Crafting Better SE0 - Guide to SEO TOPICS on Metalsmith BenchTalk Whaley Studios

This post will be a summary of information and links to relevant posts discussed in the Jay Whaley interview on Blog Talk Radio "Crafting Better SEO."

Artist and makers can be the Webmaster of their own domain. There are many free tools AND easy fixes that can improve the visibility of your art or craft reaching a larger audience. Just knowing basic SEO (Search Engine Optimization) skills can make a difference in riding the long tail.

Understanding online tools is as important to the savvy artist as the paintbrush, scissors or saw. Improving web site performance and SEO increases the chance that your web site will be found by customers, collectors, curators, writer, stores or galleries.

The  information is organized by category or topic. Basic fix-its  and best practices are at the top.  More advanced skills are further down on the list. Just click on a link and start learning how to be a web master of your own domain.

Yes, this is too much work for one day...but try one post every other day, or one a week. Subscribe to ASK Harriete for more SEO information coming soon. Take small steps to the huge potential of the long tail.

SPAM
Did you know Spam Comments Hurt Your Site? Yes, this is true, for lots of reasons, but all you need to know is don't leave comments with spammy links. This post explains why.

COPYRIGHT DATE
Your next "fix" is to make sure your website copyright is up to date with New Day New Year 2013 Website Copyright. In addition to the legal protection copyright notice offers, no customer is going to feel comfortable buying from a site that looks like it hasn't been updated in years.

IMAGES
Images are the foundation of visibility for all artists and makers. This is true for your entire online presence including 2.0 social networking sites along with your website and blog. It is incredibly important to do everything possible to give your art or craft the visibility it deserves.

Images files should be written for better SEO. Learn the 4 TIPS to Improve Search for Your Images .

Simple, Sensible, Sensational, SEO Improvements

Search Engines Have No Vision - Play TAG, Your IT - Create Tags for better SEO from 2.0 sites

Search Engines Have No Vision - SEO for 2.0 sites.

Search Engines Have No Vision! So Help SEO "SEE" Your Images

Images on your web site, Are they lost or found?

EFFECTIVE URLs
A URL is the address for each page on the web. Learn how to create the best URL for each page. Avoid URLMistakes I Have MADE   by reading this post.

 

SITE PERFORMANCE
Did you realize that site performance affects your visibility in search results and customer satisfaction.  Google uses 200 or more criteria, but one of their most important is speed in downloading the page, images, and original content. Artists and makers do not have to be professional level webmasters to make huge improvements in the function of their website.

Your Site Performance Improves SEO

Does Your HOME Page Load Quickly?

Google Guidelines For the Best Your Site Can Be

 

REGISTER WITH WEBMASTER TOOLS
Verifying your website with Google Webmaster Tools is an important steps that everyone can do. These free tools reveal mistakes on your website that need to be fixed, and tons of information about keywords and links to your website.

Don't let all the information overwhelm you. Tackle one problem at a time. Learn about one skill set and apply it to your site....as you gain skill and familiarity.

Did You Register Your Web Site on Google Webmaster Tools?

Google Guidelines For the Best Your Site Can Be

PAGE TITLES 

SEO Success: Fix Those Duplicate Titles

Titles RULE - Title EVERY ONE of Your Website Pages Differently

 

META DESCRIPTIONS
The meta description is the information that shows up in the search results. It describes the information on each page. Create the meta description for better search results.
 REWRITE Short Meta Descriptions for SEO

Finding & Fixing Duplicate Meta Descriptions

 

SITEMAPS

Has Google found your site? Every page?

Create a Sitemap and Submit for Visibility

Create A Sitemap For Your Website Using a free 3rd Party Website

Artists: Submit Your Sitemap to Google

 

Subscribe to ASK Harriete to learn how to become the webmaster of your own domain. More information is coming in the next few weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Engage in the conversation.
Leave a comment.(Comments require approval so give me a few minutes to post it live.)

Artists, makers, jewelers, metalsmiths, crafts person or creators can benefit from increased visibility as search is refined and original content is more important.  Advances in search technology will also make images searchable in the future. All of these reasons and more make optimizing your images, blog and website more important than ever.

Harriete Estel Berman

P.S. At the end of the program I mentioned three additional resources.

ASK Harriete posts on Search Engine Optimization for Artists and Craftspeople

GOOGLE Webmaster Videos on YOUTUBE

Jill Whalen's HIGH RANKINGS NEWSLETTER

CRAFTING Better SEO - online interview

Stay tuned for "CRAFTING Better SEO for Artists, Makers and Metalsmiths"  -- Thursday (Jan. 31) at 3:00pm PST, this is one hour with Jay Whaley on Blog Talk Radio.

If you have been following the Search Engine Optimization for artists and crafts people series on ASK Harriete, this online interview will help get your website up to speed.

Scared to start SEO? Feeling overwhelmed, and out of touch? This information will get you started.

SEO  isn't that hard to do. We will start with basics and very easy skills to improve visibility for your work. Just knowing how to create file names for your images and website pages can make a huge difference.

Fundamental webmaster skills are well within your powers and can improve visibility for images, blogs or websites.

ASK QUESTIONS LIVE during the show in the chat room. My recommendation is to register with Facebook. It is much easier and more reliable as the Blog Talk Radio site can be temperamental. Don't' wait until the show....as you will miss the interview.

ASK QUESTIONS IN ADVANCE
EMAIL ME AT: harriete [at] sbcglobal.net

LISTEN to the RECORDED PODCAST later.

After the show there will be an ASK Harriete post with links to the topics we mentioned for follow up  & review.

Harriete Estel Berman

 

Related articles

Become A Webmaster of Your Own Domain

BING Webmaster Offers Useful Tools

Bing Webmaster Submit More Pages for SEO

The previous post suggested verifying your website on  bing Webmaster Tools and submitting a sitemap.

This post will show a useful tool on bing webmaster for submitting the URL of individual pages to bing search. 

This could be helpful because search engine crawlers do not always catch every page.  Seldom viewed pages are less likely to be found and indexed on search engines.

 

To show how a webmaster might submit URLs to bing, I will use pages from my website (that were missed in my sitemap) as an example.

 

First look over the list of bing Webmaster tools.

 

We want to use the Submit URLs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Submit URLs looks like the image below. (click on the image for a larger view.) 

Submit URLS gives you an opportunity to submit the pages from your website  that get less traffic.

A URL is an address for a page on a website. Less important pages on my web site do not have as many links so they are not on my sitemap. By submitting the URL of these pages, I know they will be indexed for search. This means more traffic.

I want all of my artwork to be found in search. Don't you want all your art or craft to be discovered?

Submit URLs is a fantastic quick tool. You can cut and paste 10 URLs in one window! Love that efficiency. Another day I will come back and do 10 more for up to 50 URLs in one month.  

I

Harriete Estel Berman

PS.SAVE THE DATE FOR SEO

Thursday 3:00p.m. PST is one hour with Jay Whaley Blog Talk Radio

Crafting better SEO.
We will start with basic and very easy skills to improve visibility for your art and craft. Fundamental webmaster skills are not hard to learn and can improve whether your images, website or blog are lost or found in search.

ASK YOUR QUESTIONS live during the show in the chat room, or ask me your questions in advance. EMAIL ME AT: harriete [at] sbcglobal.net
LISTEN LIVE or on the recorded podcast later.

After the show, I will create a post with links to the topics we mentioned for follow up review.

Related Post: Avoid URL Mistakes I Have MADE AND the post below.

BING Webmaster Offers Useful Tools

Facebook Business v.s. Personal Page for Artists, Makers or Craft Business

Gothic Birdcage © 2012
Stainless steel, glass, copper
Artist: Joe Diemer    4' ht x 2' depth

Dear Harriete,

My art business on Facebook is named "J Diemer Artisanry", and it is a page off of my main Facebook account "Joe Diemer". When setting it up it seemed Facebook wanted businesses and interests to be on a page, not the main name, but I've since seen many other artists just use their name - which makes an easy connection for others to find your work when you comment etc.

I've now got 178 followers on the J Diemer Artisanry page so I don't want to rock the boat, but wonder if it would be better in the long run to consolidate the two identities. What's your opinion? Convoluted problem!
Take care,
Joe Diemer


Joe,
I struggle with the same question….but decided years ago to just use my name, Harriete Estel Berman as my Facebook presence. It has been impractical to clarify that the "artist Harriete Estel Berman" is different than the personal profile of Harriete Estel Berman.

Below are a few considerations that may factor into your decision.

 

PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS:
Is your Facebook profile really private? Not in my opinion. Even if your "Privacy" setting is Friends, or Friends of Friends I don't consider this private. Private on the internet is an oxymoron, but these other privacy settings do offer an allusion to privacy, and thus your Facebook page is NOT searchable. 

An important proviso is that my Facebook profile setting is "public". That means everyone can see my Facebook page. It is also the only way that Google can crawl my Facebook profile page and fetch the links to my website, ASK Harriete or posted content.

A personal facebook address can be your name. A Facebook profile can also match, more or less, with all your other social networking profiles with a variation of the same name. For example, my facebook URL http://www.facebook.com/harriete.estel.berman
is similar to my other social network URLs on LinkedIN, Flickr, and Crafthaus creating consistency across 2.0. platfoms

All Facebook comments lead back to my Harriete Estel Berman Facebook profile.

A limit on friends. The downside with using my personal profile as professional is that there is supposed to be a limit on the number of friends....but, I will deal with that problem later (3,000 "friends" so far).

Can you effectively manage a Facebook business page? A Facbook business pages is essentially another site. It doesn't do much good to have a Facebook business page without activity and regular posting with original content just like a blog. I don't know about you, but I am on internet overload already.  There is no way to stretch beyond my website, blog and other social network.

Does a Facebook business profile offer the visibility you want for the effort? A great point of debate. As far as I can tell Facebook visibility only extends to Facebook, so investing time in other social platforms and SEO for your website are equally or perhaps more important.

The PROBLEM with closing a business page:
I don't know what you will do with all your followers if you close your business page. Practically speaking there is no way to consolidate your personal profile with the Facebook business pages other than just inviting your followers to be your friends.

ACTION PLAN:
If you are going to use your personal Facebook page as your public profile, CHANGE YOUR PRIVACY SETTING to PUBLIC and behave accordingly.

PERSONAL, PROFESSIONAL, PASSION
For me, there is no separation between personal and professional. Only a limited amount of my private life is on Facebook for this reason. This is mostly a reflection of my workaholic focus. My profession as an artist, is also my passion as a person.

YOUR DECISION.

Harriete Estel Berman

 

RELATED POSTS:

Names, Names, What's in a name?

What's in a Name? Is Your Artist Identity LOST or FOUND in a sea of names?

To be or not to be a FAN on Facebook? That is the question.

BING Webmaster Offers Useful Tools

bing (Microsoft's Search Engine) is really trying to capture a share of the search market. They are promoting their search engine everywhere including television ads. Have you seen them? In December, Bing continued its incremental gains in U.S. search market share.

While not everyone uses Bing, I think it is helpful to sign up for their bing Webmaster Tools because they offer several unique tools...that are easy to use.

Mistakes on your website or blog are hard to find, yet, if you have too many mistakes your website will not work properly or more likely it will rank lower in search results. That would be really bad news.

Superior performance for your website= better SEO. Better SEO means more people find out about your art or craft.

To use bing Webmaster Tools you will have to VERIFY the ownership of your site. It was easier to do on Bing than Google.












Verify your website and it opens a rich resource of tools.

Warning: Looking at all the webmaster diagnostic tools on Bing or Google is overwhelming. Don't try to swallow too much at once. Just learn one thing at a time.

 

 

STEP ONE:

Submit your Sitemap to bing.

If you missed how to make a sitemap go back to these two posts for instructions.

Create a Sitemap and Submit for Visibility

Create A Sitemap For Your Website Using a free 3rd Party Website

The next posts reveal how to use two useful tools. Don't get overwhelmed. We will go one step at a time.
Harriete Estel Berman

Related articles

Create a Sitemap and Submit for Visibility

Create A Sitemap For Your Website Using a free 3rd Party Website

Any Tips for an Effective User Name?

Capricciole © 2012
stainless steel, glass, copper
Artist: Joe Diemer

A reader asks:
Do you have any tips for coming up with an effective Instagram user name? I don't know much about Instagram but feel that it may be a good business move. I make elegant household accoutrements such as birdcages in stainless steel wire.
 

 

 

 

 

Here are what seem (to me) to be my options:

• My name, "JoeDiemer", which is available.
• My clunky business name "JDiemerArtisanry", which is also my Facebook page name - continuity.
• A descriptor of what I do: "Handmade Birdcages", which is also my website name - again continuity. (Unfortunately I named my site back when I mostly made birdcages. Now I make many different things.)
• Or another descriptor such as "Wireworker".
  
  

So it boils down to:

1. My name
2. My business name
3. What I do

What's your opinion? Thanks for your excellent blog and artwork!
Take care,
Joe Diemer

 

Joe,
Thanks for your question.
My professional recommendation is the following priorities:

1. Consistency across all platforms (best as possible).
2. Using your name as your artist identity.

Consistency across all social networking, 2.0, and photo sharing is sometimes challenging depending on the number of characters allowed or the format. Just do the best you can.

Using your name as the artist identity will be the least likely to change over the years, building momentum across media and with different occasions like interviews, conference lectures, workshops, teaching positions, work included in books, magazines, or blog platforms.

Facebook and LinkedIn and many other social networks actually allow for a unique URL based on the person’s name.  If you have a common name try a middle name, middle initial or some kind of special moniker.

Having a URL that is consistent with your name is  a desirable option across all platforms. Creating a consistent identity across platforms is important. 

Using your name in the URL is also consistent with Google Webmaster Guidelines and SEO of the future.

2.0 specifics &  URL examples:

A dash between each word of your name is better than all one words, but this may not be possible on some social networks. Do not use a underscore between words as it is very often missed when a hot link is underlined.

As an illustration below is a list of a few of my social networks.  There is some variation depending on the limitations of each site, but you will see that I have created a reasonably consistent identity across platforms

Etsy http://www.harrieteestelberman.etsy.com

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/harriete.estel.berman

Aboutme http://about.m/HarrieteEstelBerman

Google + https://profiles.google.com/HarrieteEstelBerman/about

Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/harriete-estel-berman/

crafthaus http://crafthaus.ning.com/profile/HarrieteEstelBerman

LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/harrieteestelberman

My twitter profile name is not as good because they didn't allow a long URL.  http://www.twitter.com/harrietee . Sometimes I am forced to go with the harrietee version of my name. Very few people spell Harriete with an "e" on the end.

Harriete Estel Berman

P.S. If readers have another idea, please share your point of view. Is there something that isn't considered that you can add to the conversation?

Related articles

Avoid URL Mistakes I Have MADE

Creating, Connecting, Community

Facebook Business v.s. Personal Page for Artists, Makers or Craft Business

The Final Step for Rel=Author

Adding Rel="author" to your website or blog takes several steps and it is confusing....this is why I broke it up into several posts. It takes multiple steps to make rel="author" work, but the outcome is improved visibility and credibility as the author or artist for the content on your site. Go back to the previous posts if you missed a step.

We are at the final step Link your Google+ profile to the content you create.

You need to submit your email address to Google Webmaster.

For my web site it was easy. My email address matches my web site. (this is illustrated below.)
WEBSITE: http://www.harriete-estel-berman.info
E-MAIL:   bermaid [at] harriete-estel-berman.info

I just put my email in the box on this page and I was done verifying authorship (shown below.)

For my blog it was much more complicated since my email does not match my blog address. I clicked on the Google link that says: Use this method to link your content to your Google+ profile)

SCROLL DOWN PAST ALL THE ADVERTISEMENTS.
Look for the instructions shown below....or click on the picture for instructions.

Create a link to your Google+ profile from your webpage, like this:

  <a href="[profile_url]?rel=author">Google</a>

Replace [profile_url] with the your Google+ profile URL, like this:

  <a href="https://plus.google.com/106331966149937206693
   rel=author">Google</a>

That is one choice. I also added a link to my Google+ profile in the left column on my blog.

Another option is to add a link to my ABOUT page and/or at the bottom of every blog post. This was a suggestion from the Jill Whalen article and it worked.

I found that my search results for my name changed with a couple of days, it can take longer.
Harriete Estel Berman


Related articles

Are YOU the rel=AUTHOR of your Website?

GOOGLE + Profile is a Rel="author" MUST!

Artist Author on Your Website in Meta Tags

The First 3 Steps to ADDING Rel=Author to Your Sites

Did you watch the Google video in the previous post about rel="author"?

The important nugget is that for every website or blog you need to add Re="Author". I am going to review the first 3 steps all discussed in a previous post.

STEP 1.
You must have a Google + profile. No getting around this. It is a must. Google is not going to give up trying to push its own social network. It doesn't mean you have to be active on it all the time, but you have to have a Google + profile.

STEP 2.
UNDER YOUR Google + PROFILE  information:  Add all your websites or blog in the  Contributor section.

SUPER Important STEP 3.
Add the following code to your website or blog.

<a href=" http://your blog/about.html" rel="author">your name</a>

<a href="http:// http://www.yourwebsite.com/page.html rel="author"> your name </a>

Below are my examples:

Now every time I sign my blog I add my rel="author" code to the HTML of my post as my signature.

• The HTML code looks like this: <a href=" http://askharriete.typepad.com/about.html" rel="author">Harriete Estel Berman</a>
• The rel="author" signature looks like this: Harriete Estel Berman

My signature now links to the "about" page on my blog and tells Google search who I am. I used the "about.html" because my Typepad has an "about" page. (The link is in the left column below my profile picture. Maybe your blog has an "about" page or something similar?

           _______________________________

On my website....I linked to my resume* page....because that is where I put the link to my Google profile.  (*Just so you understand...I used my resume page on my website...because I don't have an "about" page on my website.)

• My resume URL is this:  http://www.harriete-estel-berman.info/resume/resume.html (this example uses the URL for my previous website)
• The code looks like this: <a href="http:// http://www.harriete-estel-berman.info/resume/resume.html" rel="author"> Harriete Estel Berman </a>
• The rel="author" signature on my resume page looks like this: Harriete Estel Berman

ADAPT THE CODE to your own circumstances, changing the URLs as appropriate.

There is one more step.
This is the next post.

Harriete Estel Berman

Related articles

GOOGLE + Profile is a Rel="author" MUST!

Are YOU the rel=AUTHOR of your Website?

Artist Author on Your Website in Meta Tags

Artist Author on Your Website in Meta Tags

 Jill Whalen, my website SEO guru wrote a post titled "6 Reasons Why You Need to Use Rel=Author on Your Content"

She says, "If you are not already using rel="author" (or don't even know what it is), you are doing a huge disservice to your website and all of your online marketing efforts. I heartily suggest reading this article ASAP, but more than that – implement it already!"

Jill Whalen offers helpful instructions in her article. 

I recommend reading both the Google Webmaster instructions supplemented with the Jill Whalen article.

COMBINED together they reduce the confusion. More tips are coming on ASK Harriete...but start by reading the information.

I managed to add rel="author" to my blog and website. You can too!

The rel="author" options reflect the future of the internet.  You can either jump on the train and gain momentum with search engine visibility or you can sit in your studio, quiet as a mouse.

Exercise your brain
with these new SEO skills.

Engage in the conversation.
Leave a comment. (Comments require approval so give me a few minutes to post it live.)

Harriete Estel Berman

Related articles

SEO Success: Fix Those Duplicate Titles

Avoid URL Mistakes I Have MADE

New Day New Year 2013 Website Copyright

GOOGLE + Profile is a Rel="author" MUST!

A Google + profile is a must for all artists and makers.
This has nothing to do with whether you want to participate in another social network. Google+ is a tool, just like any other in your studio.

Even if Google+ may never be the Facebook it wants to be, Google is making Google+ an internet networking obligation because (as mentioned in the previous post) Google is connecting your Google+ profile to search results.

Google is connecting search to your Google + profile with  Rel="author" HTML code.



If you want improved visibility for your website or blog in search results, put the rel="author" in the HTML for your website and blog.  I know that sounds challenging but it is within your skill set as a webmaster of your own domain.

The first step is creating a Google + profile (if you haven't done this already) and completing your profile information.

MOST IMPORTANT, under Contributor...  (scroll down to find Contributor in your Google + profile)...

ADD your website and blog under the Contributor heading as your first step to adding Rel="Author" for improved search results. Tomorrow's post will take you through the next steps. Harriete Estel Berman

P.S. I also recommend adding all your other social networks to your profile.  (An example is shown below.)

Related articles

Are YOU the rel=AUTHOR of your Website?

Are YOU the rel=AUTHOR of your Website?

The internet of the future is about authenticity and original content. This is why Google wants to know if you are the real author of your website or blog.

This is written as rel="author" in the HTML code and is one of the new (beta) criteria that Google search is using for determining search results.
 
It could be seen as a way for Google to push its Google + social network (my old Google+ profile is shown above).  Or it could be an effort by Google to screen for spammy sites on the internet.

The impact:
Since Google controls a huge percentage of search results....either you participate on the internet by their rules, or you risk poor placement in search results.

The positive side is being up to date on current and future trends in search can boost the visibility of your art or craft.

Google Webmaster Tools (now Google Search Console) provides instructions to LINK your Google + profile to the content you create on your website or blog.

Watch this video from Google.

Absorb the information and consider what Google is trying to accomplish with this approach. Keep in mind that this is the future of the internet and should be a strategic part of your internet planning.  

Since the publication of this post, Google has continued to value rel=author and your Google+ profile.  If you want your content to be found in search results a Google+ authorship is a must. 

"Authorship is also going to put a greater emphasis on high-quality content so that authors that write higher-quality content are more likely to have their authorship with image displayed."

The Google lady makes it sound so easy to verify the rel="author" of your content. It is not. I stumbled around for days...but ultimately have been successful in confirming rel= "author" status on my website and blog.

Below are the current search results for my name with the addition of rel="author" to my sites.

Note that my Google + profile automatically is shown on the right side of the search results.

 

 

 

Looking more closely at the search results (shown below) you see a small gray silhouette icon next to the entry.

The silhouette icon is next to search results for posts or entries with verified authorship. To add rel="author" to your sites you need to verify your site(s) with Google Webmaster Tools. 

As stated in the video, verifying your website on Google Webmaster Tools does not impact search, but fixing mistakes on your website (that Google Webmaster Tools helps you find) will improve your website performance and improve your visibility in the future.

 

If you have not yet verified your website or blog with Google Webmaster Tools (now Google Search Console) this is highly recommended for improving performance and search. Did You Register Your Web Site on Google Webmaster Tools? will help you step by step. It is worth the effort. These internet skills build on one another. 

The next posts will help you link your Google + profile to the content you create.

Harriete Estel Berman

Related articles

Create A Sitemap For Your Website Using a free 3rd Party Website

REWRITE Short Meta Descriptions for SEO

Creating, Connecting, Community

Creativity is rooted in self-reflection, personal expression, and social context, but context comes by connecting to a larger community. 

The Internet encourages “Us” to share, but tutorials, books, and social networks sometimes facilitate copying or infringement with questionable consequences. 

Do we understand the impact of copying, under-pricing, and sharing information, and skills that someone else invented?

A challenge to the status quo is worth considering. I will be addressing these issues during a talk at Synergy 3.

Stay tuned to future posts as I test and tease out these challenging issues for my lecture. Subscribe so you won't miss one post. Share your thoughts on these topics anytime. I'd love to hear what you have to say.

In the meantime, I still have more posts coming up about SEO for artists and makers. The internet has changed our lives. There is no way we can anticipate the future of e-commerce, but one thing is clear...original content will be the key.

Improve your website and expand your audience with better SEO.   

Harriete Estel Berman

This post was updated on July 29, 2022.

4 TIPS to Improve Search for Your Images

Google says: "Tell us as much as possible about your images"  in their Image Publishing Guidelines.


Describing your images with words is especially important for artists and makers because search engines can only see words -- not images.  

Google also recommends that the image's file name should be real words (NOT NUMBERS). This principle is the same as covered in a previous post about website URL addresses: Avoid URL Mistakes I Have MADE.
Below is a bad example of an image title currently on my website.

The image is called:  b98-99a.gif

I know better now, but this is an old image on my website. A much better image file name might be tin-bracelets-1998.jpg  or better yet  red-rose-almond-nuts-tin-bracelets.jpg

Try to make your image file name describe the image. I did not realize how important a descriptive name could be when I first established my website, but from here on, all my new images will be given much better file names that describe the images.

Below is a better more recent example.

The image title is candyland.jpg

A better title might be candy-land-flower-metal-brooch.jpg.

Image file name recommendations:

• Image titles should include descriptive information.
• Use a hyphen between each word.
• Do NOT use numbers for your image file names.
• Do NOT use underscores in the title. Underscores are hard for people to see and are not considered separated words in file names.

Harriete Estel Berman

Candy Land Flower Brooch (back view) from post-consumer recycled tin cans. Domestic iron stamped in the back is my hallmark. Visit my studio online.

Related articles:

Avoid URL Mistakes I Have MADE

REWRITE Short Meta Descriptions for SEO

5 Google Webmaster Tools Improve Sites

This post was updated on July 28, 2022, to provide current links.

Artists: Submit Your Sitemap to Google

In the last post, we went over instructions for creating a Sitemap using a 3rd party website.

Creating and submitting a Sitemap helps search engines crawl your site. If there is anything that I can do to ensure that more pages of my site are found...I'm doing it!  Learning how to use these Google Webmaster Tools is as important as making your art or craft.

For this post, you need your Sitemap URL to submit it to Google (or any other search engine such as Bing.)

If you aren't sure which file is your sitemap file....the file name should look like something like this example:   http://www.yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml

I found my sitemap URL (but just in case) and tested it in a browser.
To test your sitemap if you aren't sure that you're doing this right (like me)
Copy the URL and paste it into your browser.

If you CLICK on the link below....it will show you what my Sitemap looks like.  https://harrieteestelberman.com/sitemap.xml

Sitemaps look like nothing except code and URLs.



 

READY to submit a sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools?

GO TO Google Webmaster Tools OPTIMIZATION for your website. 

CLICK on Optimization > then CLICK on Sitemaps.

CLICK  on the button that says:
ADD/TEST SITEMAP,  it looks like the image below.

 

 

 

 

Paste the site map address from your blog or website provider in the window on Google Webmaster Tools. It should look like the image above.

I pasted my website's sitemap URL https://harrieteestelberman.com/sitemap.xml into the window (the image shows the URL from my old website).
 

Keep in mind that I didn't paste in the whole URL ...just the part that was missing........from the box ..... sitemap.xml

CLICK on the Submit Sitemap Button that looks like the image right.

 

 

 

I was a little unsure....so I used the Test Sitemap Button. Hey it worked!

 

 

 

 

I DID IT!!!!!!
You can too!!!!

Harriete Estel Berman  

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This post was updated on July 28, 2022, to provide current links.

Create A Sitemap For Your Website Using a free 3rd Party Website

Google recommends submitting a Sitemap for your website.
A Sitemap is a map of your "website".


Map of San Francisco, CA    Sitemap of my website

A sitemap is supposed to help Google find every page of your website and increase visibility, especially for websites with a lot of pages. You can also submit your website to other search engines.

This post is how I created a Sitemap using a 3rd party free website. Following these instructions may help your website gain visibility. I've known that sitemaps were important for a long time....but was scared. It seemed too advanced for a webmaster novice like myself, but using Google Webmaster Tools (now called Google Search Console) gave me the insight and instructions I needed. (The next post is how to submit your Sitemap to Google.)

Consider reading the previous post if your website is more of a template type hosted by a web service. Most likely they will help you create the Sitemap. It will be easier than these instructions.

Step by step, this is how I created and submitted a Sitemap for my website. You can too!


First read all the Sitemap tutorials on Google.

The page Creating Sitemaps has links to a number of free third-party tools that can help you generate a Sitemap. (I thought creating a Sitemap on my own was just too much for my inexperience.)

I tried two different websites for making my sitemap. It seemed a little scary to try this for the first time.....but taking a risk is what it takes to survive as a "Webmaster of your own Domain".

FreeSiteMapGenerator
(This site was used for the tutorial in this post.)

xml-sitemaps.com

I tested both sites and saw no significant difference in the results between the two sitemaps generators. xml-sitemaps.com  was faster.

Create an account with Free Site Map Generator and enter the URL of your site. I came back the next day and a Sitemap for my website was done.

• DOWNLOAD the SiteMap
• SAVE to your computer
• UPLOAD to your website using your FTP (FileTransferProtocal) service. 

Now I am ready to submit my sitemap address to Google. (This is the next post. )

Harriete Estel Berman

This post was updated on July 28, 2022, to provide current links.

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New Day New Year 2013 Website Copyright

As we enter the bright potential of the New Year don't forget to update the copyright notice on your web site to 2013. A small but important task, it shows your customer that you keep your website "fresh".  In addition, search engines read a current date as an indication of a well maintained site which improves your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) rankings. Just update the date on every main page with a copyright date. This is easy to do.

I include the first year of publication and this calendar year. I found examples on websites for major manufacturers done this way. Figured if the big bucks companies do it this way it was good enough for me.

• © 2003-2013 Harriete Estel Berman
• copyright 2003-2013 Harriete Estel Berman

I was looking at major websites on New Year's Eve 2012. They all said 2012....it will be interesting to see when they change the date to 2013.

Harriete Estel Berman

P.S. If you missed the recent SEO series for improving your website/blog visibility, start with the post Did You Register Your Web Site on Google Webmaster Tools?

This post was updated on July 28, 2022, to provide current links.

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