20 Best SEO Tips for Musicians in 2024

So, how should you do SEO for musicians?

Do you want to know how to market your music the right way?

We all know that you have to stand out in the music industry.

People listen to popular music all the time because it is featured on the radio, social media feeds, and even live performances.

To stand out from millions of artists, you must realise that music promotion is key to attracting a fanbase.

Various marketing strategies can boost your online presence, but SEO is one of the best digital marketing strategies.

Let’s talk about why SEO is great for your music site:

Why SEO is Great

SEO stands for search engine optimisation.

It helps you appear on Google for search terms like:

Music gigs near me

Artist name merchandise

Artist name tour tickets

You can already see a bunch of opportunities.

I believe that SEO is one of the best lead-generation strategies out there.

To put into perspective:

More traffic = more visitors.

More visitors = more fans.

But how can you optimise your music website?

The first thing you’ll need to do is:

1. Create Your SEO Roadmap

Before any SEO campaigns, you need to set your SEO goals.

I like to put the goals in my notes.

An example could be, “With this music SEO plan, I want to increase traffic by 70% in 1 year.

Note down your current website profile, and you can look back and see your progress.

Whether you’re a small band or an aspiring artist looking to grow big, you’ll need to understand the SEO basics I’m about to show you.

That brings me to tip number 2:

2. Domain Name and Hosting

People seem to go straight onto the advanced techniques and forget the basics.

Having the right hosting and choosing a domain name is essential.

You’d want to tell Google who you are, and this will build relevance.

If you choose a domain like “buildingexperts.com”, that would not be good at all since that’s not what your website is about.

Choose a name that reflects your band/artist name.

3. Choose The Right Hosting

Choosing the wrong hosting can harm your whole SEO campaign.

You don’t want to choose a hosting that isn’t good.

My go-to would be Siteground.

Many of my SEO friends also chose them because it’s fast, have great support, and are SEO-friendly.

4. Use WordPress

After you’ve sorted your hosting, make sure to use WordPress.

WordPress is the best CMS (Content Management System) for SEO.

Don’t use Wix or Squarespace. (Sorry guys!)

If you want the best SEO performance, choose WordPress.

5. Conduct Keyword Research

After you’ve created your website, it’s time to find relevant keywords.

I would use a free keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner to find the keywords that are suitable for you.

You don’t want to target keywords like “Roofers near me.

Why?

Well, you’re not a roofer.

I’d start by targeting your band/artist name.

This is also known as brand keywords.

You’d want to build relevance and trust with Google.

If you don’t create authority for your band names, how is Google supposed to know who you are?

6. Create High-Quality Content

Create pages and blog posts about you or your band.

You should constantly publish blogs to update your fans on tour dates, new gig performance locations, and similar topics.

When I say constantly, I mean 2-3 times a month or more.

You don’t need to go crazy and create 20 blogs a month.

Make sure you don’t create thin content. It will bring more harm than good.

Also, use an Electronic Press Kit to create an artist bio page.

This is essential so that music industry professionals, such as managers, booking agents, and venues, can see your work.

I’ll get into the secret tip for this in tip number 10.

But, when creating and publishing content, you need to ensure you optimise the following:

7. Optimise The Content

Use Rankability to optimise your content.

Rankability is the best content optimiser tool out there.

This tool will help you with your website content and tell you which specific keywords to include.

In fact, this content was optimised with Rankability.

That is why it’s ranking so well.

To optimise your page further. Include the target keyword in the following locations:

  • Page Title

  • Meta Tags (Meta title & meta description)

  • First Sentence

  • First H2 (Variation is acceptable)

  • Last Sentence

Once you’ve fully optimised your page content, you have a better chance of appearing in the search engine rankings.

An example is the knowledge panel.

8. Optimise Your Page Structure

Make sure you have the correct header tags on your page.

There should only be 1 H1.

Then, follow this with an H2, H3, and H4.

Here’s an example:

  • H2
  • H3
  • H2
  • H2
  • H3

I use H3 for a sub-topic, and for the main topic, I use H2.

9. Optimise For Mobile

To dominate your search rankings, you need to make sure your site is suitable for mobile users.

This is very important.

Google prioritises websites with good user experience and punishes those without.

You can read more about this here.

10. Build High-Quality Backlinks

Link building is the most important Google ranking factor.

There are various methods for building links.

The best way is to earn backlinks from high-authority websites from your niche.

In your case, this would be sites like MTV, Billboard, and more.

Returning to tip number 6, the secret tip to earning backlinks is creating a linkable asset.

An asset I would create would be something like “X Best DAWs in 2024.

This type of content tends to attract links naturally.

11. Optimise for Streaming Platforms

This is super important.

Streaming platforms will be where your fans and audience spend their time on.

Optimise your videos and music on Spotify playlists, Apple Music, and YouTube.

You can create YouTube videos and connect more with your existing and new fans.

It doesn’t have to be specifically related to music; it’s just good for people to discover and get to know you.

Then, they’ll be like:

Okay, I like this person’s video. Let’s check out their YouTube channel!

Wow, they have music videos too!?

There are just infinite ideas for your marketing tactics.

12. Leverage Social Media

Use social media platforms to your advantage and publish social media posts.

Use great social platforms like TikTok.

Many up-and-coming musicians blow up through TikTok now, crazy right?

That’s because all they need to do is publish their music online in a 1-minute video with the most catchy part of their song.

You could do the same.

In fact, 75% of TikTok users say they discover new artists on the platform (source.)

Make sure to link your website to your social media profiles, too.

This is another great way to send the intended target audience to your web page.

13. Use Free Marketing Tools For SEO

Use these free tools provided by Google to track your SEO campaign.

You can use Google Search Console to track your performance and click-through rate.

You can also use GSC to see the search queries and what SEO keywords you’re ranking for.

Then, use Google Analytics to monitor your SEO efforts. Check your online visibility and traffic to see if your strategy needs to be changed.

14. Internal Links

Internal linking is more powerful than you think regarding on-page SEO.

You’d want to guide the readers to relevant content.

This will improve the juice flow for your website, making the page you want to rank perform better.

15. Email Marketing

This is a great way to increase website traffic.

Use Mailchimp.

Build a mailing list and send regular emails to readers and fans.

Make sure to link it to the landing page you want them to land on.

16. Monitor Search Engine Algorithms

Make sure to stay updated with the latest Google trends.

You may need to change your strategy.

For example, many websites were de-indexed in the March Google Core Update due to low-quality and spammy content.

They didn’t even see it coming.

Your music marketing strategy may need to change depending on what Google wants.

17. Improve Website Speed

A fast-loading website is what we want in the digital world.

You wouldn’t want to do online shopping, and the site takes forever to load, right? Thought so.

There are various methods to improve your website speed.

Just make sure not to forget this.

18. Optimise for Local SEO

Whether you’re a band member or an independent musician, you need a good local SEO plan if you plan to go on tours.

This will help your music fans see your tour dates and venue locations on the SERPs (search engine results pages)

19. Regularly Update Content

Keep your content fresh and update your blog posts.

Google search results mainly reward fresh content.

20. Invest in Advanced SEO Tools

These tools will make your life much easier.

Here’s what I would suggest.

SemRush will help you plan your SEO strategy and find the right keywords to target.

RankMath WordPress Plugin will help you generate XML sitemap, implement Schema Markup, and more.

You can use Schema Markup on your song title and song lyrics.

If done correctly, you will appear on the SERPs like this:

Need Help With SEO?

I hope this SEO checklist has helped you.

Make sure to follow this for the best practices!

If you need help, we offer SEO services that have helped many businesses like yours perform 200x better.

Get in touch, and we’ll get back to you!

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