My best bud, Mario Schulzke of ScrappyMarketing.com, just forwarded me an article he came across – that I hope most artists will find helpful…
Jason Feinberg of On Target Media Group, just posted an essay for PBS.org that highlights seven big SEO mistakes that bands should avoid. Here is the article, courtesy of PBS.org:
How Bands Can Avoid Making 7 Big SEO Mistakes
There is an entire school of thought, as well as a sizable industry, dedicated to the optimization of websites to show up higher in Google search rankings. Search engine optimization (SEO) techniques vary from simple content changes to tricks that game Google’s system, referred to as “black hat” SEO. Optimization can be a complex topic — read Mark Glaser’s article 9 Tips to Improve Search Engine Optimization to get a good feel for the process.
SEO rules tend to apply universally, but specialty sites require some additional thought. When assessing a music artist’s site in regards to optimization, one has to consider that artistic expression is often more important than search visibility. From this, many artists make decisions in the name of art (or just not knowing better) that have an adverse affect on their search engine rankings. Below are seven of the most common mistakes and how to remedy them.
1) Site Built Fully in Flash
Having a site made entirely of Flash is usually the best way to maintain massive artistic control. HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or any other combination of web technologies simply cannot rival the level of interactivity given by Flash. However, this flexibility comes at a major price — unless properly planned out in the design stages, Flash cannot be indexed by search engines. Therefore, a site built fully with it may significantly hinder SEO efforts.
Why is that? In a published Flash document, most applications of text become bit-mapped graphics and lose their status as individual characters. A search engine has nothing to index and process when scanning for relevant text. In addition, Flash documents tend to contain multiple states and therefore might not display all text at once; a search engine does not have the ability to interact and follow each path the way links allow in HTML.
The solution most SEO experts will tell you is to not base your site in Flash. However, if that is how it has to be to achieve your artistic vision, then there are a number of tips to get around these limitations. Most are advanced and require a solid understanding of multiple web technologies but can be implemented without too much extra effort.
RESOLUTION: Create an HTML site to run in parallel, give the users a choice, and send the search engines to the HTML side. Or, do some homework at places like The Adobe Developer Connection. They have published two documents that may be of assistance — Search optimization techniques for rich Internet Applications and Search optimization checklist for rich Internet Applications. These articles discuss topics such as using variables to display content, implementing behind-the-scenes HTML tricks, and creating sitemaps to help search engines navigate your site.
2) Site Built With Images Only
Another common technique for building artist sites is to construct the entire site out of images. Like Flash, this allows a high level of artistic control, but does not provide indexable text that the search engines need to categorize a site.
Fortunately, the HTML code behind images allows for ALT text that serves two purposes — explaining to visitors what is on the site if images don’t load or if they are browsing on a device that doesn’t support them, and providing search engines a description of what the graphics are displaying. In addition, the file names of the images provide information to search engines. All titles should use relevant keywords, and individual words should be separated with dashes (e.g. My-Band-Name-Cover-300dpi.jpg) to clearly delimit the search terms.
RESOLUTION: Always ensure you are providing ALT text behind any image, especially if the site is built primarily or entirely of images. Be smart with file names.
3) Lack of Keywords in Content
Traditional SEO states that the cleanest way to optimize your site is to jam it full of content rich with relevant keywords. For example, if you have a real estate site, words such as “mortgage,” “refinance,” and “realtor” should appear over and over.
For artist sites, keywords are not always so clearly defined. There are obvious terms that are likely to be on most, such as “guitar,” “bass,” or “singer.” Beyond that, however, many artists do not like to define themselves with standard music phrases. Most artist bios and related pages contain a wide range of terms that aren’t necessarily going to be what fans are searching for.
RESOLUTION: Find as many places on the site that allow for the basic keywords you believe your fans will be searching for. If the majority of the site is artistic and full of creative, descriptive phrases, it may be worth adding a static page that is focused solely on band facts — member info, publicity quotes, simple description of the band’s sound, detailed discographies, and more.
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