Advertising Agency and Artist Websites

In previous newsletters I've gone on and on about how much more important words are than pictures on the web - at least with respect to search engine optimization. It's a fact that to a search engine, a jpeg of a beautiful painting or award winning advertising campaign has just as much relevance as a blank square. So what are all the artists of the world to do? The main objective of an agency's website and especially an artist's website is to show the work. Ads and paintings are the subject, and that's what their customers are going to the website to see. Yet a webpage that only displays an award winning ad or gorgeous painting has no relevance to a search engine. In fact, I'll bet this very newsletter will get far more hits on terms like "artist website" or "advertising agency websites" than any agency's portfolio or artist's gallery page ever will. That's because, rather than being an artist's website, I'm writing about them. My paragraphs are full of relevant content about the subject of an artist's website. As a result this page will trump thousands of other sites that actually are artist's websites. It's not fair, but that's the way it works.

So what can an advertising agency or fine artist do to make their website perform so that their valuable content, albeit in the form of jpegs, gets fair play? The answer is easy, but implementing it isn't. The answer is to bring some words to the party.

If you want to call attention to a brilliant ad campaign or display a newly painted landscape on your site, you'll need to put some words on the page, in addition to the image. You will need 250 words or so, "16 x 24 - oil on canvas" will not cut it. If you want search engines to pay attention you'll need to say something original, informative, and relevant.

By writing on behalf of your pictures you'll be performing an act of service to them. On the web pictures cannot speak for themselves: they need corresponding words. Before you give in to dread at the thought of writing 250 words for each picture or painting on your site, think about what is really required. You don't have to write anything extremely profound. Just tell the same story the pictures are telling. Give it some context, tell its history or associate a press release or case study that relates to the image.

Before you begin writing, take a minute or two to think about how this image came to be in the first place. If it's your own painting or artwork, write what you where thinking about when you created it or about the circumstances that led you to draw it in the first place. If the image is an ad or design piece, think about the art director or photographer who worked hard to produce it. Is it really that much work to tap out a couple paragraphs that may help the world discover your art or find your firm? When people do find your site, these words will add a helpful context and raise the importance of the piece to the one who discovered it.

That last point is important. If you read our newsletter on the dynamics of indirect search engine traffic you know that search engines lead visitors into a site's sub pages far more often than they lead them to its homepage. If you start integrating words into your site's portfolio or gallery, people will begin their visit to your site from the inside. When visitors hit your site from these sub pages, the more context you give your content, the better!

There's no doubt, that writing and editing content for the web takes work. Not everyone is comfortable slinging words and phrases together. ["Slinging words and phrases together" - there's a nice phrase, if I say so myself.] But I bet a little creativity, some cooperation and a vision for the complementary association of words and pictures can help get it done.

I bet there are a lot of up-and-coming writers out there who might be willing to pair up with a fine artist whose writing skills aren't as developed as their drawing skills. Such a writer and artist could team up to add creative and complementary words to the artist's visual work. Both the artist and writer would benefit from the resulting traffic by simply placing a credit link to the writer's site on each page.

Advertising agencies and design firms probably have it a little easier than most fine artists. First, they probably have copywriters on staff. Second, they have plenty of information to draw from regarding each campaign. They can write about strategy and effectiveness. They can discuss branding and audience. They can interview art directors to reveal the creative process behind the work. For an agency, putting content into a portfolio is more a question of discipline than ability.

But it's worth the effort. Imagine a potential client who is looking for an agency that has done work for hospitals to create a campaign for an inner city health program. Suppose they find a page through Google that shows an ad campaign that was done for a similar hospital, also targeting an urban audience. That work is not just applicable to their project. Due to the way search engines work they would likely find some of the very words and phrases from their search on the page. This copy, describing the project, its challenges, solutions and successes, would increase the relevance of the work itself. Imagine a prospect approaching you, having been directed from such a relevant source. It can happen. By combining images with the written word, advertising agencies and design firms can reverse a common problem that currently keeps them out of search engines, and instead deliver well-qualified leads. They'd have all that, just for the cost of writing a few hundred words.

In addition to including words in your portfolio of work, there are a lot more ways advertising agencies and design firms can use their websites more effectively. I guest authored an issue of Persuading last May. In it, I discussed in detail how an advertising agency or design firm can make its site more functional as a marketing tool. Some of the topics include practicing what you preach, keeping content current, emailing newsletters, tracking visitor sessions, technology options, partnerships and more. If you'd like to read it just use our contact form and type "Request Persuading PDF" into the comments field. I'll be happy to email it to you!