Something nice might happen tomorrow

We are not living through good times. One of the analyses of Trump is that his unpredictability is the point .. we have to be constantly on watch for what he’s decided to do today and how it impacts us. For his supporters, it’s like a renewing bowl of treats. For everyone else it’s more like “oh shit, now what?”

The point is, our attention is on him because we don’t know what’s next.

We are on alert. Not just for him. For virus danger. In the UK, Brexit. Healthcare. It’s an endless list.

It doesn’t do your health any good. Being constantly alert to change and to danger, it wears you down.

It can affect you mentally, too. You can end up living your life expecting to have to deal with an endless avalanche of bad things.

But I was recently encouraged to remember that good surprises happen too, and not to prejudge the day.

• The call, out of the blue, from someone who has discovered you and wants to buy.
• The gallery owner who emails to talk about bringing you in for an exhibition.
• The public art commission call that’s right up your street.
• The grant to develop your practice.

One exercise to help your mental health in these times is to keep a note of the good surprises that happen in a day, and to reflect on them periodically. Just so we remember that when we wake up to face the day, we don’t know what’s going to happen. Some of it’s bad, some of it’s good. We should remember that good surprises happen.

That’s the essence of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

If you are down in the depths of page seven of the search results, you are less likely to be discovered. Raising your search position opens you up to surprise goodies.

It’s worth reflecting that there are, for example, over 4,000 searches for ‘garden wall art’ in the UK every month. That’s an awful lot of positive, just for that one niche.

I like to think of it like a river. It flows, whether you are there or not. People, searching for something on Google, YouTube, Reddit, LinkedIn. And every now and then you can visit the riverbank and experience its benefits. You couldn’t possibly take it all in. Or be there always. But you can visit when you like, and take what you need.

You don’t know whether there will be a kingfisher or a kayak class or a great sunset on that river when you visit. You take what comes. But if you’re not there, you’ll never see it.

SEO is about making it more likely that you will be discovered by someone who wants what you do.

If you want to sell your art, SEO is not going to sell your art tomorrow. It just makes it more likely that a buyer will get in touch. So if over the last year you had, say, a sale a month from someone out of the blue, if you work on your SEO, maybe you can get it to two a month.

Don’t get me wrong, SEO is super powerful. You can have as much as you want, it just takes an investment of time and effort. I don’t want to undersell it by saying “two a month”. You can have ten a month if you are willing to do the SEO work. But if you’ve not done anything about SEO, a little can go a long way.

Sounds like a good deal, right? Do a little SEO and get nice surprises.

I have a free 5-day artists’ SEO challenge coming up, so if this sounds like something you could do with, go sign up. It’s free, and doesn’t take up a lot of your time.