We’ve worked with many artists to build websites that feature and sell their artwork. I love to reference this article from Shopify on how to optimize images – but for artists with little time to study the art of image SEO, we have summarized the two most important steps that will help you prepare your images to upload to your website:
Name your image descriptively.
Instead of a random series of numbers and letters, take the time to rename your image files with descriptive words that will help potential customers find the images in their online searches. You do not want to use too many words in your file names, just enough to make it easy for Google to show your image in a search that is relevant. For example: the painting below could be named: Red-Barn-Country-Oil-Painting.jpg. That way someone searching for a painting of a red barn or of the country may find this painting in their search results.
"Red Barn and Silo" by Elisa Root
Reduce the file size of your images.
Not only will you rank lower if your pages take a long time to load, but you may also lose the attention of a website visitor who is not willing to wait for your page to load. Reducing image file sizes sometimes is easier said than done. If you are proficient in Photoshop, the best way to do this is to use the "Save for Web" command. Here is what to adjust:
Quality: set to around 70 or as low as you can without blurring the image.
File format: JPEG is usually the best file type to use for web.
Optimized: Check this box.
Color: Convert to sRBG
Downsizing and sharpening: For banner images or images that will be full-width, adjust the width to be max 1500px wide.
Expected file size: Find this in the bottom, left-hand corner. Usually images 500KB or less will load quickly on most reliable internet connections.
"Pink Shirted Girl on Bike" by Elisa Root
If you don’t have Photoshop, Canva allows you to download compressed versions of your images that will have a reduced file size. However, this is only available on their paid plans.
Want to learn more image optimization tips? Here are a few articles we find useful:
Learn if your images are slowing down load times on your website by taking a speed test or contact our team to learn more about how we can help you build a website to feature your art.