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/

 

Google changes the search game - this is a VERY big deal

Whether this freaks you out, makes you excited or passes you by will depend on how interested you are in the internet.

More particularly, how interested you are in SEO, traffic and how to get people to come to any website that you have.

I wasn't sure whether to post this as many musicians will think that it won't affect them. Their website isn't something that they spend time optimising and trying to ensure that it ranks in Google. Fair enough - most don't.

But, this is going to affect everyone and every website. Perhaps for the better, but when your life revolves around getting traffic to a website (as does mine) this is a massive change.

So, what is it?

Yesterday Google added 'personal search' to their search results.

This means that from now on whenever you search for anything Google will use what it knows about you and what you have on the web (for now, stuff you have in Google's apps like G+, Picasa etc) to add to your results.

They say:

"Search is pretty amazing at finding that one needle in a haystack of billions of Web pages, images, videos, news and much more," 

"But clearly, that isn't enough. You should also be able to find your own stuff on the Web, the people you know and things they've shared with you, as well as the people you don't know but might want to ... all from one search box."

The company added: "Search is simply better with your world in it."

What will this mean for your artist website? Who knows until it starts to pan out and we see the effects but it might make more people come to your site as they see that their friends have mentioned you on G+ or have taken photos at a gig.

As someone who spends time trying to make websites rank better in search results it's another thing to learn and work out!

One things for sure, Google are pushing hard to make 'social search' improve the search experience and therefore being part of their social network as an individual and as a band (with a brand page, or in our case, band page) isn't really an option, it's a 'must-do'.

Read Google's own blog on this here.

And this article on CNN is great too.

Here's the video:

Wordpress, SEO and your music website

This is a great video about how to make the right Search Engine Optimisation choices for your website.

If you don't yet have a website to promote your music, you are living in the dark ages.

Admittedly, this video is some pretty detailed information on how marketers set up their websites to make sure that they rank in Google (and other search engines) for the keywords they want to rank for.

It makes sense for every band to aim to do the same.

If this is all new to you, the very knowledgeable Michael Brandvold and Brian Thompson are running a webinar on How to use Wordpress for your Website in a few weeks time.

It will be great.

Here's the video for the SEO geeks:

SEO for bands

We made a video on band website seo - which, in my own humble opinion, is really good.

We often talk about the need for bands and musicians to discover at least the basics of search engine optimisation so that they can attract more traffic to their site.

More traffic = more fans = more sales. The post on our site proves the point with data.

I was reminded of our post by this one from Prescription PR which is methodical and detailed yet easy to follow.

Search engine optimisation (or, for you acronym-loving hipsters, SEO) is a hot topic for any business; appearing in the top 3 results for a particular search query can mean the difference between loads of clients and none. But is it any use to bands and musicians? Well, yes. For two reasons:

• Firstly, you need people who like your music to be able to find your website when they search for you (and quite possibly, you want it to appear ahead of any Myspace pages, Facebook pages etc.)
• Secondly, you want people who might like the kind of music you make (for example, Nu-metal-Dubstep-Shoegaze-Emo-Chillwave or whatever the latest bollox is popular in Shoreditch) to come across you when they search for your band.

It's well worth a read.

And, just to round it off, this is an older post that I have bookmarked and still refer to as it approachs the issue of seo from the 'what not to do' angle.