1. I like to surf around the Internet looking for interesting sites by fellow artists. One of the things that I have noticed is that even if a website is well made, in many cases it is right off the map in a no-man’s land that is paramount to Internet death. If your site is getting little or no visitors, you have two choices, one is to forget about having a website, and the other is to read this article and learn what it takes to get thousands of visitors to your site.
The Internet is like a TV, with several billion channels. Every web page is a different station and every page is competing for your attention. One of the best things about having an artistic website is that you have art to show, which in Internet is absolute gold. Most websites have very little actual content to show, and without content there is little to talk about. Your artwork is content, and very good content at that. Given that you are starting at an advantage, let’s talk about what you should do to get your website on the map.
2. Get indexed by Google. This is a very simple procedure all you have to do is click on this link: http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl and fill out all of the necessary forms. It is free and without strings attached.
3. Add your site to DMOZ. This is also free, and is a listing that will add credibility to your site. This directory is put together by people, and not by random Internet spiders that happen upon your site. This means that someone will actually look at your site and approve of it for insertion into their directory. This may take a few weeks as there is always a line, but it is also without strings attached, so it is worth the wait.
4. Join a large arts organization, such as Absolute Arts. They have a free inclusion and a premium inclusion, both offer you the chance to show your art in another place other than your personal website. They give you the chance to link back to your website from theirs which is a great thing because it shows that you have important links coming in to your site. All of the major search engines look for incoming links to your website and the more links you have the better it is for you.
5. Create a reciprocal links page. This is a part of your site where you put links to other artistic websites. Make sure that the links you put are reciprocal, in other words that the outgoing links have a incoming link to your website from the other website. The best way to go about getting reciprocal links is to surf the web looking for sites that are similar to yours. Then add a link to their site in your links page and send a very brief email to the web master of the other site saying: “Hi! I love your site and would be honored to exchange links with you. I have already placed a link back to your site at this page http://www.mysite.com/links.html and will keep it there for two weeks. If you will add a reciprocal link to my site, your link will become permanent. If your would like to change the link description please let me know. Thanks again for your time. Best regards,". By doing this you will create a network of artists that will link to your site adding much needed incoming links for your site.
6. Here is a tricky part which most people overlook completely. I want you to go back over your site and rename everything. Most people don’t realize what a goldmine they have just sitting in their web site. With the advent of the image search on all major search engines the artist has been given a free "get exposure card" by the search engines. The reason for this is that at least half of your website is made up of images. I have been getting so much traffic from the image search that it is really worth a good hard look at how this works. Every image has an alt tag which names it. Many people forget to use this when making their websites. Sure, you may have named the artwork below it on the page, but for the search engines that means very little compared to the alt tag. In Dreamweaver, open your page and click on the image of your artwork, in the properties box you will find a section marked alt. Write in the name of the artwork, and here is the kicker, name the artwork something that someone will actually write into a search engine. I can guarantee you that no one will ever search for “Yellow chrome #115”. It is much better to name your artwork “Still Life with Sunset in California” These are words that will be typed by someone who will by total chance see your art and be happy. Another very important factor is the title of your page. Every page should have the title of the artwork in the title tag and your name, and a short description of your work. Here is a good title tag: Still Life with Sunset in California by (Your name) who paints in Oils. It is a good title because it fits nicely on the top of the browser and includes some juicy keywords for the search engines to find. I think that the title tag is the most important factor in making your website visible, so be smart about using it. Never add too many keywords to the title tag, as this will spell death to your website. Too many people have tried to trick the search engines with these ridiculous attempts to get exposure, when after all, the best way is to show that you have content and to make it known what this content is. The rest will come with time.
7. You will need to start tracking your website to see how many people are coming to see it. I have used many stat counters in my day and I have found one that I really like. It is called StatCounter.com and it offers free statistical data for your website. All you have to do is add a small bit of code to the pages of your website and you will be able to instantly track who comes to your website, on what pages and even what they wrote in which search engine to find you. This is an immense tool to help you realize where your visitors are coming from. Once you see patterns of traffic, you can emphasize those parts of your website that seem to be getting better traffic. One of the big surprises is that not everyone comes into your site from the homepage. This means that every page of your site should have a small menu on the bottom so that any visitor can find their way around from any page on your site. Make sure that you add the invisible tracker, as visible tracker buttons are tacky and tend to make your site look unprofessional.
8. Forget about flash. If you have an all flash site, you had better get busy and write some html because all of the major search engines have a hard time seeing the content inside a flash file. They can see the file, but that is about it. All of the juicy keywords contained in your site should be extremely easy to find for the search engines. This means that the menus on your site should be simple text hyperlinks. Look at Google, or Yahoo, they don’t have fancy complicated sites, and they are visited by millions daily. Flash can be fun, but keep it to an absolute minimum in your website.
9. Print up business cards with your website address as the main attraction. Many people don’t realize what an incredible tool a business card can be toward promoting their website. We all meet people, even people we have known for years, on a daily basis. All of them would love to do something useful when they surf the web. By giving them a card, they will probably go your site and get more out of it than a random visitor would. If you just write down the address on a piece of paper, chances are that they will completely forget about it.
Each one of these points has variations on which you can play with. There are many directories to join, lots of search engines to list your site with, and lots of keywords to play with. The most important thing to remember is that there are no short cuts, there is a well worn path which you can follow, and you should follow, as it leads to more traffic. Many companies will promise you thousands of visitors to your site, but unless you follow these points, you won’t get any results. The best part about Search Engine Optimization is that it is free. All it takes is a few hours a week to update your information and track your visitors and you will start getting those absolutely beautiful emails from people all around the world who say they love your work. You may even get offers from galleries, the world is out there just waiting for you. Let your website do what it was made for in the first place!
Example Websites:
http://cdr9.blogspot.com/
http://thesuccesstheory.blogspot.com/
http://itemresponsetheory.blogspot.com/
http://taksinlive.blogspot.com/
http://mobilephone9.blogspot.com/
http://goldenretriever5.blogspot.com/
http://rdc9.blogspot.com/
http://safetylife4u.blogspot.com/
http://itheady.blogspot.com/
http://thaidigg.blogspot.com/
http://beginerofbiz.blogspot.com/
http://thaidigg.thport.com
http://www.zilksoft.com/seo
http://eaglet.mobi
http://yummy.orgfree.com
http://prachinburi.thport.com
http://red.thport.com
http://prepaid.thport.com
http://eaglet.thport.com
http://boonterm.thport.com
http://adt.thport.com
http://thaidigg.thport.com
http://fx.thport.com
http://sara.thport.com
http://top100.thport.com
http://pet.thport.com
http://astv.thport.com
http://viper.thport.com
http://value.thport.com
http://sense.thport.com
http://talk.thport.com
http://dream.thport.com
http://allfree.thport.com
http://thaidigg.wordpress.com
http://funpark.wordpress.com
http://monster9.wordpress.com
http://itheady.wordpress.com
http://webindex.banccc.com/
http://webindex.paint4car.com/
http://tour4u.thport.com
The Internet is like a TV, with several billion channels. Every web page is a different station and every page is competing for your attention. One of the best things about having an artistic website is that you have art to show, which in Internet is absolute gold. Most websites have very little actual content to show, and without content there is little to talk about. Your artwork is content, and very good content at that. Given that you are starting at an advantage, let’s talk about what you should do to get your website on the map.
2. Get indexed by Google. This is a very simple procedure all you have to do is click on this link: http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl and fill out all of the necessary forms. It is free and without strings attached.
3. Add your site to DMOZ. This is also free, and is a listing that will add credibility to your site. This directory is put together by people, and not by random Internet spiders that happen upon your site. This means that someone will actually look at your site and approve of it for insertion into their directory. This may take a few weeks as there is always a line, but it is also without strings attached, so it is worth the wait.
4. Join a large arts organization, such as Absolute Arts. They have a free inclusion and a premium inclusion, both offer you the chance to show your art in another place other than your personal website. They give you the chance to link back to your website from theirs which is a great thing because it shows that you have important links coming in to your site. All of the major search engines look for incoming links to your website and the more links you have the better it is for you.
5. Create a reciprocal links page. This is a part of your site where you put links to other artistic websites. Make sure that the links you put are reciprocal, in other words that the outgoing links have a incoming link to your website from the other website. The best way to go about getting reciprocal links is to surf the web looking for sites that are similar to yours. Then add a link to their site in your links page and send a very brief email to the web master of the other site saying: “Hi! I love your site and would be honored to exchange links with you. I have already placed a link back to your site at this page http://www.mysite.com/links.html and will keep it there for two weeks. If you will add a reciprocal link to my site, your link will become permanent. If your would like to change the link description please let me know. Thanks again for your time. Best regards,". By doing this you will create a network of artists that will link to your site adding much needed incoming links for your site.
6. Here is a tricky part which most people overlook completely. I want you to go back over your site and rename everything. Most people don’t realize what a goldmine they have just sitting in their web site. With the advent of the image search on all major search engines the artist has been given a free "get exposure card" by the search engines. The reason for this is that at least half of your website is made up of images. I have been getting so much traffic from the image search that it is really worth a good hard look at how this works. Every image has an alt tag which names it. Many people forget to use this when making their websites. Sure, you may have named the artwork below it on the page, but for the search engines that means very little compared to the alt tag. In Dreamweaver, open your page and click on the image of your artwork, in the properties box you will find a section marked alt. Write in the name of the artwork, and here is the kicker, name the artwork something that someone will actually write into a search engine. I can guarantee you that no one will ever search for “Yellow chrome #115”. It is much better to name your artwork “Still Life with Sunset in California” These are words that will be typed by someone who will by total chance see your art and be happy. Another very important factor is the title of your page. Every page should have the title of the artwork in the title tag and your name, and a short description of your work. Here is a good title tag: Still Life with Sunset in California by (Your name) who paints in Oils. It is a good title because it fits nicely on the top of the browser and includes some juicy keywords for the search engines to find. I think that the title tag is the most important factor in making your website visible, so be smart about using it. Never add too many keywords to the title tag, as this will spell death to your website. Too many people have tried to trick the search engines with these ridiculous attempts to get exposure, when after all, the best way is to show that you have content and to make it known what this content is. The rest will come with time.
7. You will need to start tracking your website to see how many people are coming to see it. I have used many stat counters in my day and I have found one that I really like. It is called StatCounter.com and it offers free statistical data for your website. All you have to do is add a small bit of code to the pages of your website and you will be able to instantly track who comes to your website, on what pages and even what they wrote in which search engine to find you. This is an immense tool to help you realize where your visitors are coming from. Once you see patterns of traffic, you can emphasize those parts of your website that seem to be getting better traffic. One of the big surprises is that not everyone comes into your site from the homepage. This means that every page of your site should have a small menu on the bottom so that any visitor can find their way around from any page on your site. Make sure that you add the invisible tracker, as visible tracker buttons are tacky and tend to make your site look unprofessional.
8. Forget about flash. If you have an all flash site, you had better get busy and write some html because all of the major search engines have a hard time seeing the content inside a flash file. They can see the file, but that is about it. All of the juicy keywords contained in your site should be extremely easy to find for the search engines. This means that the menus on your site should be simple text hyperlinks. Look at Google, or Yahoo, they don’t have fancy complicated sites, and they are visited by millions daily. Flash can be fun, but keep it to an absolute minimum in your website.
9. Print up business cards with your website address as the main attraction. Many people don’t realize what an incredible tool a business card can be toward promoting their website. We all meet people, even people we have known for years, on a daily basis. All of them would love to do something useful when they surf the web. By giving them a card, they will probably go your site and get more out of it than a random visitor would. If you just write down the address on a piece of paper, chances are that they will completely forget about it.
Each one of these points has variations on which you can play with. There are many directories to join, lots of search engines to list your site with, and lots of keywords to play with. The most important thing to remember is that there are no short cuts, there is a well worn path which you can follow, and you should follow, as it leads to more traffic. Many companies will promise you thousands of visitors to your site, but unless you follow these points, you won’t get any results. The best part about Search Engine Optimization is that it is free. All it takes is a few hours a week to update your information and track your visitors and you will start getting those absolutely beautiful emails from people all around the world who say they love your work. You may even get offers from galleries, the world is out there just waiting for you. Let your website do what it was made for in the first place!
Example Websites:
http://cdr9.blogspot.com/
http://thesuccesstheory.blogspot.com/
http://itemresponsetheory.blogspot.com/
http://taksinlive.blogspot.com/
http://mobilephone9.blogspot.com/
http://goldenretriever5.blogspot.com/
http://rdc9.blogspot.com/
http://safetylife4u.blogspot.com/
http://itheady.blogspot.com/
http://thaidigg.blogspot.com/
http://beginerofbiz.blogspot.com/
http://thaidigg.thport.com
http://www.zilksoft.com/seo
http://eaglet.mobi
http://yummy.orgfree.com
http://prachinburi.thport.com
http://red.thport.com
http://prepaid.thport.com
http://eaglet.thport.com
http://boonterm.thport.com
http://adt.thport.com
http://thaidigg.thport.com
http://fx.thport.com
http://sara.thport.com
http://top100.thport.com
http://pet.thport.com
http://astv.thport.com
http://viper.thport.com
http://value.thport.com
http://sense.thport.com
http://talk.thport.com
http://dream.thport.com
http://allfree.thport.com
http://thaidigg.wordpress.com
http://funpark.wordpress.com
http://monster9.wordpress.com
http://itheady.wordpress.com
http://webindex.banccc.com/
http://webindex.paint4car.com/
http://tour4u.thport.com
Comments
Post a Comment