Hey Artist! Go Search Yourself!
3 minutes
As an artist, you want you and your work to be easily found on the Internet. You should periodically check in and search yourself to see what other people see when they search for you and your work.
As you search yourself, you should ask these questions.
I am going to focus on Google, because Google dominates search engines, commanding 87% of all searches. Bing is second with 6.5%, which you are welcome to search as well, but for this video, I will focus on Google.
You may find that when you search for your name, there are a lot of other people with your name. If that is the case, then you can add artist after your name in the search. That is mostly likely what a searcher would do if the first search didn’t give anything useful.
So now that you are familiar with the process, let’s look at an artist, the late Charley Harper and ask some of the same questions you should ask yourself while looking at your search result. Charley is famous, so there are going to be different things shown, but the process is the same.
What is ranked highest?
In Charley’s case, there are two websites at the top of the rankings, his art studio website and his store. Then you see a link to the About page from his store website. The results then start to show areas of his online presence outside the control of his estate, such as his Wikipedia page.
Does the Google card appear?
Charley has the google card on the right, that shows his picture and art and a small bio. Google created all of this on his behalf. If you sign up for Google My Business, you will get such a card, but it will have different information that is useful to searchers.
What else is on that first page of results?
We see a couple of social media accounts, then an Artist Spotlight. These are the kinds of results that you need to be aware of, particularly the ones that rank high. This is a great way to look established and you want to be sure that any information about you, like the Artist Spotlight, is correct and up to date.
So, it is time for you to go search yourself and answer those questions. It is a good idea to do this periodically so you are aware of your online presence and ensure that someone looking for you can find you!