Selecting the keywords for your site to bring your business to the top 20 search results in Google is a pretty big deal – and it can also be extremely difficult. You can analyze keywords all day long but you really don’t know what someone is going to “call something”, it’s like Googling for “pop” or “coke”. How do you choose which one is more popular over the other? Which one is used more often, and is a more “common” term?
Being an artist – it’s even more challenging. How do people search for art? DO people search for art? Does anyone even think about having a custom pet portrait done, or is it a somewhat unique idea limited to a certain group of people? Then I’m left to wonder if people use fine art terminology, like realism, abstract, surreal, impressionism or pop art – or do they boil it down to layman’s terms, like painter, artist, pet art – or even further down to the specific painting or artist name that they search for?
This brings me to my poll – how would you Google it? If you were looking for an artist to paint your pet, what would you type into that search box on Google? I’d love to get your feedback. You can select up to 3 answers, and of course comments are open so you can let me know if you’d use a term that I haven’t listed here. Your input and feedback is very much appreciated, and will help a lot of artists looking for this kind of input to get their portfolio’s online and noticed by the right people.
Updated to add– While I totally appreciate that there are wonderful SEO companies and knowledgeable SEO experts who offer services to nail keywords, the purpose of my post was to get human input. Since artists, primarily, are not well off to pay for these kinds of services, they rely on the help, assistance and feedback from other artists and friends. 🙂
{11 Comments}
I would google ‘custom pet portrait’. :yes:
pam’s last blog post..Earth dogs are easy
aah – I’ll add that to the poll. Thanks, Pam!
I tried to vote but it hung, so I don’t think it went through.
I would say Pet + painting + custom
But then again, I would just email you to do it so there would be no need to do a sill old search! :pilot:
Kimberly’s last blog post..MNACP
That’s the tough thing about googling…I never know quite what to search for to find what I’m looking for. I try just about everything. Sometimes I type in a question, like “How do I draw a cat?” Luckily google helps me out with suggestions.
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I voted for Pet Portrait Artist; Pet Portrait; and Dog Portrait/Cat Portrait. :yes:
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There are paid services that help mine exactly what people are searching for, and rate the keywords by an analysis of phrases used & the number of competing websites for those phrases. It’s know as KEI (keyword effectiveness index). It’s one of the tools that SEO professionals employ in optimizing websites.
Though under construction, nearly every page on my portraits gallery site has been crafted based on keyword phrase research, along with other proprietary tools, to strategically build each page for optimization.
It takes many, many pages before one can rank high with search engines for generic key phrases such as “portrait artists” or “art supplies” but done right, you can climb higher every week.
Larger companys pay thousands monthly for SEO services because of the benefits it brings them. Employed correctly, especially with sales sites, there are financial benefits as well.
I will post again as soon as I run an analysis of the phrases you are having folks vote on and I’ll give you what the search engines say about it.
FYI – a KEI score of 100 or better is optimal to obtain high and quick ranking with search engines using basic SEO approaches. The lower the number, the more competitive the phrase is, and the harder it is to rank high with it; not impossible, just hard.
Here are the analytical search results:
“pet portrait artist”
KEI = 0.014
Competing sites = 20,700
“pet portraits” (includes ‘pet portrait’ within the phrase)
KEI = 0.011
Competing sites = 1,080,000
“custom painting” (too generic, includes auto, house, etc)
KEI = 0.000
Competing sites = 2,230,000
“paint my pet”
KEI = 0.013
Competing sites = 720 (however, not many people search using this exact phrase compared to the others)
“pet art”
KEI = 0.001
Competing sites = 628,000
“custom pet portrait” (the plural yielded the below result)
KEI = 0.001
Competing sites = 30,500
This is all I have time for. It looks like your first phrase, “pet portrait artist” and the third phrase, “paint my pet” have the best potential. However, a full detailed search would likely result in a much sought after phrase that would be easier to optimize for; that’s known as optimizing for ‘low hanging fruit’.
Anyway, I eventually do plan to optimize for the phrase “pet portrait artist” (It’s a natural fit, and I have one or two pet portrait artists in my directory already). I would be happy to feature you on that future page if you were in my directory.
Bottom line, if you optimize for that phrase, and I feature you on a page that is similarly optimized, it will help boost your potential SE results because an authoritative Portrait Artist’s Website would have a link to you. It’s a win-win.
I wish you the best in building your business!
A great post. I work with SEO experts at my agency when I develop websites. You are on the right track! If you really want to know the exact phrases, the people I work with for keywords and copywriting can really help anyone zero in on the exact strategy. It don’t cost as much as one would think to do this.
I would go for Pet Portrait or Custom Pet Portrait. I couldn’t vote in the poll because it wouldn’t load.
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