Water Lilies and a Summer of Website Work
“From SEO to Water Lilies” may sound like an unlikely title. Two things occupied my summer: revising a blog that had accumulated technical problems and finding somewhere to escape the city heat. I will begin with the water. Fellow bloggers will find a few thoughts on the website work further down.
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.
Water lilies have fascinated me since childhood. I seem to encounter them less often now, though that is an impression from my own outings, not a claim about their distribution. Usually I look down at them from a bank or a pavilion. Here, swimming beside them, I could see them at eye level.
Dürnstein and the Kuenringerbad
The ruins above the swimming pond belong to Dürnstein Castle, where Richard the Lionheart was held in 1192–93. The familiar story of the minstrel Blondel finding him by singing beneath his prison belongs to legend. It is an appealing tale, but I would not treat it as a historical account. The regional tourism page gives the background to the castle and the story.
The Kuenringerbad is a biologically managed swimming pond beside the Danube. For me, its attractions were the cool water, the lilies and the view up toward the castle ruins. I could spend a long time looking without needing to go anywhere.
SEO for Blog Pages
This part is for fellow bloggers. SEO—search engine optimisation—can become frustrating quickly. Plugins such as Yoast and Jetpack help with particular tasks, but they do not take responsibility for the clarity, accuracy or structure of a site. My own accumulated mistakes were part of the work I had to face.
How much attention does SEO need? That depends on what we want from a site. The WordPress Reader helps me stay in touch with existing followers. Search can help someone who has never heard of me discover an essay or an artwork. A site containing both a journal and a portfolio needs to make that route understandable to a new visitor.
My site combines essays with static portfolio and theory pages. Daoism and painting are among its recurring subjects. The screenshots below record searches I made while revising the site. They encouraged me, but they do not establish a stable ranking or show that editing alone caused the result. Search results vary with the query, time, location and other context.
In this captured result, my site appears among the sources shown with the answer. I was pleased to see it there. Whether that appearance brings interested readers to the site is a separate question.
A specific subject can give a page a clear focus. One example is Qi Baishi’s cabbage paintings. The screenshot records what I saw for that query, without telling us how often other people saw or clicked the same result.
The broader query “Asian art theories” also produced an encouraging result in this snapshot. My Asian Art Theories section brings together essays on Chinese painting, calligraphy, Daoism and Zen. Clear links between such essays and the most relevant portfolio or theory pages can help a visitor continue reading with a sense of direction.
I would now put more weight on a small change log and comparable periods in the Search Console performance reports: how often a page appeared, and how often someone clicked through. That gives more context than an occasional screenshot. It still requires care with seasonality and other changes. Google’s guidance on AI search features also makes clear that following best practices does not guarantee inclusion. I want the site to be easier to discover without losing the writing and paintings people came to see.
I wish you a continued wonderful summer. Stay cool and hydrated!
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