How to optimize your profile and utilize the power of SEO
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of optimizing a website and its content to improve relevance and authority when consumers search for things relevant to their interests such as art, artists, and buying or selling artwork online. Search engines such as Google find our content and assign value to “rank” the content.
As an open platform who hosts amazing artworks from artists all over the world our primary form of content are the artist profiles and artworks uploaded therein. What this means is that an artists’ ability to be found and make sales depends on how well an artist's profile is filled out and how well their artworks are described using the tools we make available to them.
Good profile performance will result in more awareness of your artwork. Read below for tips to follow to ensure you are maximizing your potential to be found both within the site and when collectors are searching online.
Tip #1 Complete Your Profile
The first step to a successful selling artist account is to complete your profile. A “complete” profile will include information such as your artist statement, biographical information, events, and education. Additionally a good profile photo and hero image are needed and equally important to include. For detailed information about these sections and how to proceed, review our article titled, ‘COMPLETE YOUR PROFILE’ and PROFILE INFORMATION’.
Tip #2 - Categorize your artworks correctly
Many Saatchi Art collectors, as well as our Art Advisory team, search for artworks by browsing within Category pages on the site, and through using filters like: style, subject and medium. Think of where a buyer or a curator would logically look for an artwork similar to yours, and make sure you categorize with this in mind. If your works are categorized correctly, they’ll be more likely to meet the right buyer.
Tip #3 - Maximize out your artwork description and diversify
Artists need to provide information about their artwork in as much detail as possible and in English. This detail is a constant request we receive from buyers AND this detail increases the “quality” that Google and other online search engines will assign to their uploads.
The “why” as it pertains to your artmaking is another important factor for buyers. Detailed information will help SEO because search engines consider well composed detailed information to be higher “quality” content and therefore show it at a higher rank in search results. Moreover, this same detailed information is used by Saatchi Art’s internal search engine and words found within descriptions will influence search results when prospective buyers are searching for artwork using our browsing tools.
Artists have the ability to duplicate a listing using Saatchi Art’s duplicate tool and often artists will use this feature because they have similar artworks to list within their account. Artists often create works in a “series” that have been created in a similar style or using a similar medium or theme. While there may be a benefit in duplicating a description for consistency, we encourage all artists to add diversity to their artwork descriptions as often as possible to at least some small degree.
Search engines will identify duplicated content and analyze the content to decide on which of the available duplicates to rank and how to order the offerings. Duplicate content has a negative impact on the artist profile and be considered spam or lacking the quality that would allow for a higher order in search results performed. Additionally, duplicating could direct away from one user in the same artwork category (same design) who is handling the information with higher attention to detail.
Make sure to only include information that accurately and honestly describes your artwork.
Tip #4 - Diversify your artwork keywords
Keywords are an important part of an artwork listing and when done correctly can positively influence your ability to be found both internally, on Saatchi art, and externally, when collectors search for artworks using search engines like Google.
Effective keywords describe such elements as: subject, predominant colors, mood, style, artists who inspired the work, and anything else that is distinctive or recognizable in the artwork.
Note: Length of keywords is NOT a factor. These words can be one word or two words. The emphasis should be on accuracy and focus placed on the distinctive detail you are highlighting in your artwork.
Learn more about keywords best practice here.
Tip #5 - Diversify your offerings
Artists should consider offering variation in the artworks they upload. Variations in size, price, and offering Open Edition prints are great ways to widen your audience and meet the demand from collectors with various budgets and needs. The more options you have to offer, the more chances you will find a buyer for your work.
Tip #6 - Do not delete your sold artworks or Artist Profile
After some time, your Artwork Detail and Artist Profile pages become discoverable in search engine results. The longer your a page is available, the more traffic and ranking it receives from search engines. If you delete your profile or artwork, you lose all the "earned" traffic you used to receive and it will be difficult to restore that.
Tip #7 - Thoughtfully Title your Artworks
Titles are an integral part of a listing and when composed with intention will help artworks to be found. Google will rank and consider a listing as having a higher “quality” if the title selected is relevant to the artwork. Similar to keywords both Saatchi Art’s internal browse tool as well as search engines will pull from artwork titles when displaying results for prospective buyers.
Titles can be difficult to develop and at times artists may feel they influence a viewers' impression or understanding of an artwork too much. Nevertheless, It is not recommended that artworks be titled ‘Untitled” and doing so will negatively impact a listings discoverability.
Vary your artwork titles as much as possible even when artworks are part of a series.
DO NOT stuff your title with keywords or details such as mediums, materials, size, etc.
Tip #8 - Upload multiple images to each listing
Images are very important to an artists’ profile. High quality images of artworks in controlled settings are one of the main ways you can boost your likelihood of making a sale to any interested collector AND increase the chances of catching the attention of our Art Advisors, but did you know that quality images and the use of multiple images can help with discoverability?
Artworks that meet or exceed the minimum file size and quality requirements for upload increase their likelihood of receiving a higher ranking when search results are provided to buyers looking for artworks to purchase. Search engines like Google prioritize links/pages that have quality images and will rank them higher especially if a user is searching using images as the primary search criteria.
Additionally, Saatchi Art allows users to annotate each additional image uploaded with a caption to explain the detail shown in the supporting image. These descriptions, like all other written content within a listing, allow search engines AND Saatchi Art’s internal search engine to utilize the information when producing search results for clients looking for artworks to buy.
The details you express in both the images and the captions associated with them greatly increase your likelihood of being found and the likelihood for pages to receive a higher ranking to be assigned to them. We highly recommend the use of both tools, multiple images and that you add captions to them, when listing a new artwork for sale.
Tip #9 - Create a custom URL
Creating a custom URL will help your profile show up in search results on search engines like Google and Bing, as well as on Saatchi Art. Having a custom URL is also a best practice for branding and promotion. A URL that includes your name is professional and easy for fans of your work to remember.
The unique username you entered while creating your account will automatically be used for your custom URL. For example, if you entered the username “janesmith,” your custom URL will be www.saatchiart.com/janesmith.
If you haven’t chosen a username/URL yet, visit your Artist Information page to do so.
IMPORTANT: You can only set your username once. After you've done this, the Custom URL field will no longer be visible on your Account Information page. Should you decide to change your URL, you’ll have to send an email through this form, letting us know your current URL and what you’d like to change it to.
Tip #10 - Fill out Curator Notes
The Saatchi art Art Advisory uses the Curator notes to have a better understanding of you as an artist. Giving more context to your background and artist career will help curators select your work for features, special collections, and projects. You can fill out Curator notes in Studio here.
Engage With Your Saatchi Art Community
Increase your exposure and gain new followers by participating in the Saatchi Art community. For example, follow other artists you admire, add work to your favorites, or create and share artwork collections.