SEO for bands makes sense because the band’s homepage should be the focus of all music marketing activities. In order to increase the popularity of the band, the homepage of possible many fans should also be found on the Internet. This is where SEO (search engine optimization) comes into play. At least now many musicians ask themselves once again the question “How do I bring the band homepage into the top 10 on Google?”. One way is to acquire niche backlinks to your band website. For the other ways SEO can help, we cover them here.
1. The Basis of SEO for Bands: The Band Domain
Words contained in it are of utmost importance in SEO for bands. However, choosing the right internet address is not as easy as it seems. For example, if the band name is a proper name. To clarify, I take the Munich hip-hop group “Blumentopf”. The domain blumentopf.de was of course already assigned to a flower shop at the time of the band’s founding. Here they chose topf.flavors.me. Alternatively, you could have chosen “blumentopf-musik.de” or “topf-musik.de”. As a rule, three variants make sense for a band domain:
- Name of the artist (if no proper name)
- Abbreviations
- Name of artist + “band” or “music” or “DJ”, etc.
It is annoying when the band name is already used by other bands. Therefore: Before choosing the band name, research thoroughly. Whether a domain is still available can be checked under united-domains.de. There you can also register the new internet address and can now start with the SEO for bands.
2. Important for search engines: Post news
News can be very complex. There is no limit to creativity here. But don’t make the mistake of posting, one-to-one, the same as on Facebook and Co. Provides exclusive content so that visitors have added value. Here are a few inspirational examples:
- Live Dates
- Diary (tour, studio, photo shoot, rehearsal room)
- Music releases (single, album, music video, DVD, LP, special edition)
- Media dates & media reports (press, TV, radio, print, online)
- Artwork (album cover, band logo, shirt design)
- New Merch Articles
This not only ensures that your fans come back. Google will also visit your site more and more often, and the more often you refresh the page. This gives you a bonus in SEO for bands. A great homepage tool to keep gigs up to date is http://bandsintown.com/facebook. We will introduce more useful band homepage tools in separate articles.
3. Link Building for Bands: Get Recommendations
When it comes to SEO for bands, recommendations are very important. For example, offers exclusive songs for free download so that fans can spread your page. Important: Integrates free social media recommendation tools such as “addthis.com” or “pay per post”. This provides links from social networks and increases the weighting of the band’s homepage on Google.
Many organizers like to link the band’s homepage of the band they book a gig to their homepage. Be sure to ask each organizer who books you for a link.
Links from various online magazines can also be valuable recommendations. A music promotion agency can support you with the promotion. As soon as the article is online, contact us and ask for the link. In 90% of cases it works.
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4. Volume texts and keyword research: Find search terms
If you are still at the beginning, the regional findability of your band on the net is important. Organizers are constantly looking for local, talented young artists who can support them. In order to be found by these organizers, you have to make a regional reference on the band’s homepage. For this purpose, it is important to repeatedly name the place of origin or district in appropriate places.
For example, if you write: “We are a NEWCOMER from MUNICH.”, you will be relevant for the search query “newcomer munich”.
The keywordtool.io suggests the following combinations of terms for “Newcomer Munich”, which are frequently searched:
- Newcomer from Munich
- New band from Munich
- Munich Newcomer Band
- Newcomer Bands from Munich
Use these terms in the text to improve the findability of the page. Try this afterward with other search terms, such as “Band München” and choose suitable word combinations for the lyrics of your band homepage from the suggestions.
The Google Trends tool helps you to identify search trends in time. This tool works best for word combinations that are as general as possible, such as “Band München”.
In addition to the content texts, the following three areas should contain your most important keywords:
- The page titles
- The Meta Descriptions
- The headings
5. Technical SEO: The Technology
In order for the band’s homepage to be found, it must first be listed on Google. For this, the homepage should have a clean technical basis, otherwise, Google can not interpret the content properly. The Windows tool “Frontpage” should be mentioned here as a negative example. You should keep your hands off this when it comes to creating a Google-friendly band homepage.
I clearly recommend the free blog system WordPress. Once this content management system has been installed, it is possible to easily create content without basic technical knowledge. For installation, however, you need some technical know-how. Under http://wordpress.org you will find everything you need to know.