Photos from a remote place
“From SEO to Water Lilies” sounds a bit strange for a blog title, so I want to explain it briefly. Two main themes defined my summer. First, I tackled the massive task of revising my blog, which had accumulated plenty of technical errors. I will cover this in the second half of the post, as it mostly concerns my fellow bloggers. Second, I needed to escape the city heat and find some cool water.
I often realize how grateful I am for the beautiful region I live in. Within a hundred kilometers, there are countless places perfect for day trips. This summer, cooling down was the main goal. I avoid crowded city public pools. Instead, we tried various rivers, lakes, and swimming ponds, which proved to be the right choice. I want to highlight one place in particular because it combines a few things that matter to me.
The pictures below speak for themselves. Water lilies have fascinated me since childhood, and they seem increasingly rare. When we do see them, we usually look down at them from a riverbank or a temple pavilion. Here, you get the rare chance to communicate with them at eye level.
Dürnstein and the Kuenringerbad
This ruin might sound familiar, especially if you know the story of King Richard the Lionheart. He was held prisoner here in the late 12th century. According to legend, his loyal minstrel, Blondel, traveled from castle to castle singing a specific song. He finally heard King Richard sing the second verse from inside the Dürnstein tower, discovering his king’s secret location. News traveled through these singers back then.
The swimming pond, known as the Kuenringerbad, relies on a fully biological water purification system. It uses no chemicals, keeping the water exceptionally clean, very cool and natural. It sits right next to the Danube, offering a beautiful view of the river valley. Looking the other way, you see the Dürnstein castle ruins directly above.
SEO for Blog Pages
This section is for my fellow bloggers. Many of you have already looked into SEO (search engine optimization), and some probably quit in frustration along the way. We easily get the impression that WordPress plugins like Yoast or Jetpack do the SEO work for us. That is partly true, but the constant updates and changes in WordPress can also negatively impact a blog. That is exactly what happened to mine – besides my own mistakes.
Do we actually need SEO? If you mostly communicate through the WordPress “Reader” and engage with a specific group of followers, SEO does not matter much. But if you want people outside that circle to find you—primarily through the Google search engine—you need to take action.
Like many colleagues, my website consists of a section for blog articles and a portfolio of static pages. Let’s look at a result after my recent revision. I focus on a few central themes, such as Daoism and painting. Keep in mind that search results always vary depending on your browsing habits, location, and the browser you use. But even if my pages do not rank this high for everyone, these results tell me I am on the right track. After a lot of hard work editing relevant pages, Google now sees me like this:
This is encouraging for a few reasons: I rank ahead of similar sites, and Google directly names my blog in its AI overviews.
Ranking a page for a niche term is the easiest route. In the next case, I targeted Qi Baishi’s paintings of Chinese cabbage. Even for this specific topic, there are thousands of competing pages, but it works well too.
However, if you position enough specific pages well, the broader pages start to rank too. In my case, this worked for the broader search term “Asian Art Theories.”
SEO is hard work, and you cannot always control or predict the outcome. I cannot give a comprehensive tutorial here. I simply want to offer some encouragement: If you need SEO, do the reading and put in the work. The results will follow.
I wish you a continued wonderful summer. Stay cool and hydrated!
Related articles: spring greetings-from-yunnan I autumn greetings I winter greetings
Explore Art & Writing
Art Portfolio → Featured Artworks → Arts & Philosophy Journal → All Articles
Explore Asian Art Essays for writing on Chinese painting, calligraphy, aesthetics and art history.
Available Artworks
Original works are available on FriedrichZettl.com and Saatchi Art
Leave a Reply