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Artist just getting started on line

I am an artist, I paint in watercolors, acrylics, and oil. Labor Day of 2022 I decided to find a way to make my art affordable and fun. I had one of my paintings made into a 504 piece puzzle and now I am attempting to share my art online. I have a square store and just this morning connected it to my Facebook page, this page is only about a week old and not many followers yet. If anyone can offer insights on how to drive people to my store I would really appreciate the help. Thanks!

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Hello ARTONARDS

 

I posted this not long ago, this should give you some help where needed as well....

 

There are a few details you need to know if you want to get ranked well on google and drive more traffic your way, firstly pay attention to your SEO section at the bottom of every page you create, make sure you use your title in the permalink section so say you are selling a solid 14K Gold 10mm Bangle, it should look like this solid-14k-yellow-gold-10mm-flat-bangle notice there are no capitals involved in the permalink, it helps googles bots to read it easier, but straight away it tells google this page is without crawling the whole page, secondly put the title in the SEO Title with capitals where needed and lastly in the SEO description put the title in again and add a bit more like solid 14K Gold 10mm Bangle for sale from your sites name, this will help shoot up the google ranking system and over time you will be on page 1 hopefully, here's a tip, categories carry far more weight than individual items so do bear this in mind, as for paying for google adds, don't this is a total waste of time and effort for 99% of the web, you won't see amazon or eBay or Esty using google adds for a good reason, this is because firstly most clicks you will get are from bots that advertising places use to get your email address and you will get flooded with we'd like to offer you stuff emails, a big no go, secondly and most importantly the truth is most of the public don't like looking at ads as it says look at us we are great but there is a reason we are not on page 1 of google search and people just don't care about adds, how many who read this genuinely click the adds on a search page, if you have tons of money to spare then adds are ok but it wont make you more profit, the best ways to drive real traffic with interested customers are

 

1) open a google my business page, if you don't have one set up and pay attention to the areas you sell to and put them in, if you have an address you sell from for people to buy then add this, if you don't that is fine as you can set it up for website only, but you will be best to put an address in, then say it's mail order only, you won't have unwanted people turning up then, this is one of the very best practices you can have on the web, and it's completely free to do with google and after a few months bedded in googles system you will show up on all the areas you put in that you sell to and include the whole country(s) if you post your items, 9 out of 10 times you will show up near the top of page 1 doing this

 

2) have a Facebook and Instagram shop and get set up on twitter, you don't need all of them but if you can it works well, you can connect your items through square to make this process easy, with Facebook make sure to add a Facebook business page to your Facebook account, this way you can put your web address on there, advertise what ever you want, it will attract interest and it will send them directly to your site, just by simply adding a Facebook business page connected to your personal account if you like or set up the business page on it's own, this might not generate loads of outright sales but it sure does bring in no end of genuine interested traffic

 

3) if you have an Etsy, eBay, Amazon, Twitter etc or are on any other selling platform, remember to put your website on there even if it's to do with how you can be contacted, this will add genuine high backlinks and you don't need to add them to your square site, which are the very best links to get, as to make a site really SEO rich is to have as few external links as possible, do remember this

 

Lastly

 

I have seen no end of square site owners complaining about oh the page speed is slow, load times are bad, why can't we name our pictures we put on so google images can pick it up and other stuff, take no notice of any of this, the reason this happens is because square use a CPN server system which basically means your site is actually transferred from squares hub base which i think is in San Francisco to servers around the World instantly ( like if you watch a sports event live from a different country in real time) all the test my web page or sites for SEO out there can't read CPN systems correctly nor can google page speed page, but googles bots when crawling your site will have the exact info google needs to read your site correctly, if you look at your site either on a computer or a mobile or tablet, you will notice the load times are comparable with Amazon etc for speed, your image is named, but it does not show up on the web page you look at, it will look like a bunch of numbers, but the image name you give it when loaded up will be on record from squares main hub centre which google will read from, name your images correctly and they will appear on google images with time, but do remember that the whole basis on google is based on impressions, the more you have the more google trusts you and the longer this goes on the more google will push your rankings up, there is no quick fix for this, and with Covid making more people than ever selling on the web, it might take you that bit longer now to get where you want to, but in the meantime have fun on the above mentioned platforms, do it on YouTube as well if you like and enjoy your business growing

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Best Answer

Hello ARTONARDS

 

I posted this not long ago, this should give you some help where needed as well....

 

There are a few details you need to know if you want to get ranked well on google and drive more traffic your way, firstly pay attention to your SEO section at the bottom of every page you create, make sure you use your title in the permalink section so say you are selling a solid 14K Gold 10mm Bangle, it should look like this solid-14k-yellow-gold-10mm-flat-bangle notice there are no capitals involved in the permalink, it helps googles bots to read it easier, but straight away it tells google this page is without crawling the whole page, secondly put the title in the SEO Title with capitals where needed and lastly in the SEO description put the title in again and add a bit more like solid 14K Gold 10mm Bangle for sale from your sites name, this will help shoot up the google ranking system and over time you will be on page 1 hopefully, here's a tip, categories carry far more weight than individual items so do bear this in mind, as for paying for google adds, don't this is a total waste of time and effort for 99% of the web, you won't see amazon or eBay or Esty using google adds for a good reason, this is because firstly most clicks you will get are from bots that advertising places use to get your email address and you will get flooded with we'd like to offer you stuff emails, a big no go, secondly and most importantly the truth is most of the public don't like looking at ads as it says look at us we are great but there is a reason we are not on page 1 of google search and people just don't care about adds, how many who read this genuinely click the adds on a search page, if you have tons of money to spare then adds are ok but it wont make you more profit, the best ways to drive real traffic with interested customers are

 

1) open a google my business page, if you don't have one set up and pay attention to the areas you sell to and put them in, if you have an address you sell from for people to buy then add this, if you don't that is fine as you can set it up for website only, but you will be best to put an address in, then say it's mail order only, you won't have unwanted people turning up then, this is one of the very best practices you can have on the web, and it's completely free to do with google and after a few months bedded in googles system you will show up on all the areas you put in that you sell to and include the whole country(s) if you post your items, 9 out of 10 times you will show up near the top of page 1 doing this

 

2) have a Facebook and Instagram shop and get set up on twitter, you don't need all of them but if you can it works well, you can connect your items through square to make this process easy, with Facebook make sure to add a Facebook business page to your Facebook account, this way you can put your web address on there, advertise what ever you want, it will attract interest and it will send them directly to your site, just by simply adding a Facebook business page connected to your personal account if you like or set up the business page on it's own, this might not generate loads of outright sales but it sure does bring in no end of genuine interested traffic

 

3) if you have an Etsy, eBay, Amazon, Twitter etc or are on any other selling platform, remember to put your website on there even if it's to do with how you can be contacted, this will add genuine high backlinks and you don't need to add them to your square site, which are the very best links to get, as to make a site really SEO rich is to have as few external links as possible, do remember this

 

Lastly

 

I have seen no end of square site owners complaining about oh the page speed is slow, load times are bad, why can't we name our pictures we put on so google images can pick it up and other stuff, take no notice of any of this, the reason this happens is because square use a CPN server system which basically means your site is actually transferred from squares hub base which i think is in San Francisco to servers around the World instantly ( like if you watch a sports event live from a different country in real time) all the test my web page or sites for SEO out there can't read CPN systems correctly nor can google page speed page, but googles bots when crawling your site will have the exact info google needs to read your site correctly, if you look at your site either on a computer or a mobile or tablet, you will notice the load times are comparable with Amazon etc for speed, your image is named, but it does not show up on the web page you look at, it will look like a bunch of numbers, but the image name you give it when loaded up will be on record from squares main hub centre which google will read from, name your images correctly and they will appear on google images with time, but do remember that the whole basis on google is based on impressions, the more you have the more google trusts you and the longer this goes on the more google will push your rankings up, there is no quick fix for this, and with Covid making more people than ever selling on the web, it might take you that bit longer now to get where you want to, but in the meantime have fun on the above mentioned platforms, do it on YouTube as well if you like and enjoy your business growing

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This is some of the BEST advice I have ever read! You are an angel. Thank you so much!

 

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Thank you so much for this information!  I'm just getting started so it's important to set everything up right. I have so many questions but am trying to be patient as I work through them.

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Beta Member

I'll post some similar comments that I made last week.

 

With Social media, Instagram and Facebook are my primaries.   You can connect Instagram to your Facebook page and posts can be automatically shared.

 

I have also moved into TikTok.  There are ways to connect TikTok business accounts to your Square Online store, including full product lists and videos that link to a specific product.  You can link TikTok to Instagram accounts too.

 

With all social media, learning about hashtags can expand your views.   Things like cities, states or words related to what you make. 

 

Some examples #AtlantaArtists  #MenWhoSew  #AcrylicArtwork  #AcrylicArtist.   With TikTok for example, it will show you show you many people view certain hashtags. Instagram will show you if it exists and has been used.

 

Signatures in your email should include links to your social media, square store and/or website.  It's finding a balance with links.  I created a Social Media Hub page on my website with links to everything.  I'm too cheap to pay for LinkTree.

 

It can be hard to get traction in social media.   It takes persistence and a desire to take over the world ๐Ÿ™‚ 

 

Geek In Stitches, Beta Member
Square Shop
Social Media Hub
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Thanks, I'm not only new to square I didn't even have a Facebook page, struggling with even getting my square site to work the way I need it to.Thank heaven for tech support. I feel like I'm playing whack the mole, I figure one thing out and something pops up that takes me a long time to figure out. I will take your advice & be persistent, right now I would just like to take over Pennsylvania!  Maybe next year the world!!! Thanks again

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Hi there...your suggestions are great and I'm going to try following them.  I just looked at your Square website and I'm impressed...just getting mine started but I have only subscribed to the ยฃ20 per month Plus option. Do you choose a more premium site?  It looks like you have pages and not just sections.  

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This is all very helpful. I'm retired and very new to anything that has to do with the computer. I'm an artist & I paint, that what I can handle. So, setting up a store and trying to understand and figure out social media is a stretch. I am sort of determined, but wonder if I will ever understand all the ins and outs. Your post is clear, easy to follow and I feel a little more confident now. Thanks!

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Super Seller

Congrats to getting started! That's always the hard part. 

You should first identify your target customer. Who is attracted to what you create? Where do they hang out online. I could see a behind the scenes tik tok or IG reel of you creating a piece doing really well. 

Do you have any local events in your area that are affordable where you could purchase a vendor space and market to people (and sell hopefully) at as well? Do you have a local business association you could join or have them assist you with some press releases to announce your new business?

My Girlfriend's Wardrobe est. 2012

Preston & jayne est. 2023


Downtown York Pa


Square user since 2012
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If you have a business profile on facebook, join groups with that profile. Then post things in that group. Anytime someone likes your post you can invite them to follow your facebook page. I am a wildlife photographer and in 3 years I have gained slighly over 25k followers this way. 

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Thanks for the advice. I am not only new to selling on line, also new to Facebook. I be taking the advice offered!

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Thank you for all the wonderful advice. I am in the same boat as the original artist that posted. I started my business just over 4 mths ago and it has been a struggle getting traffic to my website page. I have created a FB store, square store, and Etsy so now it is to get the traffic. I also set up the google business profile. I didn't know about the hashtags for social media and I still have to go thru my website pages to make sure they all have the SEO set up. I did do all my items in the store but may still have to do the site. My business is custom Pyrography work on cutting boards and live edge so I'm still trying to find who my target customers are going to be. 

Jamie
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Hello cuttingedgepyro

 

I have looked at your site and i think you have done fantastic to start with ( great craftwork as well ), it looks fresh, looks clean and most importantly it looks easy on the eye, i did an SEO on your home page and it is good, no errors your side, SEO done correctly and your real page speed is fine, like i mentioned in last post to you, once you get to a stage when you are happy with how you have set it up, get rid of all tracking tools including links to social media from within squares dashboard as all have cookies which slows your site down quite a lot, make your social media sites all link only to your site, you can add social media icons to your site at the bottom which is fine, but mainly let social media come to you not you to them, all you need now is to flesh your site out with categories, aim to have at least 10 items to each category, and after a while invest in buying either the basic site or the second one up which integrates paypal payments and clearpay apple pay and google pay in to your shopping cart, this will give you your own unique sites name as well and url, it is only the cost of selling one of your items a month ( roughly ) but this will help you go further with google and bing, and just like planting a seed, it's great to watch it all grow and enjoy it

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Thank you so much for the advise and for looking at my site. I currently don't have my FB shop attached to my square, I believe the only tracking I did put on is the meta pixel from FB. You mentioned Categories and that I should have about 10 items in each one. Should my square shop only have categories with the items under them or are you referring to items with variations? I do know what you mean thou about cleaning up the categories and listing. I will definitely follow this advise and work on it.

Jamie
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Hello Jamie

 

With categories, think of it has if you were a potential buyer and you just come across your site, so if you can think of a main category, use it, if there are items that fit in other categories of the same thing, create either sub categories or a whole new one with the same items if needed, i deal with jewellery, but here's what i mean, you can create a category for say Gold Earrings, to help be more specific you can create sub categories like this to go along with the Gold Earrings ( or create different size shape material ones for crafts ) main category like this, sub categories could be gold hoop earrings, gold stud earrings, gold dropper earrings, then you can create a new main category with the material used so it would be for a main category 14K Gold Hoop Earrings, 14K Gold Stud Earrings, then a main category for Diamond Earrings, inside of that you can create sub categories like this round Diamond Earrings, Princess cut Diamond Earrings etc, from only a couple of variations can create a lot more main and sub categories, to be honest this will really only help if you have the website where you pay a month, by this i mean if you use the free site square provides its good to help get used to how to set up a site, but it is like having an eBay shop, on google it will all come under eBay search results and not the individual which in turn only really gets notice by someone wanting to buy off eBay, the free square site as squares name attached to it in the URL section and works very similar to how eBay shops work on search engines, but your name and brand won't ever be picked up by google search because of this, you look like you've mastered the basics of an online site nicely, now is the time to flesh  it out with categories and items and this will really build up internal links in your site, you will use social media and google my business etc to use the links from your paid site to direct people to your site, which brings me to the Facebook meta pixel in squares dashboard, which you can use for Instagram and Pinterest, it was this that made me realise it was these addons that was causing the bulk of my site to be slow, everyone of these is an external link, each external link directly going from your site takes away what's known as page or web juice ( it's a ranking factor with google ) so no external links on your site will give 100% page juice, each external link after will take away roughly 5%, by using these pixel tabs in square dashboard and also showing social media icons ( links on your site ) on your site is actually doing the same sort of thing twice and telling google your social pages might be more important than you website, add in payment links and any other external links and your site juice goes down very quick, i hope you see what i mean and the pixel tabs really slow a site down, it's ok on a free site to a degree as i said because it won't be your name that is showing on proper google or bings search results anyway this all goes to square helping their links build up more, unless you are extremely lucky and totally unique in what you sell, that's why i believe it is important at some point to decide on whether to pay for a proper site, only you know if you want to accept payments from PayPal and apple or google pay and clearpay etc, but look into the price plan of a paid site and decide which is best for you, the most expensive price plan site is not worth it unless you are a corporate business which deals in 1000's of card transactions a day ( maybe one day ) you can start on the cheapest and work your way up if you prefer, and has you have got the structure of your site already in place then once you flesh it out some more i would take the jump, get on google my business now and get it set up for when you have your own paid for site set up Facebook and twitter and Pinterest and any others you want as business pages only, at the very least you will be sending from here all your site links directly back to your own site creating high quality links and getting you more impressions built up quickly and google and other search engines will trust you quicker, do this and if you post your items there is nothing stopping you from posting anywhere you want be it just the whole of Canada, USA or Europe and the World if you choose, but you will be the one in total control of your own decisions and i guarantee you will get noticed wherever you choose to sell, but do try to think like a customer would in how to find you when using your items titles and categories and experiment a little with some of them, like adding for sale at the end of a title or hand ( made ) in Canada or crafted in Canada, using the Country name opens up no end of search possibilities for you to be noticed over time and makes you stand out from the crowd in a good way, sorry my answers are long, but if you need any help with these sort of things just get in touch, all the best for the future

 

Pete

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That helps so much thank you. I never thought of adding the handmade in Canada or crafted in Canada under categories or the SEO

 

Jamie
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Hello CUTTINGEDGEPYRO

 

i should of mentioned this before, when i first started on the web i was like everyone else, i had google analytics, bing webmaster tools etc,  and before google changed rankings to allow faster websites to rank better due to people looking more on their mobiles than pc's it was ok to use these cookies, however now it is a different game, last year when i first got a new site with square, the mobile version of my site was slow in real time and the pc version was a little slow as well, i went into settings after a month and i knocked off the link code joining my site to google analytics, facebook and pinterest which uses cookies to gather data, i kept them to start with, but once you have a certain amount of products on facebook, pinterest or instagram they will stay on them sites, but you free your site up from to many external links which takes time for google bots to read, after a few months of first opening your site stop using all analytics tools, they are not to accurate to judge how many are coming to your site and they slow your site down a lot, i did this with the my square site and my rankings ( in categories, which is more important than individual items for ranking on google ) have mostly shot up on to page 1, remember it can take up to six months now to have google read and publish your site on google search, so use them first six months of starting to get an idea of if your site is working, but don't take to much notice of the traffic you see coming to your site at all, so to start with by all means use analytic tools, join your site to facebook and the others directly from square dashboard until you reach the point when you feel your site as a whole is as good as you will get it ( just the way it looks, the amount of items you have put on and if people can navigate around your site easily, still keep putting items on when you can after as well ) then get rid of any tracking tools that you have connected to your site including social shop link ups, ( start looking at your social platforms as individual sites to add your items to with the links you put on them sending them directly to your site, this is known as backlinks, most people think backlinks should be to and from your site, have as few links to other sites from your main site as possible, but as many as you can from other sites going to your main site and only concentrate on building internal links from your main site ( items and categories and all linking to the home page ) this supercharges googles trust in your site as well, now if you do the SEO part correctly at the bottom of every item you put on and every category you add, you may of head people talk about keywords to put in your item title, if you want to be better, add the keywords you want in to a keyword phrase ( say you sell gold bangles, then for a category you add gold bangle for men & women, gold bangles for sale, solid gold bangle, all you need to do to get this right is type on google what the item is your selling, look at the most popular results that google suggest to you, in that you will find the most popular phases used, put one of them into your category and item pages that are relevant, this will also help you shoot up the rankings quicker, at the end of the day if your site does not get high on google search ( or bing etc ) no matter what is tried regarding traffic it will not be enough to bring more, spend more time on your SEO and speed of your site and don't worry about what traffic is coming to you, finally the analytics tool you get free with square for your site is not very accurate at all either and you cannot knock that off, this should be the only cookie tool you should use and don't take much notice of it, as long as you start selling over a period of time from starting then your site is on the right track, do what i mention above and in a quicker time your site will reach a lot more potential customers, but in todays times it will take patience to start with 

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TIKTOK! This could be so fun to bring to the platform - 

Even if you did a live of you answering questions while you were in the zone and creating! I would love to watch that! 

 

Creating videos of your inspo process, where your last shipment went to, how you got started, etc. People love to see that! As a non creative person in this way, I so admire people like you who can create!

UV-Free Tanning Salon Owner, Northern California (Campbell)
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