Tree of 40 Fruit - cover illustration

This Tree of 40 Fruit illustration was the front cover for Edible Silicon Valley, 2015 Summer edition.

It’s interesting how I got this opportunity. It proves the importance of having a proper website, as well as using search engine optimization (SEO).

I didn’t approach the people at this magazine – they approached me. They found my work through an online search, which in turn led them to my website, which in turn led them to me.

This made me happy for many reasons – the key ones include the following:

1. Someone of significance in the deeper depths of the Interweb saw and liked my work – enough to contact me.
2. The keywords that I used to describe my webpages were effective – people were discovering my work.
3. The internet connected me to a great contact that led to a fantastic opportunity.

Tree of 40 Fruit - Cover illustration for Edible Silicon Valley, 2015 Summer ed. ~~ © Patricia Pinsk

What is SEO?

It is the process of improving traffic (visitors) to your website. It is about making your site more visible when someone types a “keyword” into a search engine such as Google.  

That is, when someone types in a search word, you want your site to appear in the search results of the top 1-3 pages. It’s not enough just to upload a site. You need content that includes the following:

• Pages that contain unique content so your site is likely to stand out from the masses. For example, when this page includes the word “illustration” along with “Tree of 40 Fruit”, the page becomes unique. It appears on page 1, 4th listing on the Google search results page.

Search results: Tree of 40 Fruits, illustration

• Headers that include keywords contained on a page. For example, Tree of 40 Fruit is a main heading.

            o   The more headings (second, third-level) on a page, the better your page ranks.

• Copy text that includes those same keywords found in your headers. For example, use content that includes the words “Tree of 40 Fruit” to reinforce the heading text.
• Pages that are indexed correctly for search engines to follow them. This information is in the back-end of your site.
      o   Ensure you have the following meta tag in the HTML source of your page:  <meta name="robots" content="index, follow"> .
  

            o   Ask your website admin, if you aren’t sure how to do this.

• Pages that contain links to some of your other content. This helps drive visitors to some of your older content.
• Pages that are up-to-date and relevant. No-one wants to visit a page that is out-dated, and are even less likely to revisit such a page.

What’s this illustration about?

The concept for this illustration came from an article about a series of hybridized fruit trees by artist Sam Van Aken. In his art, he merges art and agriculture. You can read more about this illustration in the original 2014 posting: Tree of 40 fruit.

If you liked this blog post, you may also like:

• Artists: What makes good Web design?
• Words, words, words: Does a title make the art?
• 6 tips for creating a great online portfolio

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