A photographer in Minneapolis
For about 2 years now, I’ve tried to get Google to index my 700+ photos on Smugmug (and blogged about it, starting here.). At the start, I had 38 photos indexed. Today, after learning a few things about SEO, creating a blog, and jumping through lots of hoops, I have exactly 10. I can’t convey the taste of failure in print – but this is what it looks like:
In a series of posts starting here, I’ve related my efforts to get Google to index my SmugMug photo gallery. It’s time for another update: basically, Google seems to have just pulled that cord that lets the hot air out of my balloon. I’m going down.
Since I figured out what was wrong with the sitemap for my blog site, I’ve been getting more posts indexed. But Google is still fiddling with the other sitemap, the one for the photo gallery, and can’t seem to decide what to do with it.
Continue reading “The Dance of Sitemaps”In a previous post I related how Google whacked the indexing of about half my pages, following the switch to “mobile first” crawling of my site. And even after the big initial drop, my count of indexed pages was continuing to go down. It looked like the end.
Continue reading “Google Lets Me Live – Barely”Like many photographers, I have a SmugMug gallery, hooked to Google Analytics (GA) for hit tracking. My photos have keywords and descriptions, in the hope that they turn up in Google searches like “Minneapolis photography” or “Minnesota birds”.
And for well over a year, GA consistently told me I’m seen less often than Bigfoot. Basically, it’s crickets. SmugMug is a solid operation but like any gallery site, it has pros and cons; one of the cons is that you’re not likely to come in view of Google’s all-seeing eye.
Continue reading “SmugMug and SEO: crickets chirping”