DESIGN VS. OPTIMIZATION: HAVING IT BOTH WAYS
Oddly enough, the best-looking HTML, and Flash websites (which are becoming obsolete), including many in the art world, actually work against search engines, inhibiting or blocking them from finding content. But gallery clients cannot do without design, and for that reason, some Web design studios, like exhibit-E, have developed custom SEO strategies to accomplish both aims: good design using HTML5, and good search ranking. In exhibit-E’s case, they have developed an automated “content-only” solution that requires no work or maintenance on the part of the gallery, because it’s automated and has proven to be very effective. But regardless of how great your SEO solution, some design conceits should be avoided if you’re looking for better ranking: e.g., splash pages should be discouraged and a website’s first page should feature content. Most websites struggle with outdated SEO concepts, trying to tweak META tags and keywords, which search engines have learned to ignore, and chasing after costly pay-to-play solutions that are expensive and require constant attention. The search engines often change the criteria for their searches, which can instantly undermine past optimization efforts. The best long-term solutions are content based. SEARCHING BY ARTIST NAME
Where does your gallery rank? Galleries in particular can benefit from quality search engine optimization. One of the greatest hopes of a gallery is to come up high in a search engine ranking when someone searches for one of their artists. This is not easy to do, especially for galleries that are getting started late. But it is possible. 49