How To Optimise Your Artist Website for Top Results
Image credit: John Schnobrich
Learn how to make your artist website stand out as not just an online hub but a source of attraction and income.
In the digital age, your artist website is more than just a branded URL. Your artist website can be the digital home for merchandise sales, selling concert tickets, and connecting with fans to grow your music.
Creating your website is only the first step. With a little care and attention to how your website is optimised, you can create an amazing website that serves to grow your fanbase, profits, and global notoriety.
This comprehensive guide will walk you through the key strategies to opstimise your music artist website, ensuring you’re hitting the right notes to boost your place in search engines and maximise your audience.
Table of Contents:
- What is SEO and why is it important for artists?
- Keyword Research: Find Your Audience
- On-Page Optimisation: Perfecting Your Website
- Technical SEO: Create a Smooth Experience
- Off-Page SEO: Building Authority and Trust
- Content Marketing: Engage and Attract
- Local SEO: Connect with Your Local Scene
- Analytics and Monitoring: Track Your Progress
- Conclusion
What is SEO and why is it important for artists?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. Quite literally, it means optimising your website and content so that search engines know what your website is and favour it in search results.
The tips and methods that we will explore in this article are to ensure that your website has great SEO, meaning that it is easy for fans and new listeners alike to find your website and get what they want from it.
Think about how new fans discover music or get to know a band they’ve just discovered much more. For an artist, good SEO means:
- Increase Visibility: Rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords, making it easier for potential fans to find you.
- Attract Targeted Traffic: Reach users actively searching for music similar to yours, local gigs, or information about you.
- Build Your Fanbase: Drive organic traffic to your website where you can showcase your music, sell merchandise, and collect email addresses.
- Enhance Your Brand: A well-optimised website looks professional and credible, strengthening your overall brand image.
- Boost Engagement: Improve user experience, encouraging visitors to explore your site, listen to your music, and connect with you.
1. Keyword Research: Find Your Audience
Understanding your audience is crucial to good online strategy. You need to know both who you are trying to reach and then use that to understand the ways to reach them.
Identify Your Audience
Who are the sorts of people that you are trying to reach? And who do you think your music and content appeals to? Knowing this will define who your audience is and the ways in which you reach them.
Explore the subcultures that you feel you fit into to discover the sort of people who like what you’re doing. You can also use your existing statistics across social media and music services to find demographics data.
Identify Relevant Keywords
Brainstrom terms that are related to your genre, artist name, album titles, song titles, location, and anything else unique to your music. These are the relevant words that are going to help search engines bring people to your website when people search them.
Consider long-tail keywords (phrases with 3 or more words) like “underground Hip-Hop group London gigs” or “traditional country western singer album 2025”. Just replace the words with the ones relevant to you.
Use Keyword Research Tools
Tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz Keyword Explorer can help you discover search volume, competition, and related keywords.
Analyse Your Community
Look at how the websites of people who make music in your community manage their website to see if you can find any good keyword tactics you can modify to make relevant to yourself. This could be artists in the same genre or musicians in your local area.
Think Like a Fan
At every point, you should consider what a fan might be thinking. How would they search to find you? What words and phrases might they use to find your website or hear more of your music? What does your website offer that a fan wants to search to find it for.
2. On-Page Optimisation: Perfecting Your Website
Now it’s time to put all you’ve learned to good use, tweaking the build of your website for incredible results.
Compelling and Keyword-Rich Content
- Page Titles (Title Tags): Create unique and descriptive titles for each page, including your primary keywords. Aim for around 50-60 characters. Example:
Your Band Name | Official Website | New Album "Album Title" - Meta Descriptions: Write engaging meta descriptions (the short snippets below the title in search results) that entice users to click. Keep them under 160 characters and include relevant keywords.
- Header Tags (H1-H6): Use header tags to structure your content logically, with H1 being the main heading of the page and subsequent headings for subtopics. Incorporate relevant keywords naturally.
- Body Content: Write high-quality, informative, and engaging content that naturally incorporates your target keywords. Focus on providing value to your visitors.
- Image Optimization: Use descriptive file names for your images (e.g.,
your-band-live-performance-truro.jpg) and add relevant alt text. Alt text helps search engines understand the image and improves accessibility.
URL Structure
Use clean, concise, and keyword-rich URLs. For example, www.yourbandname.com/music is better than www.yourbandname.com/page?id=123.
Internal Linking
Link relevant pages within your website to improve navigation and distribute link equity. For example, link your tour dates page to your music page or your biography page.
3. Technical SEO: Create a Smooth Experience
We’re going to go into the backend of your website now to ensure that your website is in the best position for search engines to easily take what they need from it to bring your content to searchers.
This section gets a little technical, do what you can and consider searching these sections in more detail if you want to perfect your optimisation.
Website Speed and Performance
A slow-loading website can frustrate users and negatively impact your search rankings. Optimise images, leverage browser caching, and consider a Content Delivery Network (CDN).
Mobile-Friendliness (Responsiveness)
Ensure your website is fully responsive and looks great on all devices (desktops, tablets, and smartphones). Mobile-first indexing is now the standard for Google.
Site Architecture and Navigation
Create a clear and logical website structure that makes it easy for users and search engine bots to navigate.
XML Sitemap
Submit an XML sitemap to search engines to help them discover and index all the pages on your website.
robots.txt File
Use a robots.txt file to instruct search engine crawlers which pages or sections of your website they should not access.
HTTPS Security
Ensure your website uses HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) for secure communication. This is a ranking factor.
Schema Markup
Implement schema markup (structured data) to provide search engines with more context about your content, such as event information, music albums, or artist profiles. This can lead to rich snippets in search results.
4. Off-Page SEO: Building Authority and Trust
We’ve done a lot to make our website optimised for bringing in new visitors and listeners. Now, it’s time to look beyond what we do on the website and consider what we do outside of the website that helps to legitimise your artist website and bump it up results.
High-Quality Backlinks
Earn backlinks (links from other reputable websites to yours). Focus on getting links from relevant music blogs, online magazines, local news outlets, and other artists’ websites.
Online Directories and Listings
List your website on relevant online directories and music-specific platforms. Ensure your NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) information is consistent across all listings.
Social Media Integration
Promote your website and content on your social media channels. While social signals aren’t a direct ranking factor, they can drive traffic and increase visibility.
Public Relations and Outreach
Engage with music journalists, bloggers, and influencers to get your music and website featured.
Guest Blogging
Write guest posts for other music-related websites with a link back to your own site.
5. Content Marketing: Engage and Attract
Creating content is one of the key marketing techniques in the digital age. Make interesting content that complements your music and find unique ways to engage beyond music to reach new viewers. They’re unique ways to reach people and create great backlinks.
Blog Posts
Share news, behind-the-scenes stories, insights into your songwriting process, gig recaps, and more. Optimise your blog posts for relevant keywords.
Music and Video Content
Embed your music and videos directly on your website. Optimise titles and descriptions with relevant keywords.
High-Quality Images and Videos
Use visually appealing and high-resolution media.
Interactive Content
Consider incorporating interactive elements like polls, quizzes, or contests to engage your audience.
6. Local SEO: Connect with Your Local Scene
Local SEO helps you to find your local audience. This is especially poignant if you are playing locally and looking to reach fans nearby. Building an audience by starting local can be a great way to create intimate connections that snowball outwards.
Google My Business (now Google Business Profile)
Claim and optimise your Google Business Profile. Ensure your NAP information is accurate and consistent. Encourage reviews.
Local Keyword Targeting
Incorporate location-based keywords into your website content (e.g., “live music venue Truro,” “bands in Cornwall”).
Local Citations
List your website on local online directories and business listings.
Engage with Your Local Community
Participate in local events and collaborate with other local artists and businesses.
7. Analytics and Monitoring: Track Your Progress
Now you’re doing everything right to build website visits, you can use the data to see how these optimisations are working and where you can refine and improve.
Google Analytics
Use Google Analytics to monitor website traffic, user behaviour, keyword performance, and more.
Google Search Console
Use Google Search Console to track your website’s performance in Google search results, identify errors, and submit your sitemap.
Regular Reporting and Analysis
Regularly review your analytics data to identify trends, understand your audience, and refine your SEO strategy.
Conclusion
By implementing these SEO strategies, you can significantly improve your music artist website’s visibility, attract more fans, and ultimately amplify your musical journey online. So, tune up your website, hit the right keywords, and let the world discover your music!
Key Takeaways for Music Artist Website SEO:
- Focus on Your Audience: Create content and optimize your website with your fans in mind.
- Be Consistent: SEO is an ongoing process. Regularly update your website with fresh content and monitor your performance.
- Prioritise Quality: Focus on creating high-quality content and providing a positive user experience.
- Be Patient: SEO results take time. Don’t expect to see overnight success.
- Stay Updated: The SEO landscape is constantly evolving. Stay informed about the latest best practices and algorithm updates.