New Business

ttbest · July 5, 2008

Hi- I am new to photography and I've joined Smugmug to use as my gallery sharing system. I am wondering though how to make sure that people find me if they do a search on the internet. I have punched in my name on smugmug- Agapephotos, my name, my area and nothing for me. Do I have to join google or what is this Picasso thing? Anyway, a little bit clueless on how to get my name on smugmug to potential clients easily.

Andy · July 5, 2008

So one way to start is to try all the tips here:

http://wiki.smugmug.net/display/SmugMug/Maximize+Search+Engine+Findability

denisegoldberg · July 5, 2008

In addition to following the advice in Andy's post...

There have been a number of discussions here about getting your site in the eyes of potential buyers. This thread contains a link to a couple of them - http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=95149. (And of course the entries in the linked threads also mention following Andy's advice.)

--- Denise

ttbest · July 5, 2008

Reply
Andy,
I know- I read all of that info. Extremely overwhelming. It says keywords. Shouldn't the name of my business and my name on my Homepage be enought to search with? Why wouldn't you be able to find me by just searching - Agapephotos and my name?

Can you please tell me what is Picasso? When I went to it, the site didn't really say what it was.

Andy wrote:

So one way to start is to try all the tips here:

http://wiki.smugmug.net/display/SmugMug/Maximize+Search+Engine+Findability

denisegoldberg · July 5, 2008

ttbest wrote:

Extremely overwhelming. It says keywords. Shouldn't the name of my business and my name on my Homepage be enought to search with? Why wouldn't you be able to find me by just searching - Agapephotos and my name?

Can you please tell me what is Picasso? When I went to it, the site didn't really say what it was.

Picassa is a photo sharing web site owned by Google.

I find it very interesting that you say want to be found and yet you have done nothing that is suggested on the page that Andy linked you to.

You don't have a description in your bio box. Yes, I know, you're using that for your slideshow, but you should also have a description there - in front of the slideshow code, and probably in a div that is set to display: none.

You have some descriptive information on your about page, but unfortunately you chose to use an image to show that information. Search engines can't read the text in images. They can read descriptions that are built of text and placed in the gallery description or photo captions. And those descriptions can be nicely formatted by using CSS and/or HTML.

You post here in dgrin, and yet there isn't any indication of where your site is. If you added a signature with a link to your site you would drive traffic to it. And yes, the search engines would notice.

Follow Andy's suggestions. They work. If you want to see an example of how they work, type my name (denise goldberg) in a search engine. I have a description in my bio, I blog (and link to my photos), and I publish journals about my travels.

--- Denise

chuckinsocal · July 5, 2008

I'm finding that Google loves photo captions. I'm getting lots of hits based on them.

Just my $.02

ttbest · July 5, 2008

Reply
Hi Denise,
Thank you for all of the info. I am posting here because I need info. Yes, I know Andy emailed all kinds of ways but they are like Greek to me and I wanted to grasp an understanding of how searches are done before I spend hours and hours (like I've already done on my smugmug site) doing something that will need to be redone. This is the first I've heard about HTML and CSS for About , Contact etc. pages. So I have to re-do those in a way that I once again, have no clue. You also mentioned a signature with a link to my site- again, have no clue.

I am realizing that you must have some sort of knowledge about codes, etc. to grasp the smugmug stuff and to get the benefits that go along with the Pro. User package.

I will work on the bio. It looks like there are many things from your email I should modify before I set out to do the Picasso and google stuff.

Thanks for your time,
Tanya

denisegoldberg wrote:

Picassa is a photo sharing web site owned by Google.

I find it very interesting that you say want to be found and yet you have done nothing that is suggested on the page that Andy linked you to.

You don't have a description in your bio box. Yes, I know, you're using that for your slideshow, but you should also have a description there - in front of the slideshow code, and probably in a div that is set to display: none.

You have some descriptive information on your about page, but unfortunately you chose to use an image to show that information. Search engines can't read the text in images. They can read descriptions that are built of text and placed in the gallery description or photo captions. And those descriptions can be nicely formatted by using CSS and/or HTML.

You post here in dgrin, and yet there isn't any indication of where your site is. If you added a signature with a link to your site you would drive traffic to it. And yes, the search engines would notice.

Follow Andy's suggestions. They work. If you want to see an example of how they work, type my name (denise goldberg) in a search engine. I have a description in my bio, I blog (and link to my photos), and I publish journals about my travels.

--- Denise

denisegoldberg · July 5, 2008

ttbest wrote:

This is the first I've heard about HTML and CSS for About , Contact etc. pages. So I have to re-do those in a way that I once again, have no clue. You also mentioned a signature with a link to my site- again, have no clue.

I am realizing that you must have some sort of knowledge about codes, etc. to grasp the smugmug stuff and to get the benefits that go along with the Pro. User package.

Tanya -
To add a signature to your dgrin posts, click You! above and to the left, then Edit Signature. Add the url to your site there, and it will show in every post. That's how I defined the links shown at the bottom of my posts.

As far as working with HTML and CSS in your gallery descriptions goes, if you post what you are trying to accomplish, someone will jump in an help you with the code. Best place to post requests for help is in the SmugMug Customization forum so that people who are willing to help will see your posts - http://www.dgrin.com/forumdisplay.php?f=31.

To add information to your bio so that it is picked up by Google and the other search engines, add this to your CSS:

#myBioText {
    display: none;
}

Then in your bio, before your slideshow code, add:

[B]<div id="myBioText">[/B]
add bio info here, using words that you want to be picked up by search engines. 
Short description of your business
 
And add a few blank lines too. That way when the search engines do pick up your site the description 
will be the info from this entry and not your slideshow parameters.
[B]</div>[/B]

--- Denise

ttbest · July 5, 2008

reply
Denise,
I did not know about the bio stuff so thank you. I thought it was visible on your homepage and I didn't want that clutter. I looked for a bio on your homepage and didn't see it so I was confused because you said you had one. Are you saying put info. on me and my business where you have "my biotext"?

When you say add the url to your site, I'm not sure what url is.

Then it sounds like descriptions are hidden within the gallery. I put in some code for descriptions that I was told about in each gallery but did not put any info. about me or that page.

Here is my goal- just to be able to give someone my website info. (which I really don't have a site but a site within smugmug) and then for them to be able to quickly do a search for it. I'm not looking to be seen by all kinds of people just clients who I tell. Right now, I'm saying you have to to smugmug.com and then type in agapephotos (no space). If they screw anything up, they cannot find me.

Thank you for the info. I will work on it.
-Tanya

denisegoldberg wrote:
Tanya -
To add a signature to your dgrin posts, click You! above and to the left, then Edit Signature. Add the url to your site there, and it will show in every post. That's how I defined the links shown at the bottom of my posts.

As far as working with HTML and CSS in your gallery descriptions goes, if you post what you are trying to accomplish, someone will jump in an help you with the code. Best place to post requests for help is in the SmugMug Customization forum so that people who are willing to help will see your posts - http://www.dgrin.com/forumdisplay.php?f=31.

To add information to your bio so that it is picked up by Google and the other search engines, add this to your CSS:
#myBioText {
    display: none;
}
Then in your bio, before your slideshow code, add:
[B]<div id="myBioText">[/B]
add bio info here, using words that you want to be picked up by search engines. 
Short description of your business
 
And add a few blank lines too. That way when the search engines do pick up your site the description 
will be the info from this entry and not your slideshow parameters.
[B]</div>[/B]
--- Denise

denisegoldberg · July 5, 2008

ttbest wrote:

Denise,
I did not know about the bio stuff so thank you. I thought it was visible on your homepage and I didn't want that clutter. I looked for a bio on your homepage and didn't see it so I was confused because you said you had one. Are you saying put info. on me and my business where you have "my biotext"?

When you say add the url to your site, I'm not sure what url is.

Then it sounds like descriptions are hidden within the gallery. I put in some code for descriptions that I was told about in each gallery but did not put any info. about me or that page.

Here is my goal- just to be able to give someone my website info. (which I really don't have a site but a site within smugmug) and then for them to be able to quickly do a search for it. I'm not looking to be seen by all kinds of people just clients who I tell. Right now, I'm saying you have to to smugmug.com and then type in agapephotos (no space). If they screw anything up, they cannot find me.

Thank you for the info. I will work on it.
-Tanya

Tanya -
Your url is http://agapephotos.smugmug.com. That's what someone would enter in their browser to go to your site.

And yes, put the info you want the search engines to see within the myBioText div as I showed above. In case an example helps, here's what I have in the bio on my site (but I didn't include all of the slideshow code below because you already have that covered):

<div id="myBioText">Photography, bicycling, and travel. Can I say that these are good addictions? 
I'm an avid cyclist, and I love traveling with my camera. Looking back at my photos helps to jog my memory, although the beauty of the reality often exceeds that of my photos. My photo galleries contain travel photos, images that have jumped into my camera as I've been wandering near home, photos of family and much loved pets, pretty much anything that catches my eye while I'm wandering, camera in hand.</div>
 
<html>
********>
var ssConfig = {
... etc.

If you do a search for me, the text you see on the search engine entries is the start of the text in my bio box.

Descriptions in your galleries are not hidden unless you add some CSS to hide them. You certainly could put information in your gallery descriptions and hide it in the same way I showed you how to hide the text in your bio. But many times some descriptive information in your galleries is good.

If you take a look at my site you will see that many of my galleries have descriptions. Another example - my Kaleidoscope page is an html-only page (a gallery, but with no photos in it, and everything you see on that page is in the gallery description).

If you are giving someone - a friend or a client - information about your site, I would recommend giving them the url directly. They shouldn't need to search for your site. So give them http://agapephotos.smugmug.com. Or if you decide to buy a domain (and domains are very inexpensive) you can give them that name. For example, you can get to my site by entering my smugmug site name, or by entering www.denisegoldberg.com.

--- Denise

ttbest · July 5, 2008

Thank you
Denise,
Thank you. You have cleared up a lot of questions for me.

denisegoldberg wrote:
Tanya -
Your url is http://agapephotos.smugmug.com. That's what someone would enter in their browser to go to your site.

And yes, put the info you want the search engines to see within the myBioText div as I showed above. In case an example helps, here's what I have in the bio on my site (but I didn't include all of the slideshow code below because you already have that covered):
<div id="myBioText">Photography, bicycling, and travel. Can I say that these are good addictions? 
I'm an avid cyclist, and I love traveling with my camera. Looking back at my photos helps to jog my memory, although the beauty of the reality often exceeds that of my photos. My photo galleries contain travel photos, images that have jumped into my camera as I've been wandering near home, photos of family and much loved pets, pretty much anything that catches my eye while I'm wandering, camera in hand.</div>
 
<html>
********>
var ssConfig = {
... etc.
 
If you do a search for me, the text you see on the search engine entries is the start of the text in my bio box.

Descriptions in your galleries are not hidden unless you add some CSS to hide them. You certainly could put information in your gallery descriptions and hide it in the same way I showed you how to hide the text in your bio. But many times some descriptive information in your galleries is good.

If you take a look at my site you will see that many of my galleries have descriptions. Another example - my Kaleidoscope page is an html-only page (a gallery, but with no photos in it, and everything you see on that page is in the gallery description).

If you are giving someone - a friend or a client - information about your site, I would recommend giving them the url directly. They shouldn't need to search for your site. So give them http://agapephotos.smugmug.com. Or if you decide to buy a domain (and domains are very inexpensive) you can give them that name. For example, you can get to my site by entering my smugmug site name, or by entering www.denisegoldberg.com.

--- Denise

denisegoldberg · July 5, 2008

Tanya -
You're very welcome.
Holler if you have questions when you're ready to tackle the next task.

--- Denise

ttbest · July 5, 2008

Reply
Denise,
I'm starting to see the light. Thank you for explaining-
Tanya

denisegoldberg wrote:
Tanya -
Your url is http://agapephotos.smugmug.com. That's what someone would enter in their browser to go to your site.

And yes, put the info you want the search engines to see within the myBioText div as I showed above. In case an example helps, here's what I have in the bio on my site (but I didn't include all of the slideshow code below because you already have that covered):
<div id="myBioText">Photography, bicycling, and travel. Can I say that these are good addictions? 
I'm an avid cyclist, and I love traveling with my camera. Looking back at my photos helps to jog my memory, although the beauty of the reality often exceeds that of my photos. My photo galleries contain travel photos, images that have jumped into my camera as I've been wandering near home, photos of family and much loved pets, pretty much anything that catches my eye while I'm wandering, camera in hand.</div>
 
<html>
********>
var ssConfig = {
... etc.
 
If you do a search for me, the text you see on the search engine entries is the start of the text in my bio box.

Descriptions in your galleries are not hidden unless you add some CSS to hide them. You certainly could put information in your gallery descriptions and hide it in the same way I showed you how to hide the text in your bio. But many times some descriptive information in your galleries is good.

If you take a look at my site you will see that many of my galleries have descriptions. Another example - my Kaleidoscope page is an html-only page (a gallery, but with no photos in it, and everything you see on that page is in the gallery description).

If you are giving someone - a friend or a client - information about your site, I would recommend giving them the url directly. They shouldn't need to search for your site. So give them http://agapephotos.smugmug.com. Or if you decide to buy a domain (and domains are very inexpensive) you can give them that name. For example, you can get to my site by entering my smugmug site name, or by entering www.denisegoldberg.com.

--- Denise

ttbest · July 7, 2008

Code
Hi Denise,
Hey, for future purposes, can you explain how most people make their site? I did mine in PS because another smugmugger had recommended that. After, your explaination on search engines, I realize that wasn't the best choice. What else is there? And do I need a computer IT person to achieve good results?

denisegoldberg wrote:
Tanya -
Your url is http://agapephotos.smugmug.com. That's what someone would enter in their browser to go to your site.

And yes, put the info you want the search engines to see within the myBioText div as I showed above. In case an example helps, here's what I have in the bio on my site (but I didn't include all of the slideshow code below because you already have that covered):
<div id="myBioText">Photography, bicycling, and travel. Can I say that these are good addictions? 
I'm an avid cyclist, and I love traveling with my camera. Looking back at my photos helps to jog my memory, although the beauty of the reality often exceeds that of my photos. My photo galleries contain travel photos, images that have jumped into my camera as I've been wandering near home, photos of family and much loved pets, pretty much anything that catches my eye while I'm wandering, camera in hand.</div>
 
<html>
********>
var ssConfig = {
... etc.
 
If you do a search for me, the text you see on the search engine entries is the start of the text in my bio box.

Descriptions in your galleries are not hidden unless you add some CSS to hide them. You certainly could put information in your gallery descriptions and hide it in the same way I showed you how to hide the text in your bio. But many times some descriptive information in your galleries is good.

If you take a look at my site you will see that many of my galleries have descriptions. Another example - my Kaleidoscope page is an html-only page (a gallery, but with no photos in it, and everything you see on that page is in the gallery description).

If you are giving someone - a friend or a client - information about your site, I would recommend giving them the url directly. They shouldn't need to search for your site. So give them http://agapephotos.smugmug.com. Or if you decide to buy a domain (and domains are very inexpensive) you can give them that name. For example, you can get to my site by entering my smugmug site name, or by entering www.denisegoldberg.com.

--- Denise

denisegoldberg · July 7, 2008

ttbest wrote:

Hi Denise,
Hey, for future purposes, can you explain how most people make their site? I did mine in PS because another smugmugger had recommended that. After, your explaination on search engines, I realize that wasn't the best choice. What else is there? And do I need a computer IT person to achieve good results?

Personally I wouldn't use a tool like photoshop to build text pages. As you saw from our previous conversation, the text on pages created with a tool like photoshop would not be available to search engines. In addition, if you'd like to make your site friendly to individuals who might need to make the text a little larger, using a .jpg for text-based documents doesn't really allow for the viewer taking control and increasing the size of the text using their browser.

You do not need an IT person to get good results. Yes, knowledge of CSS and HTML helps, but you can start without any knowledge. Post in the customization forum and I'm sure you'll get the help that you need.

If you're looking for a starting point, there are some very good documents available here. Starting at the >>> CUSTOMIZATION: Start here <<< sticky in the customization forum. There are some tutorials linked from there, and there is a document about CSS that I found very helpful.

>>> CUSTOMIZATION: Start here <<< sticky is at http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=52812.
Thread with link to document about CSS, Customizing SmugMug Simplified, is at http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=54833.

--- Denise

ttbest · July 10, 2008

domain
Can anyone help me link a domain to my smugmug site? I already have the domain- agapephotos.org and my smugmug site is agapephotos.smugmug.com.

Art Scott · July 10, 2008

ttbest wrote:

Can anyone help me link a domain to my smugmug site? I already have the domain- agapephotos.org and my smugmug site is agapephotos.smugmug.com.

Where did you purchase the domain? That'll be a big help for the helpers here.

Here is a page you might want to read also: http://www.smugmug.com/help/professional-accounts

ttbest · July 10, 2008

Joker.com
I registered with joker.com.

Art Scott wrote:

Where did you purchase the domain? That'll be a big help for the helpers here.

Here is a page you might want to read also: http://www.smugmug.com/help/professional-accounts

ttbest · September 3, 2008

Url
Hi Denise-
I purchased the domain agapephotos.org and hooked it to my smugmug photo site, after talking with you about domains back in July. SOme people are having problems when they do a search either in google or yahoo with getting this site (dgrin) instead. It seems the keywords in my initial post in dgrin regarding my new business to you -comes up and not my website. Help!!! I'm not sure what to do. Should I just delete the threads in dgrin or would that not stop the issue?

denisegoldberg wrote:
Tanya -
Your url is http://agapephotos.smugmug.com. That's what someone would enter in their browser to go to your site.

And yes, put the info you want the search engines to see within the myBioText div as I showed above. In case an example helps, here's what I have in the bio on my site (but I didn't include all of the slideshow code below because you already have that covered):
<div id="myBioText">Photography, bicycling, and travel. Can I say that these are good addictions? 
I'm an avid cyclist, and I love traveling with my camera. Looking back at my photos helps to jog my memory, although the beauty of the reality often exceeds that of my photos. My photo galleries contain travel photos, images that have jumped into my camera as I've been wandering near home, photos of family and much loved pets, pretty much anything that catches my eye while I'm wandering, camera in hand.</div>
 
<html>
********>
var ssConfig = {
... etc.
 
If you do a search for me, the text you see on the search engine entries is the start of the text in my bio box.

Descriptions in your galleries are not hidden unless you add some CSS to hide them. You certainly could put information in your gallery descriptions and hide it in the same way I showed you how to hide the text in your bio. But many times some descriptive information in your galleries is good.

If you take a look at my site you will see that many of my galleries have descriptions. Another example - my Kaleidoscope page is an html-only page (a gallery, but with no photos in it, and everything you see on that page is in the gallery description).

If you are giving someone - a friend or a client - information about your site, I would recommend giving them the url directly. They shouldn't need to search for your site. So give them http://agapephotos.smugmug.com. Or if you decide to buy a domain (and domains are very inexpensive) you can give them that name. For example, you can get to my site by entering my smugmug site name, or by entering www.denisegoldberg.com.

--- Denise

denisegoldberg · September 3, 2008

ttbest wrote:

Hi Denise-
I purchased the domain agapephotos.org and hooked it to my smugmug photo site, after talking with you about domains back in July. SOme people are having problems when they do a search either in google or yahoo with getting this site (dgrin) instead. It seems the keywords in my initial post in dgrin regarding my new business to you -comes up and not my website. Help!!! I'm not sure what to do. Should I just delete the threads in dgrin or would that not stop the issue?

A search would find any place that your site is referenced. But - what are you searching on? Searching on a URL isn't what people usually do. If they know the URL why would they search for it?

Searchiing on your name or your site name... I'd hope that would get a response. You don't have anything in your bio that would help keyword or identify your site though. You really need to add something there - scroll down to Add Text To Your Bio So Your Search Results Look Better in this wiki page - http://wiki.smugmug.net/display/SmugMug/Flash+Slideshow - and follow the instructions there.

It's also important to do everything noted on this wiki page - http://wiki.smugmug.net/display/SmugMug/Maximize+Search+Engine+Findability.

--- Denise

ttbest · September 4, 2008

Domain
Hi Denise,
Back on July 5, you helped me with some advice on my bio,keywords, etc. I made those changes today and now my galleries are not accessible. I have tried to remove the stuff I added, because I have clients trying to access the galleries, but I can't get into my bio. What did I do wrong and how to I go back? I have emailed Andy as well as [EMAIL="help@smugmug"]help@smugmug[/EMAIL] but I'm not getting anywhere.

denisegoldberg wrote:

A search would find any place that your site is referenced. But - what are you searching on? Searching on a URL isn't what people usually do. If they know the URL why would they search for it?

Searchiing on your name or your site name... I'd hope that would get a response. You don't have anything in your bio that would help keyword or identify your site though. You really need to add something there - scroll down to Add Text To Your Bio So Your Search Results Look Better in this wiki page - http://wiki.smugmug.net/display/SmugMug/Flash+Slideshow - and follow the instructions there.

It's also important to do everything noted on this wiki page - http://wiki.smugmug.net/display/SmugMug/Maximize+Search+Engine+Findability.

--- Denise

denisegoldberg · September 4, 2008

ttbest wrote:

Hi Denise,
Back on July 5, you helped me with some advice on my bio,keywords, etc. I made those changes today and now my galleries are not accessible. I have tried to remove the stuff I added, because I have clients trying to access the galleries, but I can't get into my bio. What did I do wrong and how to I go back? I have emailed Andy as well as help@smugmug but I'm not getting anywhere.

Posting the same question in multiple places on the forums makes extra work for all of the people who help out here. Isn't this the same issue you posted here - http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=104563?

You probably have an unclosed tag in your bio. You should be able to get in by going to the settings tab in your control panel. Look for Bio: change.

--- Denise

ttbest · September 8, 2008

Help
Sorry Denise,
I won't bother you again.

denisegoldberg wrote:

Posting the same question in multiple places on the forums makes extra work for all of the people who help out here. Isn't this the same issue you posted here - http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=104563?

You probably have an unclosed tag in your bio. You should be able to get in by going to the settings tab in your control panel. Look for Bio: change.

--- Denise

denisegoldberg · September 8, 2008

ttbest wrote:

Sorry Denise,
I won't bother you again.

Please understand that I wasn't telling you not to ask questions, I was simply asking that you not ask the same question in multiple places. I'm happy to help, but it's extremely frustrating to spend time answering a question only to discover that someone else has already answered the same question posted elsewhere (within the dgrin forums).

--- Denise

jeffreaux2 · September 8, 2008

denisegoldberg wrote:
To add information to your bio so that it is picked up by Google and the other search engines, add this to your CSS:
#myBioText {
    display: none;
}
Then in your bio, before your slideshow code, add:
[B]<div id="myBioText">[/B]
add bio info here, using words that you want to be picked up by search engines. 
Short description of your business
 
And add a few blank lines too. That way when the search engines do pick up your site the description 
will be the info from this entry and not your slideshow parameters.
[B]</div>[/B]
--- Denise

Denise,

I have applied the code to my css and bio. Now, my slideshow does not appear to be loading/working.

denisegoldberg · September 8, 2008

jeffreaux2 wrote:

I have applied the code to my css and bio. Now, my slideshow does not appear to be loading/working.

Your slideshow loads fine for me in both IE7 and Firefox 2. Did you fix the problem?

--- Denise

jeffreaux2 · September 9, 2008

denisegoldberg wrote:

Your slideshow loads fine for me in both IE7 and Firefox 2. Did you fix the problem?

--- Denise

I just waited until Smugmug's ridiculously undependable speed came around.

New Business

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