SEO for Creatives (optimize your artsy self for search)
I’m an artist, musician and blogger — wrapped up as a digital creator. Like you, I have a lot of creative projects going on and I want to share them with as many people as possible.
And this is exactly where SEO for creatives comes in.
It’s the art of optimizing yourself and your projects for search engines, social media platforms and marketplaces.
It’s a skill that anyone can learn. No matter what your domain is, you can optimize your artsy self for it. This is my guide on how to do that.
Now let’s do this!
What is SEO?
SEO (search engine optimization) is how you improve your website, content and accounts to increase visitors and search exposure.
So, SEO for creatives is the process of optimizing your creative stuff to increase your fans and brand awareness.
SEO has a lot of moving parts, including:
UX (user experience)
Image optimization
Target keywords
Site architecture
Backlink profile
Site speed
Metadata
Content
Don’t worry if that looks overwhelming. You don’t need to become an expert in everything to reap the rewards.
Explore more:
➤ SEO for Bloggers (full guide)
Why Should Creatives Care About SEO?
Whether you’re an artist, a musician or an author, you have an SEO profile — which includes your main account(s), content and personal keywords.
When you correctly optimize your SEO profile, you expand your reach, build authority, look more credible, become more competitive and grow your brand.
SEO for Creatives (how to optimize yourself)
Know Your Platform
While SEO basically follows the same formula (keywords —> content —> ranking), every platform has its own nuances and rules. For example:
YouTube — tags and thumbnails are crucial
Etsy — titles and product descriptions matter
TikTok and Instagram — trends and video are key
Personal blogging — long-form content gets the win
While there’s definitely overlap, each platform has a specific type of content and SEO that works best. So how do you get to know your platform?
Here’s my best advice:
Copy like an artist. Why reinvent the wheel? Use templates and follow successful creators for inspiration.
Be a consumer. Get to know your platform of choice — be a content consumer first — engage (genuinely) with your audience and other creators in your niche.
Research. Research your niche and key influencers in your domain — what keywords, trends and types of content are they using?
Learn. Learn about your platform to understand how SEO works on it.
Test. Pay attention to posts or content that performs better — double down on what’s working.
Turn Yourself Into Keywords
“Keywords are the lifeblood of SEO and content creation. Even social media uses SEO and requires keyword awareness.”
If you’re looking to boost your SEO as a creative, turning yourself into keywords is one of my favorites strategies to start with.
So think about your skills, craft, experiences and knowledge. What terms are people searching for that you can create content for?
Go to Google and type in various seed phrases. Look for what auto-populates and start saving all of those ideas in a separate document.
Organize your keyword ideas into topic clusters and check the search volume for each one — I like to use Ahrefs or Semrush here (both free).
And finally, remember to do a SERP analysis to check the search intent and competition of your keywords. Low-competition with high search volume is the best. But brand relevancy matters most.
Explore more:
➤ Keyword Research (my full guide)
Optimize Your Accounts / Website
Your account (whether that’s a profile page or a website) should clearly communicate who you are, what you do and why someone should care.
For example, if you have a creative blog, some things that communicate your brand include your author bio, about page, blog posts, CTA and title headers.
And for social media, your account bio, profile picture, content and link in bio all tell a story and create an SEO profile.
So consider what you want to be known for — what are your ideal brand keywords? Use those in your bio and throughout your content.
Brand your profile with your tone of voice, “look”, aesthetics and content style. All of these factors increase your social SEO.
Create SEO-Friendly Content
“Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”
SEO-friendly content is content that’s optimized for search, engagement and your brand. Maybe it’s obvious, but this is the most important part.
Because all the perfect keyword research in the world won’t matter if you never put those terms to use by making high-quality content with them.
So find your keywords and then make awesome, share-worthy content for them. You can use my blog content strategy as a guide, which includes:
Research
Goal-setting
Branding and design
Content production / distribution
Content monetization
Content optimization
Explore more:
➤ Squarespace for Blogging (full guide)
Later ✌️
SEO for creatives simply means making yourself and your craft searchable. This boosts your reach, builds authority and support your brand’s growth.
Plus, it gives you a serious competitive edge (since a lot of creators ignore it).
Optimizing your main accounts and website, turning yourself into keywords and creating high-quality, relevant content are some of the most important things you can do.
But if you’re not sure where to start, try to define the core brand keywords you want to be known for. Then, start using those in your content.
