Cone 6 Glaze Test Tiles and Keywords/Search Engine Optimization
Posted by: Cynthia in Uncategorized
Gee, is it really Thursday already, because it feels like the week is just flying by! Here in Colorado, we have been enjoying warm spring days for the past few weeks; that was until Mother Nature decided to remind us that she’s still in charge. We woke up to about 4 inches of snow in the Denver metro area this morning. I really can’t complain because come summer we’ll be crying for moisture.
My goal for my blog is to post every 2-3 days, and this week I let 4 days stretch between posts…. Not my intention, but what can you do? I could backdate my post to make it look like I posted yesterday, but I won’t. It’s not like I don’t have anything to say either. I have a blog post saved as a draft with future blog topics all ready to go.
Anyway, let me get back on topic. I wanted to share my glaze test tiles that came out of the kiln last week. I had tested a high calcium semi-matte base glaze recipe from Mastering Cone 6 Glazes, page 89 in the book, and then added variations in color: 3 to be exact. I also re-tested the cone 6 Chinese Blue Green recipe, which compared side by side with my tests from college, turned out perfectly! My ceramic’s mentor, Mary Cay, is coaching me through my glaze testing and is having me use Robin Hopper’s method using the “color progressions pie” from page 187 in The Ceramic Spectrum.
Do you remember back in high school or college math, thinking to yourself, “when am I ever going to need to use this information again?” Well, I had to dust off my algebraic capabilities from my brain files in order to calculate the glaze recipe once my tiles came out. I was scratching my head, wondering how am I going to get the colorant amounts for test tile #5 from the pie?? Algebra to the rescue. The algebraic formula is explained on page 190 of The Ceramic Spectrum.
In other news, I subscribe to an online newsletter called Practical E-Commerce and there was a really good article today on keywords and how to choose wisely to optimize your website’s ranking with search engines. I’m paying attention, because when I google my name, my blog comes up first and foremost, but not my website. I have two domains pointing to my website, http://cynthiaguajardo.com and http://coloradoartstudio.com, and my website doesn’t come up on the first few pages of my google search. Now my blog comes up #1 and my blog does have a link to my website, but how many people are going to poke around to find it?
If I search for pottery, ceramic pottery, ceramic vase, handmade pottery or other vague search terms, my site is no where to be seen. So, the question is how can I choose and narrow down the focus of my keywords to help people find my website? Here’s a link to a free keyword analyzer that will help to narrow down that search. Obviously, hitting the streets, networking, word of mouth will help people find my work, but my quest is to help my website stand out anonymously on the Internet. The article advises that webmasters use narrowed down specific search terms. In other words, pretend to be one of your customers. Think like a consumer of your product. What would you search for?
Tags: algebra, ceramic glaze tests, cone 6 chinese blue green oxidation glaze, cone 6 glazes, mastering cone 6 glazes, robin hopper, seo
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Sure does feel like time is flying by. I’ll agree with you there. These tiles look great. May I ask where do you get them? I was thinking of maybe making some magnets on tiles…and I think these would be the right size. Suggestion?
Anyhoo, they look wonderful girl!
Glazes look great Miz Wizard!
As far as the keyword thing goes, I meta tag my web site with my name, my town, and then with the break down of what I do…like this:
Heather Brown Truman, BAD, Kitty, Art, Studio, Lexington, Kentucky, oil paintings, original artworks, oil, painting, And so on….you get the idea…this places me at the top of google for my name and my studio and my blog all at once. Ever notice how I use the same title in each of my blog posts I start each post with BAD! Kitty Art Studio…it helps to saturate the google bots to locate me, I then link each header of my blog (regardless of the title, check it out) to my web site which creates another link to my web site that is refreshed regular like and that adds to the whole google bot spider thing…hope that helps in linking the blog to the web site…it’s a lot of work but it’s worth it for the bots…
I bookmarked those links to check later. Thanks
Hey Angela, I make my tiles myself. I roll clay out either using a slab roller or with a plain old fashioned rolling pin. Then they’re bisqued and glaze fired. You might have some luck if you google “bisque ware”, there are companies who specialize in selling already bisqued pieces, including ornament sized bits.
I never thought about linking to my website in every title, Heather. I’ll have to take a closer look at your blog posts when I visit. My problem is that my website doesn’t come up but my blog does. I would love my website to be #1. I’m still learning though…
Hi Janet, we must have been posting at the same time, cause I missed your post.
Yeah the linking in each blog post is what will elevate your web site without having to work so hard at it…and I went from like the page 10 to #1 on a matter of a week because of it. Putting a link to my web site at the end of each post makes it easy for those who wander into the blog to find the web site easy as well. I am on the number one page for my web site’s name and my personal name and my blog as well, and that’s in the top three search engines…so it’s working well so far. Good luck my friend.
Nice mixture of topics on this one from glazed tiles to keyword search optimization… Enjoyed reading this one…
I found your site through a link on Nickola McCoy’s site and I’m delighted that I did! Another Colorado artist - yay!
As to yesterday’s snow…oh, but it was so pretty to be painting in the studio and look out the window and see those big, fat flakes.
Great site and I love your work! I’ll be back often to read.
Cheers,
Nic
That makes sense, Heather. How does doing that affect the “authority” of the referrer? I guess it really doesn’t matter if it accomplishes what you want it to do, though.
Thanks Sunil, I try.
Nic, I tried to follow your profile link and couldn’t visit your blog.
Your ‘keeper’ tiles are beautiful colors Cyn…looking forward to seeing these gorgeous glazes after fired on your ceramics now!! I made a website in sitekreator but I gave up after not being able to figure out how to make galleries within galleries and all that tech stuff, eek! I don’t think anyone has ever gone there anyways so I’ll stick with my blog at least I sort of know what I’m doing there LOL!
As a math teacher, it’s always nice to see someone say they needed to use math in their real lives.
Cynthia, I’m sorry I have been around but I have been busy. Everytime I come see your blog you have a wonderful array of artwork and information. I promise to visit more often and keep up the excellnt work.
Hi Cynthia
Busy trying to catch up with all these blogging artists.
On the SEO front I asked my hubby for his comments and he recommended you check out Web CEO software (free) which will help enormously with optimisation of any website, keywords and submission. Get it at http://www.websiteceo.com/
For keyword research in addition to overture he suggests Google Adwords Keyword tool at
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and Wordtracker at http://www.wordtracker.com/index.html
Hope this helps, I don’t do any of that stuff, I just know a man who does:-)
Thanks Lynette! Keep playing around with Sitekreator and read the tutorials - it’s not so bad.
Jared, it surprised me to tell you the truth! Your photographs are wonderful.
No worries, Mary, you’ve been busy with your art too.
Thanks for the links Nickola, I’m going to be taking a look at them more closely.