Putting Your Portfolio Online
Tips for Artists
As you create your website (or as you manage the person who is creating your web site), there are a few things to keep in mind that are particularly important for those in the art field.
Leading People to Your Site:
Name your images' files something that is descriptive. In other words, if you have a painting of a dragonfly, name the digitized image that will be on your website "dragonfly.jpg". Do not name it "drgn01.jpg" or according to some code that makes sense only to you. I receive the vast majority of hits to my site from Google's Image Search because Google's search bot can tell what my files are images of. If your subject's label is more than one word, like "bald eagle," Google seems to rank images higher if the two words are separated with a hyphen versus having no separation. (In your html code, a space will be shown as %20.) So... name it bald-eagle.html, not baldeagle.html.
Because artists' sites are primarily visual content, it is important that you include as much text as possible (without detracting from your visual message)
so that search engines know what your site is about. Learn how to put a "title" in the metatags of your web pages. Add a descriptive title and phrase near your image, as well. Have a footer description for your overall site that contains business card type information (who you are, what you do, how to contact you and a copyright statement) . Get text into your site!
Wondering about the importance of having sites link to yours? The gist is that how well your site "ranks" at the search engines is, in part, based upon how many sites in your industry link to your site. Do a search on "Page Rank" at WebMasterWorld
for more information.
Favicon.ico:
Have you noticed the little graphic that is next to some sites listed in your "Favorites" folder in Internet Explorer? Read this article at Web Developers Journal to create your own Favicon.ico for your site.
Copyright Concerns:
People are curious about whether having their images "out there" on search engines will make the images susceptible to copyright violations. I suppose it does, but you will need to weigh whether the benefit outweighs the potential difficulties. My opinion is that yes, the benefit outweighs the detriment.
Related Information:
Finding Illustration Jobs (An overview pointing you to further resources)
Artists' Associations to Join
Putting Your Portfolio Online
Web sites that Offer Web Hosting for Artists
Where to List Your Website (Once You Have One) on the Internet for Free
Where to List Your Website: Sites Requiring a Membership Fee (These companies often also help with the building of the site)
Online listings of free-lance and full-time staff positions for Illustrators