How Many Websites Does This Company Have?

Go BEHIND THE SCENES / Domains where you can see them

I strongly suggest you have a good look in that area to get to know all parts of the site

pixels is considered the main site even though it was added later. there are at least a dozen doppleganger sites that we will eventually be able to opt out of... which reminds me, abbie can you ask sean if he's ready, he said he would be by last month....


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Yes, will have a nag

although to be fair, he never said 2015.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Thank you very much for the advice about Behind the Scenes. Since Behind the Scenes is not available to the newcomer until AFTER they have already joined the site, there is no way to know that there are all of these other domains. I have been exploring Behind the Scenes. But what happened was that last night I was exploring my tags to see what was coming up in the search engines and found the other sites quite by accident. Not exactly what I wanted to learn and how I wanted to learn it. Had I known about this I might have not chosen to join this site in the first place. This is something that definitely IMO deserves to be on the main pre-join pages. I ended up last night on personal profiles, apparently, of some of these other sites, listed as though they were the actual sites by name. It was really quite disconcerting to search my own name and come up with another person's profile on some other art site that wasn't this one. I don't mind that there are other sites. It just gives us more exposure actually. It was just quite a shock when I found out the way I did.

Cynthia,

Don't get too hung up on the search here. Your best bet is to help people find your AW site. Pixels, FAA are just different ways for folks to find you.

If you don't think this site is for you, no harm, no foul.

Also, most of us don't have a monopoly on names. I'm not the only Joe Hinson who is a photog, but I do think I the only Joe the Photog

if you have the artist website - advertise that and forget the rest. otherwise push the FAA site. while the owner proclaimed pixels is the main site, google really only sends people to FAA.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

SEO is important if you want to get your websites seen, whether it be here on FAA or other kinds of websites. There is much more to it than simply sharing our sites in our own known social networks. Twitter is fantastic and I love that it shares immediately whatever I have uploaded. But if I don't have the necessary groups of people following me on Twitter, it won't do any good because no matter how many are viewing, they aren't necessarily buying. So yes, checking to see where you are ranking, how fast you are moving up in the search engines, and all of that is important. I can advertise and push my website until everyone around me is sick of it but it won't get buyers. Buyers are going to be strangers for the most part. Art collectors. I don't personally know any art collectors, so there is not much chance that pushing my website is going to do all that much good. SEO is the route to get your site seen in the first pages of whatever search engine you like. For most, that is apparently Google. So following Google's SEO methods is what will get your site out where it needs to be. If you are here for maybe a sale or two once in awhile, that's all you might ever get unless you personally know collectors. If you don't know the collectors, then you have to count on the search engines.

I never said this site was not for me.

BTW. I checked the domains in the Behind the Scenes, and found the list of other domains including Pixels. However, those were not where I was ending up finding my profile. Pixels was only one of them. None of the others were on this list. And as I said, using my business name, which is also one of my tags (keywords) brought up other people's profiles, people who had no possible connection to my name in any way. And my profile page was coming up under other company names besides Pixels or the other FA domains in this list. And if you happen to find a Capirani Photography anywhere that is not me, I would be surprised. In fact, if you even try to search the term "capirani" you will see what I mean. Try it on Google. Make sure the spelling is correct too, because none of the search engines will bring up words with that same spelling except those related to my pages. Cipriani and capitani is what you will find most.

Here is the page that really threw me off when I was searching. I searched only for my name. This search result came up to some artist page called Anna Duke Fine Art, and "Who's Online" from what appears to be the FAA site. http://anne-duke.artistwebsites.com/onlinemembers.html

And also this http://xynodedesigns.com/newartists.html

This was what I meant when I said that in searching my own artist name, I ended up in other artist's profiles.

Just a heads up for anyone expecting people to search for your artist name. They might end up in a totally different location than you want them to be.

There have been several threads here about that problem. I can't remember exactly what the problem was but "eventually" they should drop off the google pages. Mike S should be able to explain it to you.

you won't rank at all on the internal unless you sell.

external will depend on the time you spent here, how well you advertised outside, how well you've done on social sites (google counts those as well). the retention rate of how long someone stays on your page. and how well you spread you own name. FAA scores pretty well, but it's done better in the past. a subpage like ours, may not rank as well. there isn't much you can do about SEO.

you really want to be on all the sites here. pixels sells the stuff FAA does not.

FAA cross links people's pages with other things on the site. its very confusing. i think he does it to populate and confuse google. but i think it just confuses the customers and us more. basically every site is mirrored under each other persons name. every discussion your in and so on, will also post under other people's sites name. but if there is a search they will find you and one click more will get them where they need to be. however this is also why you should be pushing your artist site and getting your name out. type my name and i'll end up at my site. this is partly because i've been here a long time. it will take google a while to index you. for now you'll tag along where your name appears most often.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

just a note though - you don't have to append photography on the end of each word. the site does that for you. and even if it didn't, only one photography would be enough. your better filling the box with lots of related words, rather than repeating that extra word over and over.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Google keep doing this crossover accounts thing. It is finding people on the same site and linking them. The work is all the artists as normal though.

you won't rank at all on the internal unless you sell.

That is a false statement

it is true though. if you sell your way on top. ranking at page 1000 isn't really a rank. once your past page 30, it's not a rank either. buyers get bored after a certain amount of clicks. it helps a little that the page seems to be giving other random results, but that's not super helpful either. while there are other factors in the rank, it's mostly by sale.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

It is a false statement Mike. Pure and simple. There are a lot of images at the front or near the front of searches that are brand new and ever been sold. To say that you do not rank unless you sell is false. Please do not make false detrimental statements

if that's the case he must have changed something. so does this mean it does it by keyword like other sites? or is there some new factor?

i'm mostly following that list you used to post.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Hmmm, I was out doing chores and came back and had been logged off. I guess sometimes it stays logged in and sometimes not. Anyway, about search engines and site promotion, the absolute best website to learn SEO (search engine optimization) is http://searchenginewatch.com/ which will keep you up-to-date on what the monopoly of search engines is doing...basically Google. BTW, you don't have to use Google just because everyone else does. There are far better places such as using directories instead of search engines as they search all the major search engines at one time. The best site for that is http://www.dogpile.com . I have used that since 2000. The past few years I have started using Swagbucks because I get paid to do what I normally do in searching. SEO has changed drastically since I first started in internet marketing and web design back in 1999/2000. My computer crashed in 2002 and when I finally got back online a few years later, everything was like a totally different world. But through all that Search Engine Watch is still your best friend for learning all you need to know about SEO.

Mike, I get what you mean about ranking on FAA vs ranking in the search engines. I honestly don't know what gets you ranked in FAA but I kind of figure newbies are on the bottom rung to start with, so that means you have to push to get your site in the top rankings (1st 5 pages at most) of the search engines. You are correct in that nobody is really going to search any further after the first few pages. FAA and any other site only does so much to help you in this process. It's up to you to do the rest. And like I said earlier, if you don't actually know the art collectors, and have them following you on Twitter or Facebook, you will be lucky if you make enough sales to support yourself with just your social networks. Keywords are important. Not just as a list of tags, but in your titles, in your biographies, and anything else you write. On the other hand, if you flood your site with keywords, Google will kick you out of the rankings. It's a delicate balance. And it takes a lot of work and time. And it doesn't happen overnight. Now there are people who will pay to have their sites in the top 5 results on the first page. It's very expensive to do that.

Also, just because FAA is connected to Google, (isn't everyone?) doesn't mean that you still don't have to submit your URL to the major search engines, and if you are blogging, submitting new posts to the search engines as well. Using BOLD and ITALICS once in awhile also catches the attention of the search bots, again, as long as you don't overdo it. How busy your site is, i.e. how many visitors you get regularly, also helps catch the search bots' attention. It is an error to think that once you have a home online that the search engines will automatically find you. They might...but not soon, if ever. You have to do your share of the work. But if you do your share of the work, where you rank on search engines will trump where you rank on FAA because people will find you in the search engine and be taken right to your page in FAA. If they know your name, they will search by name. If not, which is more likely, it is going to be something in your keywords (tags) that puts you in their line of sight. Using keywords that everyone else is using without using something that is specific to what you are doing won't bring you to the top any faster than anyone else. This is the first time (this past year) that I have worked on SEO for an artist website geared at attracting art collectors, so I am still working on figuring out what the best keywords are going to be. What I am using now is just something to start with.

For those interested, I just found a website that pings your sites to 1418 different search engines and directories, etc. over the web. It takes awhile for it to complete and I don't know if it is going to work or not. Worth the try though. http://www.pingmyurl.com/ I don't know if any of you have heard of Squiddo, but I used to have a lot of articles there. But as Google changed their parameters, Squiddo kept changing theirs until it was all about selling things instead of what it started out being, which was about writing and sharing your writing with others. But because sales is how Squiddo made their money, they changed their rules to accommodate Google and that changed the entire atmosphere of the website. They required you to do a certain amount and type of sales pages just to remain a Giant Squid, a level which I had reached. I didn't do sales pages at all, so I ended up transferring my pages to my other blogs. To get ahead in the search engines, you have to play by Google's rules now, unfortunately.

Mike, you are saying they are not ranked. That is what I am saying is untrue

I am afraid we cannot say what the search runs on. Too many people will then try and play the system and we will end up with a skewed search but, it works on 25 criteria. The top two are sales, and relevant keywords but there are another 23,

So it is not only if you make sales you are ranked. It is a high up thing for the order people are shown in but you are ranked regardless

Oh yeh, and Google even has a little disclaimer they put on their submit URL page and that is that just because you submit your site does not mean that they will add it to their search engine. Yahoo and Bing are together now so to submit URL's there just go to Bing. Submitting URL's is free. Anytime you are asked to pay, you are probably on the wrong page. If you can find a reliable site that does the work for you, and you can even buy programs to do this, go ahead and use it. But for the major sites, I prefer to do it myself because then I know that it is done. Google did have a special part for blogs but I haven't been there in a long time so I am not even sure where it is, but you can submit the URL to your blog on FAA or any other blog you might have to that page. Remember with blogs, each new post is a totally new URL, so submit it. You don't have to every time as it might be too much, especially if you post a lot. But maybe once a month or every couple of weeks. Remember to make your titles for each post keyword relevant as well as the first paragraph or two. It used to be that when you submitted your URL to a search engine, some of them allowed you to also post the summary you wanted to show up in the search. I haven't seen that in many years though.

I don't know if FAA blogs allow space for back links, or for trading links, but if they do, use it. It still works that if your page is found linked to another page, that attracts search bots. Your page must be interesting. Squiddo had a widget that allowed you to check if your keywords were relevant for Google or not. I liked that feature. They also had one that pinged your pages for you as soon as you updated something on them. Updating is important. Updating says you are active and not just a dead fish in the sea of links.

generally its best to have links outside of the site. faa blogs are indexed very fast, so it doesn't hurt to have a copy there. but the more outside links you have, the better off you are. google mostly likes (currently), content. so a healthy description that explains what we are looking at, answers a question etc, are much more useful than watermark mentions or copyright threats that seem rather popular here.

retention is another, if someone finds your page, they should stay on it for a long time. this tells the search that your interesting or the page is cool and google did a good job and then it rewards you a little bit. so having lots of good work, or a funny description or something that makes them stay is important.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Yes you are right. Once you get them to your page, unless they just are not looking for your type of art, they should stay at your page until they are satisfied that they have not found what they are looking for. The only thing right now concerning me is the order my uploads show up on my page. On the Xanadu Gallery website, art is posted alphabetically for the most part. My main art website was created using my own domain, but from using Xanadu's inventory program that automatically submits to Xanadu as well as posts to your own website. Having everything alphabetical helps in that it not only keeps all the art that is alike separate giving it some sort of randomness, but also in that I can title what I want to show up first by using the alphabet. I think it is important for the artist to be able to have that option of placement on their own website. I only have 2 pages right now so not a big deal. But if it is always going to be that the last uploaded are shown first, rather than a random mixture, I am not sure that will be helpful once I have multiple pages. Those first 5 pages are the most crucial in keeping people interested. I found already where you can add slideshows to your outside blogs, which I have already done on one of my blogs. I'm taking my time going over the marketing apps and widgets they have here, and also in starting the blog as I really want to think on how I want to do that since I already have 2 other art blogs, plus other blogs.

One more thing. Mike you mentioned something about not repeating certain words as keywords. I was just checking my art because I had a new keyword I wanted to add, and I noticed that there are a ton of keywords that I did not put on my art. So FAA must be adding their own keywords to the script.

yeah the site adds the extra stuff. they removed it once then put it right back.

to keep people on the page always make sure to upload your best. i usually give that advice to others, and that's the reason. if people see an image that is less than super they may leave.

i've been asking for alphabet control for a while now. but who knows if that will be implemented. just be sure to have an nice looking gallery. right now you have none, just images, which will be hard to go through later on.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

I don't think I have enough uploaded to do any galleries yet. I've only got 2 pages so far.