SEO For Musicians: “Don’t Chase The Algorithm”

SEO For Musicians: "Don't Chase The Algorithm"

There are a number of technical things one can still do to have a higher presence in Google and other search engines. But, unless you're really into playing search engine games, most of the time it's better to set up your site correctly and then focus on creating and sharing content, such as pics and blog posts, in addition to your musical activities. Jennifer Ha recently shared 7 tips from SearchEngineLand's Matt McGee to improve your search presence without chasing the constantly shifting details of Google's math. One in particular, "strive to be the authority in your space," sounds a bit odd for a musician but may actually provide a way to create a Google-worthy site that your fans will enjoy.

Don't Chase The Algorithm

The title to Jennifer Ha's Post at Federated Media, "Don't Chase the Algorithm," is an ideal mantra both for those just getting into search engine optimization (SEO) for music sites and for those with more experience. To me it speaks of avoiding the ongoing obsession with every tweak of Google's algorithm to focus on the bigger picture of what you're trying to create.

I really believe you could get by on the technical side by digging in once a month at Search Engine Land, identifying trends via headlines and then digging into the stuff that seems to be getting everybody worked up. If your site keeps up with basic best practices, you really don't have to do a lot of technical stuff to stay current.

Your main focus should be communicating with your fans. However you do that, you should include sharing meaningful news updates and content like behind-the-scenes pics that your fans will want to check out and share.

As it turns out, organizing your site to suit your visitors and giving them meaningful content in addition to music and music videos, is the kind of thing that Google wants to see and so does Facebook.

Be The Authority On Your Own Act

In Jennifer Ha's interview with Matt McGee she closes with "7 Tactical Steps" for improving your site's SEO. They're all good, basic technical tips worth checking out.

But the first, "Strive to be the authority in your space, and publish consistently," sounds like the kind of thing that a business person or wannabe thought leader might be more concerned with than would a musician.

However, I think the idea of making your official website the "authority" on your act is actually a great way to get yourself organized. When you look at it that way, then all the various components of a site make more sense and the possibility of content beyond the everyday becomes easier to imagine.

Becoming the authority on your own act can mean a number of things. For example, if your site is well-organized with multiple sections of content, news and events, it may mean that not only will your official site come up first in searches for your band's name but that Google will do that nice mini-directory to internal pages that they do for sites like Search Engine Land.

Add a Wikipedia entry, which Google will put in the sidebar of results, and you're dominating the section of initial results folks will first encounter.

Becoming the authority on your own act can also mean taking content to another level. For example, one could include song lyrics and stories behind the songs. Perhaps you have visual material that relates to those lyrics or stories. This could make for a meaningful addition to your site that is also quite unique.

So, rather than chasing that algorithm, try becoming the authority on your own act instead and see what it does not only for your search presence but for your relationship with your fans.

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Disconnect from the work

Turn on a movie or really loud music, talk with a friend or co-worker, or do something else while at the same time working. This way your subconscious is disconnected from the conscious work.

This is a good piece of advice, I do this on the regular. Meaning that I like to multitask with pretty much everything that I do. When it comes to looking at tv, sports, movies or whatever is on tv. A lot of times I do it mostly with my blog posts that I do every week. I would usually find stories to share from the internet. Or share some great ideas, I do a lot of this either while I'm out with family, driving to work, on my breaks at work and what not. But I usually have these post coming from whatever, and whenever. And I save a lot of it for whenever I get the chance to finish it off when I get the chance.

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How To Use Facebook Graph Search Today to Find Music

July 8, 2013 at 10:15 amby Eliot Van Buskirk
How To Use Facebook Graph Search Today to Find Music

On Monday morning, Facebook announced that it is rolling out its “Graph Search,” including new pages for “Music my friends like” and more, to all users in the U.S. and beyond, over the next few weeks. Some people already have access to it, but if you don’t, there’s an easy way to get it without waiting for Facebook to add it to your account.

To use Facebook Graph Search now, go to facebook.com/about/graphsearch and click the “Try Graph Search” button:

Then, to see the music Facebook thinks you’ll like, go here.

For example, here’s my Facebook Graph Search music recommendations page (with my friends’ names blurred out), along with a link to the neat little tour Facebook includes to get you started with this:

These music recommendations are interesting, but in terms of giving me something to listen to, they don’t compare well to those of most pureplay music services.

For starters, Facebook does not appear to be suggesting music your friends have scrobbled to Facebook – just what they have Liked, with a capital “L,” as opposed to have liked in some other, non-overt way. That approach, in my case anyway, works well for recommending bands that friends of friends are actually in, bands that I have liked for years anyway, and a music festival I might like. As such, this music page just scratches the surface of what Facebook can do with music recommendations, because it sees your play activity in all sorts of places — it’s just not using those smarts here.

See Also: How To Unfriend Fans of Horrible Music on Facebook

Also, there’s no easy way to hear the music on Facebook, because its artist pages don’t automatically link out to MOG, Rdio, Rhapsody, Spotify, Deezer, and other on-demand music services with which Facebook integrates. However, at least this gives you an easy way to see what music your friends like most of all.

More useful for music fans is Facebook Social Graph’s ability to let you hinge from a band search directly to their photos and pages made for the band. As with all Social Graph searches, this one includes an automatically-generated dropdown list of stuff you might be looking for, even if you don’t know it yet:

Here are the first few My Bloody Valentine photos from Facebook (many more are listed):

Again, the music itself is conspicuously lacking. Fixing that would require deep integration with one or more of the music services that send play data — apparently unused, here — to Facebook.

So far, the new Facebook Social Graph feature rolling out over the next few weeks starting today — or right now, if you click the button here — look like they will increase Facebook’s utility as a search engine for the people, pages, and photos related to music, and help strengthen the social fabric of the service, as people (and bands, movies, etc.) have easier ways to find each other.

If that, in turn, leads to people Liking more things, the music recommendation engine could improve, even if Facebook doesn’t start using its play data.

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