We seem to come back to this theme repeatedly: Focus on ideas that really work for artists and don't get too hung up on search engine marketing.
We've addressed this idea many times in past posts such as
What if Google Went Away?,
Google Alone is Not Marketing,
Less is More, and in our
Web Traffic Driver series (which is not finished, by the way).
We don't harp on this because we have anything against search engines, heck we
love search engines (if you're reading this, Google, we LOVE search engines). But, we sincerely want you to focus your energies where they are most effective at helping you market and sell artwork. After all, your latest
page view counts don't put bread on the table....
sales put bread on the table.
We think it's worth reprinting the quote from Matt Cutts, a senior engineer at Google:
[Google] also counsels that sites shouldn't become overly reliant on traffic from searches and should find other ways to get visitors,
such as by setting up user forums. "We have to keep improving our
algorithms and giving the best search results," says Google software
engineer Matt Cutts. "We can't promise that if you're No. 1 today, you'll be No. 1 tomorrow." (emphasis added)
It seems we're not alone in our ideas. We ran across a post on the popular blog,
Copyblogger, which is currently ranked number 36 on
Technorati's top 100 list (which, for those of you who are not into following tech sites means, essentially that it is the 36th most popular blog on the entire Internet). The post is entitled,
Here's How to Stop Worrying About Google Once and For All by Brian Clark, and, among other things, Clark makes the following point:
Believe it or not, my strategy since the beginning of Copyblogger has been to pretty much forget search engines exist. Don't get me wrong. . . I'm not doing anything to annoy them, and I certainly don't turn away visitors from search engines. I just don't depend on them for traffic.
While people work hard to attract links to rank better in search engines, you've got to realize that some of the highest quality traffic comes directly from the links. Pretend like search engines are not even a traffic option, and instead focus on repeat traffic and referral sources that no one can take away. (emphasis in original)
And that, dear artists, is the essential point that we have been trying to make - the highest quality traffic comes
directly from the links.
Sincerely,
Clint Watson
Software Craftsman and Art Fanatic
PS - At the risk of pointing out the obvious, this article illustrates why habitually garnering inbound links to your site (from other good art-related sites) should be one of your top online marketing strategies.
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