Search engines and SEO : How to improve my ranking on Google in 2024?

How to improve your SEO to sell more artworks?

IMPORTANT: Google update 2024!

Google no longer indexes pages that do not have long textual content (100 to 400 words) and are unique (no description copied/pasted, or already seen on other sites). Undocumented works or poorly provided biographies are no longer indexed by Google!

The techniques to improve your position on the web are called Search Engines Optimization (SEO). 

The SEO is based on 3 principles 

  1. 20%: Website development technic (depends on Artmajeur)
    Your site must respect the description, programming and presentation conventions required by Google. All pages on Artmajeur are built using the latest Google technology recommendations and are 100% optimized and up-to-date. 

  2. 30%: Content originality and unicity (depends on you) 
    Google takes into account the originality, the unicity and the quality of your content. If your content is original (only displayed on Artmajeur) that gets you an edge on your ranking. 

  3. 50%: Your site authority (depends on you) 
    Website Authority means that Google assumes that the pages from this website are the more interesting results to display for a specific subject. Google computes the number of links that point to your site: the more links you have, and the more important those links are, the more authority it has, and the higher the ranking is upgrading.
    Artmajeur has an excellent authority on the online art gallery business. You can greatly improve your results in search engines by working on profile's authority. If google find many links to your profile, your gallery or your artworks, their position in search results will improve significantly!


General questions about SEO

Why do I have to take care of my SEO?
Artmajeur has no control over or ability to directly influence Google's search results. We do our best to optimize your site according to Google's recommendations and sometimes that's enough, but generally, our action has little influence on the ranking when there is competition.

Indeed, 80% of the ability to correctly rank your site for your keywords depends exclusively on your own upstream work and SEO. 

What can I expect as a ranking?
Don't be too greedy: you will never get a better ranking than the big art sites for generic terms like "art", "art sales", "contemporary art" etc.. because these sites spend millions on promotion budget each year. 

However, by following the tips on this page, we are confident that you can achieve for example the following goals : 

  • Rank your site # 1 on the search of your "Artist Name" 
  • Classify your site in the first 10 results for a specific search like " your technique and your locality" 
  • Rank your site on the first page of results for one or several main themes that you practice 
  • Receive up to several hundred new visitors per week from Google Image Search If you really want your name to appear for very generic keywords like "contemporary Art", we advise you to buy keywords instead. 

Buying keywords: the immediate solution 
If you are in a hurry or don't want to do SEO, you can opt for the immediate keywords purchase on Google. Your site will then appear directly on the search results for the keywords you purchase. The cost is depending on the budget you allocate, but the results are immediate, for more information, please visit Google Ads

Promotion Campaign on Google/Facebook/Instagram managed by Artmajeur
Contact us if you would like Artmajeur to set up and manage your promotion campaign on Google, Facebook or Instagram.

What is a search engine? 
It's a website that scans every page it finds and then records them with keywords. To perform a search, you can either use the search form on the site (for example google.com), or the search bar in the browser. 

Are "Google" and the internet the same thing? 
No. Google and the Internet are two different things. The Internet is a global network of servers. Google is an important search engine. This allows a site to function properly even if the search engine "Google" did not Index it in its search results. To access a site, you must enter its address in the address bar of your browser, not in the search bar of a search engine! 

I have a new website or domain name, why is it not listed in Google? 
Google refers to new sites automatically, it takes a few days to several weeks. 

I have my own domain name MyName.com, why does my address Artmajeur.com/profilname appear sometimes before my domain name in search results ?
Because your domain is not well-known or popular enough. Google considers that your profile address on Artmajeur, which benefits from thousands of network references pages, has more authority. For your domain to become authoritative, many links must point to it from art-related sites. In that case, your domain will be better highlighted for keywords such as "your name".

Can Artmajeur make sure my site is highly ranked faster? 
No.  We have no control over Google results. 

Can Artmajeur make my site improve its ranking ?
No.  We have no control over Google results. However, we do our best to give you the keys to successful SEO and get the best ranking possible. 

Can Artmajeur change the information on my site to appear in Google search results? 
No.  We have no control over Google results. 

A while ago, my site was well classified but now it does not appear anymore, can Artmajeur find a solution? 
No.  We have no control over Google results. Google often changes its Indexing Algorithm, which sometimes makes your site go up or down. However, if you follow the tips on this page, you should recover a good ranking quite quickly.  

How do I add my site to Google? 
Google scans all sites automatically on a regular basis. If you think Google has not found your page, you can however indicate your site to Google on the following page: http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl.

How do I change the way my site appears on Google? 
It is not possible to directly modify the information on the Google results, you must update your site first. Google will get the updated information on the next scan. 

Can I change my Google images? 
No, not directly, but you can update the images/information on your site, and Google will bring up the new information after a few days / - or weeks.  

How do I delete my old Google images?
To do this, simply remove them from your site. Google will also remove those deleted images indexes after a few days or weeks. You can also request a particular page deletion at the following address: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/removals?pli=1...  

Why do the images I deleted from Artmajeur still appear on Google? 
The Google update depends on their algorithms, Google will also remove them from its indexes but only after a few days or weeks. 



Now, the most important:

How to improve my ranking on Google?



Improving the quality and originality of your content
It is a matter of quality and original content, as unique as possible, and perfectly presented.

Avoid content duplication
If you have 10 sites with the same information, the same images, the same texts, Google divides the interest it has in each of your sites by 10. However, you can communicate with the maximum number of media to get maximum visibility: each media communication shall be customized and unique.

Our advice: create and define your site on Artmajeur as your main site with all your content (images and original texts). Then remove from your other sites all the texts and images identical to those you have defined on your site Artmajeur and leave only some images and texts. Be careful to place only separate documents on all other sites (do not place the same content on all other sites). If you insert images of the same work, change the filename according to the sites. If you insert your biography, update sentences, or simply rewrite your biography to make it unique.

Therefore, update all other sites from time to time (at least once a year) by adding content if possible different from what you already have on Artmajeur.

By limiting content duplication, you ensure the original quality of your site for Google.

Describe perfectly your artworks and your biography 
Google very quickly downgrades pages that do not display textual content. You absolutely must describe your work and your biography professionally. Do not copy/paste: the more original and unique the content is, the more Google will value your position! 

Check your titles and descriptions artworks quality 
The better you describe your works, the better Google will index them according to the relevant keywords to your activity, and the more your site as a whole will benefit!

In addition to that, it allows you to find several additional visitors who arrive from Google by searching groups of terms or topics that you have used.

For example: if your work represents a racehorse, follow these rules in the Description Field:

Minimum: horse race

Correct: oil on canvas representing a racehorse (pure Arab blood))

Perfect: oil on canvas depicting a racehorse (purebred Arab) the Grand Prix of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris

Even better: describe in addition anecdotes concerning this subject, this theme, the technique used or the context in which you created this work.

Avoid unprofessional or misleading titles: it does not work
Do not enter 100 generic keywords such as (art, arts, artists, contemporary art..), and do not put an extended description that contains all the keywords. Also, do not include non-explanatory text such as "contact me on my EMAIL [email protected], TEL: 123456789", because it actually has a very real effect on your ranking: your ranking will severely downgrade.

Our recommendation: indicate all the information about the work, describe the work in a clear and precise way. Insert a maximum of ten groups of simple and representative keywords, for example: "your artist name, animal art, Color Artist, horse painting, horse painting racing".

Improving the authority of your site
It is about increasing the number of links that point to your site, to show Google that it is a legitimate site.

Avoid the multiplication of sites
For your communication to be effective, it must be massive, powerful, simple, fast, clear! When you communicate on 10 different links, you divide equally the importance and the scope of each link: "Wait, I'll give you the address of my site, then www uh.. wait there's this one too, and then also this other one but I didn't put my last artworks there yet ..."

It is quite clear that MYSITE.COM is easier to remember than multiple links:
http://www.mysite1.com/myartworks/new_artworks.html http://members.othersite.com/myartworks/user1 
http://www.myblog.com/myblogs2019./index.html
http://mysite2.com/recent_artworks/index.php 

Our recommendationbuy your own domain for your Artmajeur account, for example, YourName.com, or choose to use your address artmajeur.com/yourprofile as the main address, then exclusively communicate on the chosen domain name. 

If you want your visitors to be able to access your other sites as well, it is simple: add the links from the other sites to your "links page", or on blogs roll, you can then indicate the links to your other sites, but you absolutely need to have only one main site. This ensures that your site has a preference position, not only for search engines but also for all your audience and friends who have only your reference site in mind.

Why should I choose the Artmajeur site to be my main site ?
Because Artmajeur has been the leading platform in the online art market for over 10 years, and it is now the largest online art gallery, and recognized as such by Google. By communicating on Artmajeur for the promotion of your artworks, you associate yourself with the leader of the sector and you benefit from the popularity of all our infrastructure which includes hundreds of thousands of pages indexed in the engines, in compliance with the SEO best practices as recommended by Google.

On the other hand, you can keep a personal site created by your webmaster, it is not a problem, as long as you communicate well mainly on 1 single site and you do not jam your communication in multiple directions.

Sign up on WIKIPEDIA
Wikipedia is one of the most important resources on the internet; you must have an artist page on Wikipedia !
To register, write your own biography on the following page: Wikipedia

Participate in community life on the web
Sign up on art forums or blogs, and systematically mention your site address in your profile and signature for each forum, then, your link will be saved on all the messages you leave!

Then participate as actively as possible in the discussions, answer the other members regularly and post conversations related to your work.

Subscribe to the blogs related to your activity, and as soon as new posts are posted, reply by posting a comment as soon as possible, so that your link appears in the best page position. Be careful however about your comment quality, in order to maintain the confidence of the blog editor.

Using this technique, you thus ensure a large number of contextual links that will point to your main site.

Ask your friends to put a link to your site
Link exchanges with sites that are not related to art do not serve your site, because in this case, Google weakens the importance of your site in relation to the context of "artistic" keywords.

NB: low-end links like directory links are useless in terms of traffic, and they are contrary to GOOGLE'S terms of Service, and the links listed on these sites are therefore penalized!

Make sure you only interact with well-targeted websites or blogs that are relevant to art or your work.

Register in the specialized professional directories
Always make sure you select the"art" category in the directories where you register. Always prefer directories that have a good reputation.

You can also register in local directories and directories, it allows you to anchor your site locally, and Google takes it into account.

Important: do not use the same description copied pasted: create for each directory a unique description, targeted to the directory, with a nice picture etc...

Add your links on all social networks
Social networks are a very important source of free traffic ! Don't underestimate the ability of this type of site that can bring to your work many contacts. Indeed, as long as some members like your work, they can share your link with their network and thus spread your address to thousands of users.

Our recommendation: Sign up on several social networks and occasionally post some information to keep the accounts active.

Also, register on all alumni social networks, and generally, register on all network sites you find.

Then save your link as favourites on each network. If Friends of yours are on these networks, do not hesitate to contact them to promote your link on their profiles. This approach takes time but it costs nothing and allows you to reach a large number of potential visitors.

Write your name correctly on your site
Use as much as possible the spellings of your name as they are likely to be entered into the search engines by your audience or average visitors. It is certain that if your artist name is Jo Blue, but you use your site " J. o_BLUe", this is certainly very original, but none of your visitors will ever find you on a search engine...

Our recommendation: use only your real artist name. Never try to "cheat" by adding a point, A Star, or an A in front of your name leads to a decrease in your name contextual value to Google.

Fill out your profile correctly in a professional way
To show Google that you are involved in the maintenance of your site, make sure that all the pages are correctly updated : upload your profile picture, your biography, articles, add at least several galleries with over twenty artworks. Describe all your works with title, dimensions, etc.

Please update your site regularly, at least once a month. The more you update your site, the more Google gives it importance.

Always keep in mind that Google creates its ranking algorithms to please its visitors. If your site likes your visitors, it also likes Google.

Don't cheat, Google will know! Focus on Quality
There are a thousand ways to cheat to get a "false" better ranking. Be aware that Google carefully analyzes all the registers on its thousands of servers and always ends up detecting inconsistencies and the sentence is serious: a ban at least of a few weeks (even years). On some markets, Google accounts for 95% of search queries, if you are no longer on Google, you no longer have any chance to appear in user searches.

Our recommendation: Only a good quality website made with follow-up and consistency can bring you wealth and glory. All the means used to achieve this will sooner or later be turned against your ranking...

Always continue to promote your Offline site
Make sure you promote your site address as soon as you can: e-mail signatures, business cards, letterhead, stickers, fairs, etc...

Don't hesitate to talk about your work and always offer your business card with your site to your contacts, network, families & friends, it can multiply your audience and by snowball effect bring you a significant number of visitors to your site!

In a nutshell 
Everyone has the opportunity to have a good ranking in Google, it is totally free. It's up to you: you want your site to appear on the top results, just apply our recommendations and it will work ;)

Need help?

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