How to Optimize Images of Art for SEO

Image optimization (SEO) of artwork images is very important for artists who promote their art online.  If they are optimized correctly, they may be easily found on Google Image Search.

Many times people who find you on search will click through to your site, especially if they want to see more of your art.

There are many art buyers who use Google Image Search as a reference to find artists, or particular types of art. Typing in a particular artist usually brings you a bunch of results by that artist. Try it for yourself!

Go to Google Image Search now, input my name “Graham Matthews” in the box. You can see quite a few paintings and drawings by myself there, as well as a picture of me. But, the other people named Graham Matthews who are there rank lower.

 

 

Now, try inserting “entwined abstract painting”, which is one of my best paintings, into the box.

The results which come up show my painting in the number one spot!

 

Try the same with your own name and names of artworks to see how you rank.

How did I do this? Well, I was not always using SEO for my images, but after I made a few essential changes, I started seeing my drawings and paintings pop up in search results.

Read on to see some of the SEO (search engine optimization) tactics I used to help others easily find my artworks just by searching for them.

 

How to Make Images of Artworks Show up in Google Image Search

 

• Have a short descriptive file name for your art image

  
  There are some important things you must follow here for proper SEO.
  
  Try to not have the file name too long, no more than two or three words. Google spiders might automatically pin your image as spammy, and not list it at all.
  
  Use a name that describes the artwork, or what people are searching for. Imagine what a person would type in to find your particular artwork. 
  
  Here is a formula you can use, and modify to your liking.
  
  Filename = [title of artwork]-[medium or type of art]-[style].png
  
  In the case of the above formula, Graham Matthews’ “Squids – Hung Out to Dry” abstract oil painting file should be named squids-painting-abstract.png
  
  

• Use of the alt attribute to summarize your artwork

  
  Whatever is entered in the alt attribute displays when your artwork cannot be shown in web browsers. Naturally, you will want to make it descriptive of the artwork, so people will clickthrough to see it. Having the alt attribute there also helps with the SEO.
  
  Here is an example of how an alt tag is inserted into HTML.
  
  
  <img src=”picture file” alt=”abstract art”>
  
  

• Proper title tags for your artwork images

                  
  Titles appear when you hover your mouse cursor over an image. The common SEO practice is to make this the same as the alt tags.
  
  
  <img src=”picture file” alt=”abstract art” title=”abstract art”>
  
  

• The rel attribute for keywords

  
  The rel attribute is what search engine spiders look at, to further categorize your image.
  
  Use a specific search term by which you want others to find your artwork, something that you can imagine them typing in.
  
  
  <img src=”picture file” alt=”abstract art” title=”abstract art” rel=”abstract art”>

As you can see above, I used the same phrase for the alt, title, and rel attributes. This is considered a good practice for SEO of images. If you have other words that describe your artwork, simply include them in your content near the image.

Some HTML editors allow you to enter this without a knowledge of HTML.

 

 

But, if you are one who needs help with html to optimize your art images, please let me know by leaving a comment below.

I will do my best to help you!