Amy Shackleton completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours degree at York University in 2008. In only two years, she’s exhibited paintings in New York, London, Toronto, Montreal and Calgary. At 24, she has received multiple People’s Choice Awards, was a finalist in the 2010 Signature Art Awards at Degree Art Gallery in London and nominated for the 2010 Palm Art Award in Germany.
Amy’s original website was created for her 2 years ago by a friend through an art-for-programming barter. Her friend created a site using (Adobe) Flash, a programming system that adds animation, video and interactivity to web pages. Flash sites have been criticized because it is difficult for search engines to index their content. As a result you could have a pretty site that was hard to find. To make them more visible also requires programming. Also her Flash site couldn’t be viewed on iPods, iPhones and iPads. Because of the programming required, Amy was unable to update the site herself, so 6 months ago she decided to replace her existing website with a site based on WordPress, the software widely used for blogging. Her site is Aim Artistry. She now makes 1 or 2 updates to her website every week, because the WordPress user interface is easy to use. Search engines are attracted to websites that change content often and new blog posts provide new content for search engines to index.
Boiling Point, 45″ x 60″ Acrylic and Enamel on Canvas
Did the switch from her Flash site to WordPress make a difference in her traffic? Have a look at her 2010 statistics below. She has averaged 40 hits/day since she installed WordPress. Prior to that she was averaging 8 hits/day. Amy says, “I’m pretty sure the growth was because I converted to WordPress. I launched my new site in July, which is the exact time my hits-per-day jumped! My visits HAVE increased significantly since the summer. Last month I had 1291 visitors (44 per day) and it’s been like this since I converted it to the WordPress theme this summer. Looks like it’s working!!! It’s definitely worth paying a freelance web designer $500 – $1000 to set-up a customizable website!”
2010 Visitor Statistics
