by Carolyn Edlund
Want to increase visitors to your art website and gain visibility? Use these strategies to attract traffic and promote your small business.
1. Promote other artists. The art community works best when we support each other. Give praise (and links) to those who deserve it. And respond to others linking to you!
2. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram can be traffic drivers for you. Post often on your profile pages, including links to your art website.
3. Prominently feature your website address on your business card.
4. Add a “Like” button to your website. When readers click this, it sends a link back to their Facebook feed page, letting their friends know about your site.
5. Open a Google Analytics account and put this system on your site (instructions are easy). You will be able to track your visitors and find out which referring sites they are coming from, what keywords they use and where they are located. Find out who your audience is, and play to your strengths.
6. Put an opt-in form on your art website, and start an email mailing list. Send out a monthly email blast, driving your subscribers back to your site.
7. Connect with social bookmarking sites such as Digg and Reddit.
8. Offer a tutorial, special event such as a giveaway, contest, poll or guest blogger. Promote them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social sites, with a link to your website to enter.
9. Join Quora, and become an expert there. Answer questions, and use the opportunity to share links to your own site.
10. Do a postcard mailing to your customer and prospect list. Include your website URL on the card, and invite them to visit.
11. Write about events. Have an upcoming gallery opening? Mention, and link to the event. Keywords about those events will bring up your site in a search.
12. Write an article about your expertise on a public blogging site like Bored Panda or Medium.
13. Join Facebook groups that fit your art or niche, and share links to your art website site.
14. Join and become active in artists’ communities online and gallery sites, such as Wet Canvas.
15. At a show? Use your booth signage to share your website link.
16. LinkedIn discussion groups are a terrific source of traffic. Join in the discussion and use links to your website in them. You can also answer questions in their Answers section, and link to your site there.
17. Create a YouTube channel, and make videos about your process. Use your website link in your profile, and in your video content invite viewers to visit it.
18. Solicit press through magazines and newspapers, and share your website link there.
19. Include your website address on all marketing materials you use, and even on Certificates of Authenticity that come with a customer purchase.
20. Write guest blog posts about yourself, your medium or the business of art, and include a backlink to your site in your bio as the author.
We recently launched a beautiful new website, done work on seo words, but looking to find ways to have people to visit and repeatedly to our site. This article is timely for us and I look forward to following up with these tips! Thanks
Thanks Shawn – glad this was helpful. Your site looks wonderful by the way, I recommend my readers visit you! BTW, you’ve just started driving traffic, haven’t you? 😉
If an artist wants more artists to visit their website these are probably good tips.
But does an artist want more artists to come to their website?
(I would rather have one buyer of art visit my web site than 100 or a 1,000 artists.)
An artist wants art buyers or gallery/venue owners or art directors to come to their web sites. Any really good tips on how to do that?
Great point, F. Frank! You definitely want to attract visitors who are potential buyers. Let’s say, for example that you would like to attract retail store buyers near coastal resorts, in aquariums, and parents who might be decorating their child’s room with fun fish art. What websites, forums and business groups would your prospective customers frequent? Direct your activities towards your audience to drive traffic from that sector.
Here’s an example. I posted a query on HARO (helpareporter.com) the other day, looking for experts to interview about concerns artists have about being stuck creatively. I’ve gotten lots of responses, as those experts would like to get exposure to the art community. If you subscribe to HARO, you would find that they sometimes have queries regarding parents, decorating, or other topics that you might want to respond to, thereby getting an interview about your work and exposure to your prospective audience.
A lot of this is just marketing related – and every artist out there is different. There is no one answer. Get to know who your buyers are, and focus your efforts on reaching them. Networking with other artists can be good as well. Referrals and news about opportunities are often shared by your fellow artists.
Great article, thanks for the information. Excuse me while I shamelessly self-promote. Check out my art at https://bluethumb.com.au/daniel-perry
Thanks for sharing! I recently started my first blog artwellprinted.com and I really needed a traffic article especially to art related sites. I’ll be posting some interesting articles about art and architecture.