Getting Listed in Google

Getting Started > Getting Listed in Google

Most icompendium customers get good Google rank, but Google (and other search engines) must first locate and catalog the site, which can take a little time.

Here are a few factors that may affect your Google ranking, listed in order of importance:

1. Of greatest importance are incoming links to your site. This way, Google knows you are a popular legitimate site. The more important the linking site, the better. If you get a link from nyt.com or vvork.com, you will be smiled upon.
2. A key ingredient is a domain name like yourname.com (.net, .info, org. are ok too) if you want to get results when searching on "Your Name." So, if you own yourname.net, .org, or .info, you'll get more points than the person who owns yournameArt.com. While it's understandable that yournameArt.com may not be as desirable as yourname.com, it will count more than something like randomphrase.com, unless you want your site to be returned for searches on that random phrase.
3. Outgoing links can help your Google rank too. If you have artist friends, or affiliations with websites you like, linking to them is a good idea. Google will judge your outgoing links for relevancy and based on that will make assumptions as to your site's usefulness.
4. Register your domain name for a really long time. You can register your domain name up to nine years out. This is important because sites registered for many years in advance are viewed as more important by Google.
5. Fill out the site description field (in the Admin Home) and make sure that it includes your name. An example of an effective site description is: Sound, video and written words by Your Name
6. Submit your site to various search engines. This is of debatable importance, but unless you do it multiple times (which may work against you) it can't hurt.
   • http://www.google.com/addurl/
   • https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit

Things that don't actually help or hurt your ranking

1. While it's possible to point more than one domain at your icompendium site, Google will not actually return both domains in a search. The reason is that it does not want to duplicate content.

Things that can only work against you

1. If you use uncommon punctuation when spelling your name (such as each character separated with a space or dot, or your first and last name separated with an underscore) this could make your site less likely to be returned when someone searches your normally spelled first and last name.
2. You can add key-words in the Admin Home section of your icompendium site. If configured correctly they may possibly help a very small bit, but only if set to very specific words, like the name of your studio building, or an uncommon artist material like methacrylate varnish. However, if you add many permutations of a single word strung together, your site may be flagged for key-word spam. Don't add key words like: art, artist, installation art, brooklyn art, and so on. If you decide to list general key words like "art", list it only once. 5-25 total keywords is fine.