How to market your website

Do you have an art website (or any type of website) which is currently invisible to those millions of online users around the world? Well so far so have I. (Actually I have two blips on the webworld radar how-to-be-a-bad-artist.com and unlimitedpalette.com where I sell greetings cards, art prints, paintings). However, I intend to rectify this situation by following some advice given by friends, colleagues, online forums and magazine articles as well as my own studies of web development. Hopefully you will learn from my major gaffs and your progress will be a lot smoother or if not at least forewarned.

After uploading your website don't expect miracles. There are hundreds if not thousands of art websites out there, a lot of them possibly like yours. I think it's a bit like sending a message in a bottle over the ocean, hoping that someone will find it and read what you have to say. I remember once talking to a talented art teacher who had just designed and launched her own website. She was really despondent that it didn't appear on the search engines, that no-one had bought anything and it was a complete waste of time. I don't agree that it is a waste of time, but marketing requires more effort, as I've discovered than creating the flippin thing in the first place. As another experienced artist who I met at a craft fair once told me wisely: "Painting and creating art is the easy part. Trying to sell your work is often demoralising. But you need to keep batting on..." His work was beautiful, so it wasn't the art or content of the work that was the problem. It is reaching the type of people who like to buy art, see art or just be enthusiastic about it. As he also said: "I don't even mind if people don't want to buy it. I'd just like them to be enthusiastic." So the lesson here is, you need to reach the right people or your target market as they say in marketing parlance. If you think of it like this: you wouldn't offer a bacon sandwich to someone who was Jewish and expect them to want it, unless they were feeling a bit rebellious. We all have our preferences, beliefs, interests and passions and some people just don't care about art.

I won't charge for this advice, like a lot of websites want to do, or make you buy a book. No, this advice is absolutely free and is based on my own research and experience as a student studying website development at the Open University and knowing professionals based in the dotcom industry.

Apparently, there are several paths to follow when trying to promote your website and it isn't just a matter of getting your META tags right (more of that later). Here are a few hints and tips that I've cobbled together and am currently in the process of trying out myself. (I'll let you know how I get on.)

The most important thing, it seems, is to get a link of your website on other websites. However, you don't just bung them onto any old website that takes your fancy and that says yes you can. You have to be strategic about it. The best quality links to your website will be from other websites that are highly relevant to what you have to say, sell or show. Obvious I know, but the obvious is often overlooked, especially by me. For example you wouldn't want a link of your art website in a directory for golfing enthusiasts...or maybe you would if your art included pictures of golf widows or other golfing type scenarios.

The six commandments (I can't think of ten) of "link building" are:

1. Above all else, avoid being a victim of spam and being a spammer.

This is the golden rule of internet etiquette ignored by some immature nerds who think they are clever by spamming everything (sorry went off into a rant there). However, you can add links to forums in a less annoying way simply by adding your link to your forum signature. This way you are taking part in conversations and displaying your link at the same time. Forum posts are often archived so your link will be embedded in stone, so to speak for ages. Google often lists information contained within forums, so it can also appear within search engine results.

A good online forum for artists based in the UK that has a section on marketing is http://forum.jeanniezelos.com/default.asp

2. You must make lots of friends and spin lots of networks

Myspace and Facebook are also good places for artists to network and link build. Myspace has various art groups that you can join, after which you can post a bulletin of your next show with the link, which all members of the group can see. Just make sure the bulletin is relevant to the group and isn't just to show your link.

3. Add your witty comments to other people's blogs

In a similar way, blog comments are a way of including your clickable link. But ensure you have something relevant and insightful to say as your comment and not just the link!!! And avoid using lots of exclamation marks like I've just done, as these are annoying as well. (Sorry I'm feeling a bit grumpy today) Blogs are also archived, keeping your links frozen in time.

4. Be wary of anything that's free

It's not a good idea to plonk a link in any directory, essentially a website that contains loads of categorized links. Is the directory relevant to an art website? Will it generate the right kind of traffic to your website?

Paying to be included on a directory may not necessarily benefit you, but could mean that you get included on search engine listings more quickly. The Open Directory is free (although I'm not so keen on free directories) and the Yahoo! Directory charges a fee per year.

5. Make the most of your assets

Include links on your other websites if you are lucky enough to have more than one. It will at least pass on potential arty website surfers who have been fortunate enough to stumble upon one of your perfect creations.

6. I'll show you yours if you show mine

I haven't yet achieved the honour of having my link included on another website, but I'm working on it. Some websites allow you to purchase links, but it's only worth it if you think it will truly benefit you. Smaller specialist sites may let you add your link for free. A good specialist website for those interested in arts and crafts is: craft-fair.co.uk If you have a pending art event, they might let you put it on there. Be wary of link farms, such as FFA pages. An FFA page is a Free For All page that is just a list of links with no relevant content or use to most website users. Search engines frown on these types of sites, which they may see as link farms; a sneaky attempt to artificially promote your website up the rankings. The search engines have cunning ways of identifying link farms and treating them like a bit of dog doo on the end of their shoe. So beware. Your listings on a search engine may go down as a result rather than up.

This is a tricky area and is essentially about getting your page listing to appear on the first page of Google, Yahoo or other search engines. Not an easy achievement. My website unlimitedpalette.com was on the internet for about a year before it appeared in the listings on Google. But, there are several things you can do, apparently, to "optimise" your position on search engines. Well here are a few tips I've been given. After slaving for hours over the content and design of your website (or paying lots of money for someone else to design it), you may think you are on the road to internet stardom. No sadly you are at the bottom of a very large hill that you need to climb with aching limbs and blisters on your feet. So here goes for those first few steps.

You can submit your link to search engines. This is worth doing just to make sure they know you exist. But this is like a small mouse tugging on the socks of a very large giant in terms of getting noticed. You may need to do a bit more than this.

You can also submit your link on the Yahoo! Directory if you cross their palms with a big pile of silver. Many search engines pick websites from this directory. I've not tried it myself yet because I'm too mean and not entirely convinced that it is worth it. They charge a fee for submission, which isn't refundable and you may still not get in!

A bit like the traumas of moving, but more virtual with no cardboard boxes to pack, you need to think about the affects of redesigning your website or moving it to another location (ie changing your webspace provider). Your listing on a search engine could be affected by this, as I discovered. All the work you've done to get it listed on Google will need to be done again, if the page structure of your website and the content radically changes (like mine has done). As I've also recently moved my website to another webspace host (for more expansion) as well as redesigning it, I've effectively been squashed by the search engine giant and made to start again. I've put a redirection page on the old location and am trying to work out some Javascript code that will redirect people automatically. As my website has been redesigned with a different page structure however, it seems I have effectively made the information that is currently on Google obsolete. As the information points to pages where it doen't exist anymore. Oh well done.

I imagine it will take a fair few months for my website to be indexed accurately as it appears now. Sigh.

I haven't done this yet, but it is a good idea. Making a site map not only aids navigation for visitors, but allows search engine spiders to reach all your pages. As far as I know a search engine spider isn't something that you find trapped in the bath, it's an automated program that trawls through pages on the internet, indexing as it goes. What a clever spider it is! However, if your website is designed in Flash or doesn't have easily identifiable navigation the spider may ignore some of the content of your site and therefore it won't get indexed. A search engine spider sees your website like a screen reader does (something that helps those who are visually impaired) that is just text and nothing else. So all the flashing gismos and oojimaflips on your website are invisible to search engines spiders. To see what the search engines see you can use Poodle Predictor, which shows web pages without layout and images.

I don't mean the type that you put around a painting. Websites designed using frames can cause problems for search engine spiders. It is best just to use straightforward HTML code. If you use a web editor like Frontpage, it creates the code for you. I write the code from scratch and keep the design very simple. It won't win any design awards, but it will be easy to for users to view and not cause too many problems.

My other website unlimitedpalette.com is a little guilty of being on the sparse side when it comes to content. I need to add content that naturally contains the keywords I want search engines to index. Indexers prioritise headings so make your headings relevant to an index. For example, instead of saying "New stuff" you could say: "Recent oil paintings".

Gone are the days when you could just stuff your meta tags with keywords to boost your ratings. Search engines may block sites that appear to be manipulating the rankings unfairly.

In fact it is the description that is the most useful as this is what will appear in the listing. Make sure it has full sentences, says something informative about your site and is not just a keyword stuffer.