no matter what the camera used) have a haze issue that desaturates, covers the true image color and the clarity of an image.

Artists can de-haze their images by adjusting the contrast settings either in pre or post-processing.  By de-hazing an image, an artist can easily take care of most of their image quality issues.

Artists who improve their overall presentations by making these small adjustments will find that their art will place higher in art competitions and, hopefully, achieve more art sales.

It is very difficult for most artists when entering an art competition to evaluate their entries objectively. Questions which come to mind are; will my art measure-up to everyone else’s? Is my style of art what they are looking for? Is my work good enough to be accepted? What are my reasons for entering this competition? Am I entering this art competition for validation, exposure or for the prize money? These questions can stress an artist to the point of paralysis!

In order to proceed further, the artist needs to make a determination as to their exact purpose for and their objective in entering this art competition. Does it meet the artist’s needs?

Is this a judged event or is this a juried event? Is this a local, regional or international event? Is there a theme or subject? What type of art organization is conducting this event? These questions should be answered prior to entering any art competition.

Let’s review these points in more detail in order to help the artist determine whether this is the right competition to enter or not;

• A judged art event means that the art which is selected will be evaluated and ranked for recognition against the other art which was submitted. Many local, small or regional art events are handled in this manner.
• In a juried art event, a panel or group of judges will determine whether the art submitted is to be included in the event or not. This type of selection process is used for larger art competitions. The show created by a juried event is subject to a variety of influences: the artistic tastes of the jurors, the politics of the local and larger art world, relationships with the sponsoring parties. The results may or may not produce a high-level show.
• A non-juried show is one that will include all entries submitted. These are usually conducted by art membership organizations, artist registries, and invitational art events. These are a great way for new artists to begin but they will not carry as much weight on a resume as a judged or a juried event.
• Some art shows combine the judged and juried art processes. The art is juried as to whether it is to be included in the event and thereafter the selected art will be judged.
• Different types of judges will evaluate art differently. For instance, judges who look at and evaluate art all day often respond to new and unusual art. They look for and respond to the “Wow Factor”.

Art collectors, art consultants and art buyers who are judges will usually be more conservative and “safe” in their evaluations and selections, as this is how they buy and collect art.

A judge, who is also an artist, will be more critical of any art that is within their specialty or in the media which they also employ. The rationale for this is that they will not select art in their genre/style that is not as good as their own art.

Many times we see artists who research the competition's judges in order to match their style of art with that of the judge’s. This can backfire on an artist, as that judge will be more critical and subjective about that art than another judge with a different artistic genre/style.

To me, the following are the most important determining factors for getting into an art show or art exhibition;

• Follow the Competition Rules and Prospectus Exactly.
• Submit Art Only Within the Subject or Theme of the Event.
• Provide the Best Quality Images Possible.
• Enter the Maximum Amount Entries Allowed.

No matter what we like to think, the judging process will come down to a subjective decision by the judge. If your art is not selected, it really does not mean much. The next time you enter that same art into another art competition, with another judge, the results may be totally different for you.

After the selections have been made, whether your art is in or out, review the entries that were selected and objectively evaluate that art against your own. This may help you with the direction of your art for the future.

Do not ever give up entering more art competitions. Be smart about it, do some research and remember to think like a judge in order be more successful when entering future art competitions.