ArtSites Updates

Over the past couple of weeks, we've talked about:

• 5 Basic ArtSites Things You Can Do to Improve Your Google Ranking, and
• 2 More General Tips to Help Improve Your Search Engine Optimization

This week, I wanted to address 5 Common Search Engine Optimization "Myths":

1. Meta Tag Keywords Improve Your Rankings
   Unfortunately, meta tag keywords do NOT help your ranking.
   
   (If you're reading an article that says so, it's probably written a long time ago. ;-)
   
   Most Search Engines, e.g. Google, ignore these keywords and tags.
   
2. Keywords Need Be Exact Matches & Repeated Often
   Google does a very good job matching keywords - even plural versions.
   
   (For example, if I search on "rose", results matching "rose" will be listed before results with "roses". Although both will be listed! ;-)
   
   Be sure to have your keywords in your page or image "Title" and ideally, at least one more time in your description or text.
   
   There is no "magic" number of times your keywords need to appear on a page.
   
   That said, you should note, if your keywords appear too many times, Google may penalize you.
   
   (Also do NOT just add keywords in the same colour as your website, i.e. so they are invisible - Google will penalize you for this!)
   
   Rule of thumb: keep your language natural and use your keywords as frequently as you would in describing your art to a potential buyer.
   
3. Spending More $$ on Google Adwords Will Improve Your Ranking
   Organic search results are derived from a very complex algorithm that considers over 200 different factors (none of which include advertising dollars ;-)
   
   So, increasing your ad budget will NOT improve your organic search result ranking.
   
   ("Organic Search Results" are the ones listed on the left side of the Google search results screen. ;-)
   
   However, spending more may improve your PAID ad position (on the right-hand side of the Google search results screen ;-)
   
4. Link Quantity is More Important than Link Quality
   It is MUCH more important to have "QUALITY" links, i.e. from legitimate, related websites, linking to yours.
   
   In fact, Google may actually penalize your website if it thinks you're trying to "game" their system by having random or unrelated websites link to yours.
   
5. Social Media "Actions" Improve Your Ranking
   While it IS helpful to create Social Media accounts on various social networks, Google does NOT consider the number of likes, shares, followers, or even Google +1's your pages / posts receive.
   
   That said, these "actions" do carry weight within each social network.
   
   So, while they may not help your Google rankings, they may help your standing and discovery within that social network.
   
   One note though - links on Facebook Pages or personal posts that are "public" DO count!

Hopefully, this will help you as you think more about your website and the text on it.

Have you heard any other "must-do" things about SEO? I'd love to hear them!

We want to make sure you spend your time making your site better for potential buyers - not just mindless checklists! ;-)