SEO Search Engine Optimisation for Bands & Musicians
Posted on August 15th, 2009 in Online Marketing & Promotion, Search Engine Optimisation.
Tags: bands, djs, guitarists, promoters, Search Engine Optimisation, seo, singers, vocalists
First of all, what is SEO? Search engine optimisation is a process whereby the volume and quality of the visitors you get to your website is improved and ensuring your positions and visibility within the search engines is increased, allowing for more traffic and better quality visitors.
Typically, the higher a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from that particular search engine. So how is this important to the typical musician?
Although I won’t go into the ins and outs of search engine optimisation in this post, I do want to relay the importance of SEO and how this can be a valuable tool for any DJ, band, musician, singer, promoter or nightclub.
People Have Search Habits
When someone searches in Google, for example, they are looking for something. If they know what they are looking for they’ll search for something quite specific and descriptive in order to get back the results they want. For any search the most relevant sites appear on the first page with the most relevant at the top.
Try searching for ‘progressive trance djs’ in Google UK. You might see a directory, some DJ websites, a few agencies and maybe a shop or two. These are the most relevant websites (as Google sees it) to that search term. So, what if you’re a Progressive Trance DJ? You should really be on that page if you want to be found by people actually looking for Progressive Trance DJs.
Targeting Specific Search Terms
If you’re a DJ there is no point wanting to be found under the search terms ‘DJs’. Not only is this hugely competitive, it isn’t descriptive of what you do. Even if you were at number 1 in Google for that term, the amount of people that you’d get on your site that were actually looking for your type of service, style or niche – even location – is going to be very low and is unlikely to get you much in the way of enquiries or bookings.
A better idea would be to push for terms that are more descriptive of what you do. If you’re a band or singer, you don’t want to be found under ‘bands’ or ‘singers’. That’s not going to be of any benefit and will probably take you years of work to get anywhere near page one.
From experience, I recommend you focus on what type of band or singer you are. For example, if you are a band that plays Funk in Northampton you’d want to be pushing for ‘funk band northampton’. Or, if you are a Blues singer in Leicestershire you want to push for something like ‘female Blues singer Leicestershire’ or ‘male Blues vocalist Leicester’. See what I’m getting at?
Really, is there any point in being found under ‘record label’ if you only specialise in Triphop? Who wants to be found under ‘nightclubs’ if you only have one building based in North London? Do you really think it’s best to be found under ‘bass players’ if you only ever play slap bass and can’t travel? See my point?
Conclusion
If someone is searching for ‘spanish session guitarist Bristol’ and your website appears on the first page of Google for that term, providing this is what you are offering, then you match exactly what the searcher is looking for. The likelihood of the searcher getting in touch or at least sticking around to check out your website, music and info is much higher because you have met their exact demands. Then all you need to do is meet their expectations – but that’s another post.
So, in conclusion, it’s well worth pushing to be found under niche search terms that are more descriptive of what you offer. Although the traffic for these terms is a lot lower than ‘singers’, the quality of traffic you get to your website will be much higher and is much more likely to convert to enquiries – or will at least see people coming back to your site in the future.
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