the full guide to seo for creatives

You’ve poured your heart into your creative business — the brand, the offers, the aesthetic. But when it comes to getting found on Google? That’s where things start to feel murky.

Maybe you’ve been relying on social media to drive traffic and attract clients. Maybe you’ve tried blogging but aren’t sure if it’s working. Or maybe you’ve heard the term “SEO” thrown around but assumed it was only for tech pros or big businesses.

Here’s the truth: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is one of the most powerful tools creative entrepreneurs can use to grow — and it’s way more doable than you think. Whether you're trying to optimize your site or just starting to learn about SEO, there’s a path forward that doesn’t require you to become a tech wizard.

This is just my opinion, but I think that SEO is foundational to any business. When I started my first business, this was a key initiative I tackled early on, and I’ve been singing its praises ever since. I’ve experimented with alllll the channels, and this one by far has had the best ROI. Some of the first blog posts I wrote continue to generate more and more traffic years later with just a simple update now and again. That’s hundreds of website visits from a single blog (and I have many) – imagine what that could do for your business.

In this post, I’ll break down what SEO is (without the jargon), the importance of SEO for creatives, how it can help you get found by your dream clients, and simple steps you can take to start showing up on Google — even if you’re just getting started.

Let’s dig in!

What is SEO?

First things first, what even is SEO? SEO stands for search engine optimization and is, according to Google, “about helping search engines understand your content, and helping users find your site and make a decision about whether they should visit your site through a search engine.”

Simple enough, right? Well, sort of.

I started studying SEO almost ten years ago when I was helping my dad with his business — a lot has changed since then. Gone are the days when you can stuff a piece of content full of desired keywords to show up on Google. Organic traffic has become more and more competitive, and Google has become a lot more selective as companies, large and small, realize the benefits of SEO for building a sustainable business. And then there’s AI overviews…a topic for a different day.

The truth is, it does take a little bit of knowledge, some planning, and a touch of clever thinking to get started, but it’s still a very approachable strategy and one that stands to benefit creatives in a big way. More on that below.

The Pillars of SEO

SEO consists of three main parts, or pillars, if you will: technical, on-page, and off-page. We’re going to break down all three and help you understand which ones are most important to get right when it comes to your creative business’ SEO.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO is really about the backend of your website. It includes the elements that crawlers rely on to understand what your site is about, and it also includes things like website stability and speed, things that impact the user experience.

There are elements of technical SEO that are non-negotiable, like having a website structure that makes sense, optimized URLs, mobile optimization, non-duplicate content, and a good user experience, which is achieved with fast-loading pages and clear navigation. 

There’s a lot more to the technical side of SEO, but for the purposes of our SEO for creatives topic, all you need to know is that a successful on-page strategy relies on strong technical SEO.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO includes the things most people think about when SEO comes up. This quite literally includes everything that exists on your website – blog posts, website pages, headings,  links, metadata, and internal and external outbound links.

Executing on-page SEO for creatives effectively will depend on your business model. If you sell services, you may create a content strategy that emphasizes your expertise in a particular area, but if you’re an artist with an online shop, you might lean into SEO-optimized product pages.

On-page and technical SEO are the two things you must have to have success with SEO in the early stages. I’ll cover more about the essentials for getting started with SEO for your creative business below.

Off-Page SEO

In contrast, off-page SEO is all about brand reputation and things that are happening off your website. This includes things that show Google you’re a reputable source. 

The most common off-page SEO strategy includes getting backlinks, which are links to your website from other websites. Additionally, PR, social media, and other actions off your website that help improve rankings and improve discoverability are used to improve this pillar.

Out of the three, this is the least crucial when getting started. I foresee this becoming more and more important as Google algorithms become more sophisticated in their ability to separate real, reputable brands from the rest. But for now, focusing on the first two is likely to get us great results.

An example of off-page SEO for creatives might be being profiled in an industry publication or appearing on a podcast with links back to your website.

How Does SEO Work?

To boil it down to the simplest steps, the search engine crawls the web, indexes (or “saves”) the webpages it deems useful, and then uses over 200 ranking signals (aka algorithms) to decide how to rank your page.

So, for SEO for your creative business, you need to have a crawlable website, with useful content that fulfills the algorithm's requirements better than anyone else who is trying to rank for that keyword.

I won’t go into details about what’s important for content to rank yet, but just know that by following some core principles, you’ll set yourself up for success every time. 

How Long Will It Take To Get Results From SEO?

This may be why people shy away from implementing SEO right away. You’ve just started your business, and you’re ready to make money right now. You don’t want to wait weeks or months for leads to start coming in, so you focus on more short-term strategies like ads or organic social media. While I wholeheartedly believe these channels are also important, putting some effort into SEO in the early stages of your business is a good use of time.

One of the most common questions I hear is: How long does SEO take to work? And while I wish I could give you a magic number, the truth is—it depends. SEO is a long game channel. How quickly you will see results from your SEO efforts will depend on a lot of factors: how competitive your niche is, how long your website has been active, what your goals are, how much time you can spend on it, and others.

To that end, it’s hard to give a timeline, but done right, you can expect to start seeing traffic to your website within a month, with significant momentum happening in 6-12 months (with proper maintenance).

Think of SEO like planting a garden: the work you do today sets you up for growth down the line. It might take a little time to bloom, but once it does, it keeps delivering—without you having to water it every single day like social media. Which is a great segue into our next topic of why SEO can be such a boon to your creative business.

Why is SEO Important for Creatives?

I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume you’re wearing a million hats and feel like there’s not enough time in the day to get everything done in your business. So many creative entrepreneurs in this community are solopreneurs or small teams, and the idea of taking on another thing is so overwhelming. But that’s exactly why SEO is so important.

The Real Benefits of SEO for Creative Businesses

Consistent, Free Traffic

Ok, so maybe it’s not totally free (it takes some resources, whether it’s your time or money), but in terms of return on investment, this one will pay you back a million times over. If you’re trying to make the most of your resources, SEO is non-negotiable.  

Optimized content that's properly maintained will deliver for years to come.

Stronger Online Presence

Imagine the power of showing up time and time again as your ideal client searches for a solution to their problem. Maybe you're a wedding photographer and you're providing valuable information to couples getting married in your area (cool venues, how to get a marriage license in your town, etc.) or an artist educating your audience on the nuances of a specific medium.

Builds Trust and Credibility

There’s nothing better than long-form content to illustrate your expertise in an area and add value to your audience’s life. When you share your expertise and help people solve a real problem, it establishes that know, like, trust factor that is so important when you're selling something.

Scales Your Reach

SEO allows you to reach an audience as far and wide as you like. If you've been relying on local networking and marketing tactics, SEO is a great way to reach even more people in your desired area.

Long Shelf Life

If you’ve been doing the social media hustle, you’ll appreciate this one. You own your website and the content and pages that live there live as long as you let them and will continue to show up in search results forever. In the social media world, the longest something will circulate is about  4 months (Pinterest’s average).

Compounding Results

Not only does it continue to generate traffic, leads, whatever your goal was for that piece, but done well and given the proper attention over time, the results could increase.

You can see in the example below that over the past 12 months, the traffic continued to grow. The first 6 months, the piece averaged 69 clicks per month, the last 6 months it's averaged 89, with the last 30 days bringing in 117 visitors. Maybe that doesn't sound like a lot, but that's just one piece of content.

Attract the Right Audience

You’re in control of the content you put out there, and with a targeted content strategy, you can start having new clients come right to you!

How to Get Started With SEO For Your Creative Business

Below is a summary of how to do SEO as a creative entrepreneur. It’s intended to give you an idea of the steps involved with getting started, so you can decide whether you want to tackle it yourself or hire someone to help you. Supporting resources on each topic are being released in May 2025, so keep an eye out!

Steps To Implement SEO

1. Find your niche

Ok, so this goes hand-in-hand with defining your ideal client, but a niche can come first if you want. Finding a niche is really important for your business in general, and it can also help you get early traction with SEO, especially if you can find a non-competitive niche that aligns with your passions and your business.

2. Define your ideal client

Like I said, this goes hand-in-hand with your niche. The reason it’s so important for SEO is that the content, keywords, and messaging on your website are crucial to having your ideal audience come to you. To know what to put out there and what to say, you’re going to want to know who you’re targeting first!

3. Do keyword research

When we’re talking about SEO, keywords are the keys to the castle. Without a good keyword strategy, you’re dead in the water. Finding low-competition keywords that will attract the right audience is probably my favorite thing to do when it comes to SEO (this and seeing sites get organic traffic after implementing SEO). 

Keyword research provides a ton of insight and inspiration, and it’s a great way to get a view into your audience’s needs from the jump. I use keyword research to validate pain points and also to identify new topics my ideal client might need help with, which then informs my site optimization and content plan.

Read more: How To Do Keyword Research

4. Optimize Your Site Structure

The most foundational piece of SEO is making sure your website is easy for Google to understand. That comes through the simple implementation of a clear site structure. Additionally, determining your page URLs, metadata, and page headings will happen at this stage.

Having this in place before you start writing blogs will set your content strategy up to be as successful as possible.

5. Let Google Know You Exist

Get set up on Google Search Console and Google Analytics so Google knows where to find you and so you can track all the amazing traffic you’re about to start getting.

6. Create a Strategic Content Plan

You’ll want to create a strategic blog content plan using the keyword research you did in the earlier step. A little bit of research and planning will go a long way to ensuring you get traction with your blogs.

7. Write Helpful Articles For Your Audience

Once you have your content plan, you’re ready to start putting your expertise out into the world. This will largely come in the form of blog posts or articles. Long-form content is one of the best ways to attract your ideal client, build trust and authority in your niche, and is key to a successful SEO strategy.

8. Help more people find you with some PR and backlinks

This is what is referred to as off-page SEO. You can start building authority outside your website anytime once your website is live. Put simply, off-page is finding opportunities for other websites to link back to your website, and it can be done in several ways. 

While it’s not crucial when you’re just starting, it’s something you’ll want to be aware of and start planning for. Depending on your personality, this might feel like the hardest or the easiest part of SEO (it's my least favorite part 🫣). 

To Hire or Not?

If you’re brand new to SEO, I would recommend finding some support. There are a lot of great resources out there that you can use to learn, but there’s also a lot of nuance that an SEO expert can help you navigate to nail it out of the gate. Depending on how much you have to invest, you could choose an SEO course, a done-with-you SEO-coaching service, or a full-blown done-for-you service.

SEO might seem like a mystery at first, but once you understand the basics and start taking small, intentional steps, it becomes a powerful tool in your creative business toolkit. You don’t need to master everything overnight—just start with what feels doable. Even a simple shift, like optimizing your site structure or writing blog posts with a clear keyword strategy, can make a meaningful difference.

Whether you’re rolling up your sleeves to learn it yourself or exploring SEO support designed for creatives, the number one goal is to make it easier for your dream clients to find the incredible work you’re doing in a more sustainable way.

You’ve got this.

Cheering you on!