What to do if you are an artist after you finish your website.

Unfortunately, just because you've created a website, doesnot mean that anyone will visit it. The first thing to do is visita website called "Words In A Row", www.wordsinarow.com. This is one of the best websites thatexplains how to have your website show up on searchengines. This is called "search engine optimization" orSEO.

There are a number of things that you want to make sureyou want to do and know.

1) Make sure your artist's website has a title.

The name of your website should probably be "Your NameArtist" or "Your Name Art." There are so many web sites outthere that are titled, "Enter", "Untitled", "Welcome". You asan artist do not want to make this mistake on the Web.

2) Make sure you have a description.

It is now recommended that your description be 20 to 25words long. It should be full of "key words". Key words arewords that are the most relevant to your artist's website andthat will make it easy for Web visitors to find it. For an artistkey words could be your name, your medium and words likeart and artist.

3) Make sure you have key words.

Key words exist separately from the title. Some people feelthey are important to search engines, some people do not. Best to make sure and have them. It is now recommendedthat you have 20 key words. Try and come up with the onesfor your artist's website that are the most relevant.

How much money should you pay to have your websiteshow up on search engines?

You can spend a wide range of money or you can do it forfree. Either way, you need to make sure that you educateyourself about the Web; you will need information, patienceand knowledge.

Search engine optimization is not a science. No one knowsfor sure how to make a website appear on the Internet. Stayaway from anyone who makes promises and guarantees.

Also stay away from quick schemes and shortcuts to makeyour website show up on the Web. These can get youbanned from Search Engines permanently.

The "rules" of the Web are constantly changing as the Webadapts to the huge transitions that are consistently takingplace.

So far the Web standards that are dictated by the searchengines change about every six months to a year. One dayyour website appears on a major search engine and thenext day it disappears. Billions of other websites areexperiencing the same problem. It takes about a month tosix weeks for the "pros" to figure out what may havehappened. So far search engines do not share thisinformation. Then there are a series of informative articleson the Web spreading the news on what appears to be whatsearch engines now require.

This can be very frustrating, because websites are not like apainting or a sculpture that when it is finished you can thenleave it alone. As an artist it is a good idea to think of yourwebsite as a constant work in progress. If you look at it thisway, it can be really fun. How many artists would love to goback and constantly keep working on their work of art; with awebsite you will need to do that, so accept that fact andenjoy it.

© Mary Baker 2005

You can visit Mary at her website, Mary Baker Art, at http://www.marybakerart.com, see her beautiful paintings and read her articles on a variety of subjects including, Art, Artists and Vocation,Tips on Breaking the Creative Block , Art,Women andCreativity and the four part series on Art, Artists and the Web.

A list of articles can be found on her Site Map and Mary'spaintings can be seen on every page of Mary Baker Art.