In May, I wrote about search engine optimisation for artists in:- 5 positive ways to help your art website rank well in Google - the top five factors for helping your website or blog do well in search engine enquiries
- 5 more ways of helping your art website to rank well in Google the next five top factors
- 5 approaches to avoid on your art website or art blog - what you want to make sure you avoid. Note some of these are highlighted in the next post as being controversial
- SEO for Artists - which factors help or hinder? - which identifies those factors where experts agreed or disagreed the most as to their importance
Check out Webware review: SEO Analysis Tool
I've found it helpful. Why don't you see what you think?
Here are some of my tips since I post tons of photos on my blog as well. I assume basic HTML knowledge.
ReplyDeleteSorry if there's any duplication but it's worth the duplication.
1. Use the "alt" attribute in the "img" tag to name the picture. If the picture doesn't load for whatever reason, the "alt" description is shown. It tells the search engine what is that picture.
1b. Name each "alt" tag individually. E.g. alt="david figure drawing 01", "david figure drawing 02". Better yet, "david figure drawing line art", "david figure drawing charcoal applied".
2. Give your picture a unique filename. E.g. mona-lisa-painting-of-da-vinci.jpg. Use dashes instead of underscores.
3. Pictures take about 6 months to index. Meaning if you post a picture, your search on Google Image will only turn up that picture 6 months later.
4. Page of the pictures gets index as frequently as the search engine crawls your website. E.g. A page of Da Vinci's paintings will get index almost instantly (depending on your blog's popularity) BUT the pictures themselves will get index only 6 months later.
5. Do not use Flash to display your pictures.
Good advice and it's not all duplicated
ReplyDeleteI would comment that I've noted that very long titles tend to get truncated when saved in PS Elements or used on Blogger.
I still haven't worked out how many characters we need to work within!
Wow, so many interesting links - I have to come back again later! The trip to Brussels looked really great and the links got me going off on a tangent too!
ReplyDeleteYes, the way we rely on cameras (re the visitors to the Louvre) often means we don't actually look! I read one lady's comments likening it to theft (although she was referring to quilt shows) which I thought was taking it too far, but I do now conciously make an effort when I'm using mine to put it away and enjoy the experience. It's easy to let the photo taking become the actual experience!
Re. point no.3 that Parka mentioned, I've noticed (and I know this is not everyone's cup of tea) when I've drawn well known faces, they can appear in a matter of days on the search engine.
Thanks very much for the mention Katherine - yes, indeed, I was doing OK till I met you! But at least I was within my baggage allowance this time! ;) I may be losing my laptop again next week, but at least it's only a week until the schools go back!