Category: SEO

Did you know that when Google likes you they do this?

4/1/2019

Sitelinks - and what people look at on your website

Sitelinks gives you a more prominent profile on Google.
Sitelinks also suggest your website is a trusted site.
They also mean you're attracting enough traffic to warrant highlighting your website - because you simply do not get any sitselinks until your website has been around for a bit, attracted a decent amount of traffic and gets updated regularly.

The links shown below some of Google's search results, called sitelinks, are meant to help users navigate your site. Our systems analyze the link structure of your site to find shortcuts that will save users time and allow them to quickly find the information they're looking for. Google Support - Sitelinks

The thing is you cannot determine which links get listed in Sitelinks. It's all totally animated and driven by an algorithm and the probability is that relates to traffic (this is Google after all!). That also means that if you cover topics which don't drive a lot of traffic that that topic will never get a site link - even if you are the #1 source on Google for that topic!

On the other hand, it's actually very interesting for me (and you) to know what other people want to know about in terms of search queries. I happen to know (for other reasons) that yesterday my website got a lot of hits for "selling art from home" and guess what's in the sitselinks for today! (see above!)

Google also gives you some tips - and I'll be making sure that I use these in future - including asking Weebly how come anchor text has still not made it into the feature list!

There are best practices you can follow, however, to improve the quality of your sitelinks. For example, for your site's internal links, make sure you use anchor text and alt text that's informative, compact, and avoids repetition.

REFERENCE:

Sitelinks | Google Support
Sitelinks | Wikipedia
Google Sitelinks: The Ultimate FAQ | Cristian Mezei (March 3, 2008),

Why you can't find an art business on Google

HOWEVER First you have to get your website to register with Google - which means you need to tell Google about it.

Google tells you some of the simple reasons why your art business might not be registering on Google eg

Your business isn't verified.
Your business appears on Google Maps, but doesn’t always appear in search results.
You recently added or edited your business information.
Your business information doesn’t comply with our guidelines.

Check out the explanations of what what do in

Can't find business on Google
Add a business before it opens for those not yet online....

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Knowledge Panel/Graph

Of course you've really made it with Google when you have a location based business and Google decided you need a knowledge panel. Or so you might think.

However you'd be wrong as Google's Knowledge Graph functionality tends to pick up the information from public information sources such as Wikipedia in order to create a Knowledge Panel!

So this is one for the famous artists, art galleries and art studios - but not for their websites!

Google's new Activity Card

Google turned 20 in 2018 and came up with a new trick for presenting search results.

It's called the Activity Card and this Trusted Reviews article (below) explains how it works - and why it's been designed - with the images indicating that it's very much oriented to fast search using a smartphone.

READ Google presents ‘Evolution of Search’ with Lens, Activity Cards, Collections and Discover

Writing all of this has made me think I really need to write up all the techie bits for Websites for Artists which haven't made it on to the website yet! That will join the "to do" list for 2019!

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Google goes 'mobile first' indexing

29/3/2018

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If you are still on an old school fixed pixel width website and haven't as yet upgraded to a responsive template and become mobile friendly, you will want to know that Google is migrating to mobile-first indexing for its search engine.

(see Rolling out mobile-first indexing on the Official Google Webmaster blog) .

Mobile-first indexing means that Google will use the mobile version of the page for indexing and ranking.

This in part reflects that most people using search are now on a mobile device.

This means:

sites using responsive web design or dynamic serving are generally set for mobile-first indexing.
sites which have two versions of their site will continue to have the non-mobile version used for indexing.

In addition, starting in July 2018, web content that is slow-loading may perform less well for both desktop and mobile searchers.

You'll find out if your site is affected via the Google Search Console (new name for Google Webmaster)

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Don't be conned by SEO companies!

3/2/2017

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I regularly get approaches from people representing SEO companies who promise that they can help improve the performance of my website.

I normally send them straight to the spam folder. However they're sneaky and use forms on your website.

This is one such - which came in via a form response on Art Business Info for Artists this morning

Name
Alan Sehwag
Email
alan@ngrwebteam.com

Comment
Hi there,

I recently spent some time doing a site review of www.artbusinessinfo.com. (Yes, I do random site reviews for a living.)

Based on what I saw,there are a few things you could implement pretty quickly that would help boost your Google rankings, traffic, social media & conversion. I noticed, few technical errors that are effecting your website’s performance too.

We'll start counting & will keep fixing all bugs, provide you a clean safe website.We are also into website design, development and can redesign your website.

Not sure what your initiatives are in this area, but is this something that’s on your radar?

Alan.
(323) 617-3981

This is the reply I've just sent to Alan.

Dear Alan

I'm assuming this is for free and that your pricing page http://www.ngrwebteam.com/seo-pricing didn't just slip your mind - or the Federal Regulations relating to spamming people who have not given their consent to be approached? You sure you don't want me to remind you?

I also do reviews of those that say they help artists. I'll be sure to remember the name of your company.

Regards
Katherine

Katherine Tyrrell
Making A Mark on Art

Making A Mark is a top art blog - #3 in the UK and #7 in the world
c. 3.8 million+ visitors and 10.5 million+ pageviews and counting.....
Follow Making A Mark on Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Amazon
My Book on Facebook: Katherine Tyrrell: 365 Tips for Drawing and Sketching
Website: Art Business - for Artists + Blog + Facebook Page
Website: Botanical Art & Artists + Blog + Facebook Page

If you get approaches like this:

You shouldn't be. This is spam. It also breaches the rules of marketing online.
They typically all say the same generic things irrespective of what the issues are with your website. That's because they are selling their services to make money for themselves.
They typically haven't got a clue about the target market for your website. They are selling cookie cutter solutions - not something specific to marketing art by artists.
Check the website to find the pricing page. Alan forgot to mention that help from his company STARTS at $400 per month! The more difficult it is to find the pricing the more suspicious you should get. That includes any omission to mention prices in any approach to you.

The enormous prices for services from NGR

You most certainly don't need to be spending a lot of money. Most artists simply don't need help from professional companies if they are prepared to learn the basics for themselves. It's not difficult.

Personally I'd recommend avoiding SEO companies who in my book are the equivalent of snake oil salesmen!

Try and see how far you can get on your own through studying the basics of what helps with marketing your art online. Unless you've got a BIG pot of money to sink into creating a brand and marketing it and expert who gets results for ARTISTS!

One simple way to improve your website performance

I've always found the Google Webmaster Guidelines is a good place to start because you need to ensure your website is compliant with Google if you are to get a good ranking and turn up in search enquiries.

Work your way through these before you ever contemplate looking around for more help.

What's your best tip for fellow artists?

Please share your best tip for improving the performance of your website.

Mine relates to being very careful how you title pages and construct URLs for individual pages on your website.

be aware of the keywords associated with search queries
be very accurate as to content (Google likes this!)
try not to be the same as everybody else!

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Art Business Info: NEWS

Did you know that when Google likes you they do this?

Sitelinks - and what people look at on your website

Why you can't find an art business on Google

Knowledge Panel/Graph

Google's new Activity Card

Google goes 'mobile first' indexing

Don't be conned by SEO companies!

One simple way to improve your website performance

What's your best tip for fellow artists?

Art Business Info. News for Artists

Visitors so far

GET Art Business Info. NEWS by Email

Author

Archives

Categories

Art Business Info: NEWS

Did you know that when Google likes you they do this?

Sitelinks - and what people look at on your website

Why you can't find an art business on Google​

Knowledge Panel/Graph​

Google's new Activity Card​

Google goes 'mobile first' indexing

Don't be conned by SEO companies!

One simple way to improve your website performance

What's your best tip for fellow artists?

Art Business Info. News for Artists

Visitors so far

GET Art Business Info. NEWS by Email

Author

Archives

Categories

Why you can't find an art business on Google

Knowledge Panel/Graph

Google's new Activity Card