Why You Need To Learn SEO

So, you got great songs, a great image, a cool website and a cool name. If no one can find you on google or other search engines, then all that hard work could be in vain. Understanding how to get your project on the front page of google is now just as important as any other part of getting your career together for the independent DIY musician.

 

It's all about tuning your website content. This is called SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). When a user places a word/phrase in the google search window, the sites that are tuned to that specific word or phrase will appear. The ones that are tuned the best will appear on page one.

 

Users searching for things on the internet rarely go beyond page one of google because they can usually find what it is they are looking for or an alternative there.  So it is essential to try and get your site tuned so when a new fan is searching for music they can find you, preferably on page one.

 

There are millions of websites out there, and right from the off, your website is competing with all of them. You are jostling for a 'chart position' here just as much as you would be in the music charts, but don't be put off thinking there is a whole 'dark art' to be learned here.

 

 I found a cool article on theunsignedguide.com, going into detail on how to get your site search engine optimised, helping you understand keywords and and keyword phrase structure to get your site tuned up and google friendly.

 

We also have a great article on the Make it in Music website 'Search Engine Optimisation for your Band Website'  going into details with a video on keywording your site.

 

Links

 

http://members.theunsignedguide.com/blog/336/seo-for-musicians---part-1/

 

Part two here http://members.theunsignedguide.com/blog/337

 

http://www.makeitinmusic.com/band-website-seo/

 

All you need to know about SEO for musicians

OK, maybe not all, but I've seen a bunch of articles over the last few weeks, which, when grouped together, will give you a very solid training in what SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is and why you need to do at least some to further your music career.

I'll let the articles do most of the talking, but, in short, you need to learn what things you should aim to have your music website rank for in Google (and other) searches and some basic techniques that will help you do that.

Start with this article on Musician Wages for a great overview:

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is process of organizing the content of a website in a way that will be most easily understood and indexed by search engines. If you do it right, you will be closer to the top of the list when strangers search for terms relating to your website. For instance, if you are a punk bluegrass accordion trio, you should be at the top of the listings whenever anybody searches for that genre of music.

Read it here.

Then their follow up article talks about how to apply your new found SEO knowledge to other online sites that can point people (and search engines) back to your main website:

Musicians needn’t be overly concerned with SEO on their own website if it’s for mostly promotional and informational purposes. This is very true, and the last thing a working musician needs is one more distraction from their instrument. However, the concepts are important to understand as you expand your internet presence because better optimization helps more people find your music. In this article, we’ll apply these concepts outside the musician’s website and into other online communities.

Read that here.

Then I'd recommend moving on to this article on Music Think Tank that goes into some specific but very basic and simple methods that you ought to know:

Search engine optimization (SEO) often gets passed off as a sort of snake oil — some gimmicky trick that people do to manipulate search results in their favor.

SEO is really about one thing: making what your website is about clear to people and bots alike. There’s no tricks or gimmicks, and if you can make a website or manage a wordpress installation, you can do some very simple things to make your website more search engine and people friendly.

Read that one here.

Then, last but obviously not least, there's our post and video on Band Website SEO which covers a lot of the same stuff but you get to hear my dulcet tones to boot!

Band Website SEO post and video.

Really - do take some time to read and digest this info. It's a good basic training that will help you in ways that you can't really understand until you try them. It won't break your career instantly but it will, with luck, bring in some new fans and may create opportunities out of the blue!

More band website SEO

Having laboured over my own post on SEO for the DIY musician I just came across this post that does a pretty good job of making some of the methods very clear.

Well worth a read.

• Concentrate on Keywords that describe your band.  For Example, Tribute Band, Original Rock, Cover Band, Alternative Music.  Also, place your City and State where you play in your keywords of your site in the Meta tag portion of your site. 
• Meta tags on your site should include a Title, Keywords, and Description meta tags in that order in your html code
• and more.......

Check it out here.

Band website SEO = fans & sales

Go and read and watch this on the main site - Band website SEO

In the post I discuss and prove to you how learning 'search engine optimisation' will pull fans of your style of music into your band website.

That's right - me doing my first video on the site!

I hope it makes sense as I have had to do it as an overview but I want you to know how important this skill is.

I also recommend that you go and check out a music marketing expert's free and paid training in the post - you should.

But, if you don't want or can't afford his premium training, you can learn a lot by getting busy with Google and hopefully my post will give you some stuff to start with!