Search Engine Optimization (SEO) For Musicians

Music is a business like any other - and in the digital era, search engine optimization (or SEO, as it is usually called) is an important business tool in marketing your music online. Here's a quick guide to implementing SEO in your online music marketing.

Building A Website (On-site SEO)

Implementing SEO into your website is step one. Make sure your website is well-organized and visually appealing, and make sure you're incorporating keywords appropriately into your main and image text. Doing this will help to properly index your site in search engines that potential fans and talent scouts are using to get you seen - and heard.

Keyword Research & Optimization

Before implementing SEO into your website, do some keyword research. Location and genre should figure prominently into the keywords you use, and these keywords should be reflected in both your website's text, headings, image descriptions and image tags.

Band Member Pages

SEO should also play a role in your individual band members' bio pages. Your bandmates can do their own keyword research and implementation, or make lists of keywords they find and give them to whomever is doing the content writing for your band website. Either way, using keywords effectively and frequently will help to rank your site higher - and more of your music heard and sold.

Image Optimization

When you're uploading images, make sure keywords are used in filenames and in the alt text of the images once they're in your library. While this might seem less important than using keywords in the main text of your website, using keywords with images will also increase site ranking and improve indexing - so don't skip it!

Site Speed

Site speed plays a role not only in the quality of the user's experience in navigating your site, but also in search engine results when a user is using search keywords to find what they're looking for. BandVista is optimized for fast site speed, making it a fantastic option for hosting your band website!

Schema Markup

Schema markup is microdata that you add to the HTML coding of your website to improve search engine results. Schema metadata helps to return more accurate search results to the user, and using it can help make your site much more relevant to a user's search. If you're coding the website yourself, you can hit up Schema.org to learn how to add this metadata to your HTML effectively. Otherwise, you can ask your site designer or webmaster to do it for you.

Schema metadata should include band information like location and genre, as well as information about the videos and digital playlists or songs you embed into your website.

Off-site

Even on different websites, like social media platforms, you can utilize the same keywords you use on your site in your posts and "About" sections. Be thoughtful about how you use them, and don't overstuff - but don't hesitate to incorporate them, as off-site SEO is still just as important to indexing your band as it is to your main website.

YouTube

You can use SEO keywords on YouTube to improve search engine ranking. They can be used in video titles, descriptions, lyrics, and video hashtags. You can do the same on other sites that host video, like Instagram, Tumblr, and Vimeo.

Facebook

Facebook is a huge platform for fans engaging with bands they love. Don't skip out on utilizing keywords in your Facebook posts and bios the same way you use them in the text of your website - using them with Facebook can help dramatically increase and improve search engine indexing and ranking.

Make sure to keep your Facebook biography and contact details up to date, as this will help maintain search engine rankings.

Contact Info

Make absolutely sure that your contact information remains consistent across your entire web presence. Occasionally review your site and social media profiles to make sure this information stays consistent. If it's not, it can hurt your rankings significantly.

Ready to take the next step with SEO? Give BandVista a try and start building your band website and profiles right now - and watch your online marketing efforts start yielding better results.