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Search Optimization & Your Site |
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Search Optimization & Your Site
The best looking website in the world is ultimately useless if no one sees it. With that in mind, we have laid the technical groundwork to help you with search engine optimization, externally and internally. In fact many of the steps to optimize your site occur without your awareness or active participation However, there are still some simple things you can do to take things to the next level. This article details the steps you can take to further optimize your site for search engines. The discussion has been split between internal and external search engines.
External Search Engines
Well known external search engines include sites such as Google (one of the most commonly used), Yahoo, MSN and Alta Vista. Beyond directly giving people your site URL (address), search engines are the biggest influence to site traffic for an individual web site. With this in mind it is important to learn what can be done to improve the ranking of your site. "Site ranking" translates to how high on the list of search results your site will appear for certain search terms.
The first thing to think about is with which terms or phrases you want your web site associated with. For many it is their name or an action. (ex. John Doe or Buy Art or John Doe Artwork). When determining what terms or phrases to associate with your site think in regard to truncated phrases, in the range of 2 to 7 words. Meaningful and precise phrases usually yield best results.
Once you have identified the terms and phrases that you want search engines to associate with your web site, it is time to employ them. Fortunately for you, one of the features of ArtBeacon membership is our simplification of this process. When you create a site at ArtBeacon the information you provide in certain fields is deemed important by search engines. The data in these important fields are routinely collected and pushed to search engines on your behalf by our system.
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| What are these fields and what information is being passed on? |
| Store Name - |
This field is perhaps the most important field for you to refine as search engines weigh this very heavily. The text from the "Store Name" field appears as the heading on every page of your site/store and is a link to the index page of your site (the first page people see). In addition, this information is automatically displayed in the top bar of your web browser (Ex. "ArtBeacon | Welcome To John Doe Artwork") and is the text that is displayed in the "bookmark" menu of a browser when bookmarked by a user. When a search engine displays results, this field will be displayed as the link and title of the returned result of your site. |
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| About The Store - |
This field displays the introductory text on the index page of your site/store. Utilize this text to be informative and to reinforce your targeted terms and phrases. Of particular importance is the first sentence of your text as this will appear beneath the title/link of the returned result for your site on many search engines.
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| NOTE: |
Both the "Store Name" and "About The Store" fields can be edited on the "Site/Store Settings" page. |
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| Product Title - |
Your product title should be less than 64 characters. This product title will often be the displayed link if someone obtains your product in his or her search results. |
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| Product Keywords - |
Words entered in this field should be concise and relevant to your artwork/product. Keywords relating to descriptions of subject and/or location are ideal. Product keywords are pushed to search engines in relation to individual products and collectively for your web sites index page. (Ex. For an image of the Golden Gate Bridge keywords might include: golden, gate, bridge, San, Francisco, California, historic, landmark, west, coast, traffic, lights, motion, blur) |
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| Product Description - |
Utilize this field to communicate a precise description about your product. This information will be displayed under the image of your product and will be used by your customers to distinguish your product from others. Keep in mind what information will be most relevant to your customer. Is your product framed? Matted? A print? An original? A limited edition? Are you utilizing a particular or unique style? Etc. |
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| NOTE: |
Both the "Product Keywords" and "Product Description" fields can be edited on the "Product Information" page. |
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| In the very near future we will be expanding our external search feed to include other product information, currently specified with every product upload, including: |
| Product Type - |
Ex. Wall Art, Cards, Books, etc. |
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| Product Subject - |
Ex. Abstract, Cityscape, Floral, etc. |
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| Product Medium - |
Ex. Digital Art, Painting Oil, Photography, Jewelry, etc. |
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| Portfolio Names - |
Your individually specified portfolio names. |
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Lastly, in order to strengthen the association of your key terms and phrases with your web site, you are encouraged to pursue link exchanges. Link exchanges are one of the most commonly used methods today to help users expand the visibility and exposure of their web site while helping improve their site's ranking in search engine results. The more links found on the Internet to your site the higher your site would display on search results for keywords designated through out your site. Pursue link exchanges with other artists, miscellaneous sites, and Internet directories. Contact the person managing a site (webmaster) as they often will provide a link to your site in exchange for you providing a link to their site on your web site or in the ArtBeacon Resources section (in particular the Art Directories section). Often sites that take part in link exchanges have online forms to make the process easier, but there are still many that require a short email correspondence.
NOTE: Several sites that accept link exchanges can be found in the "Art Directories" listing with in the Resources section.
Internal Search:
In addition to preparing your product information for external searches, the ArtBeacon store portal (http:/www.artbeacon.com) also has a search that allows prospective buyers to search for specific types of artwork across all members' sites. Prospective buyers can do this via the Search page and the Buyers page.
Currently information pertaining to "Product Title", "Product Description", "Product Keywords", "Product Size" & "Product Price" are searchable on these pages. In the very near future all elements discussed for the external search will also be searchable on these internal search pages.
Your Involvement and Our Efforts
Search is pivotal to the success of individual artists using the ArtBeacon service and we will continue to keep the search technology powering the site modern and highly functional. Moving forward we will also be supporting other shopping search technologies including Froogle, Google's shopping search engine. To get the most out of our efforts we highly recommend you reference the material previously discussed above and to read "Maximizing Your Marketing Efforts With Ours". This should help expand the reach of your work to others with our Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts.
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Did You Know? - Site Metrics Allow You To View Your Site Traffic
Site metrics are site/store traffic statistics that answer such questions as:
How many times has my site/store's index page been viewed?
How many times has X product been viewed? Or purchased?
How many times has X portfolio been viewed?
How much storage space do I have available?
Access your site statistics via the "Site Metrics" page.
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Forums & Community
We remind you that you can discuss account setup, business practices, recent site developments, and suggestions, with fellow members and the ArtBeacon Development Team in the ArtBeacon Forum. >> Access The Forum |
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