Almost everyone knows about the Billboard top 100 song and artist charts. In the early 2000s, these top charts were especially popular on MTV and Much Music. The glory days of cable, to say the least. At Ontario SEO, our expertise is reliant on top 10 charts – but not the ones you’re thinking of. When it comes to Search Engine Optimization and Paid Advertising, positions on the search engine results pages (SERPs) are the top 10 charts we’re focused on.
Search Engine Optimization’s Top 10
Imagine you are a famous artist with a reputation to uphold. There are many moving parts to your fame; your image, your music, your delivery, your team, and much more. You remain in the limelight by analyzing what your fans love and repeating this process.
But what if your fans change? This is especially apparent when popular music genres fizzle out. A great example of this is Taylor Swift. She had a lot of die-hard country fans, but as times changed and pop music stormed the charts, her music changed with it. As trends and behaviours change, you must stay ahead of the curve, or you’ll be left behind.
When SEO Trends Change, You Change with Them
Like climbing the music charts, SEO is not a set & forget job. It requires constant optimizations and tweaks depending on user behaviours, search volume, competitor rankings and Google algorithm updates. With an ever-changing digital landscape, ongoing optimizations to a website are vital to ensure you stay ahead of your competitors from a visibility perspective.
There are many factors that come into play when optimizing for SEO. Some of the most influential factors are:
Competition:
With more competition comes more work, this is the same for both SEO and musicians alike. It’s important to look at what your competitors are doing online and how you can do that and more to surpass them on the charts. Matching them is never enough – you must develop a sound strategy that will check off all the boxes, as well as innovate with some of your own new approaches, which are largely based on research.
User Behaviour and Trends:
Research is your best friend when it comes to determining new user behaviours and trends. As the world changes and new technologies arise, things can drastically change for both your SEO program and music career. Things that people were Googling a year ago may be very different than what they are Googling this month, so you must adapt your SEO strategy in order to stay ahead of the curve.
Search Volume:
Search volume can change over time, so depending on your industry, it’s important to identify trends, check for new queries your website is being found for, and identify queries that present new opportunities. It’s important to continually monitor your web page rankings and adjust as trends change.
For example, a cell phone provider may notice a shift in queries surrounding cell phones. Users used to search for “mobile phones” and this has now shifted to “cell phones”. Knowing this information, the company can now update its keyword targeting to include this new query.
You will often hear of celebrities and musicians discussing trending topics on their social platforms and within their music. Just the like them, websites must satisfy search trends to remain relevant.
Google Algorithms Impact Search Engine Optimization
The SEO Strategist’s ultimate headache: A Google algorithm update. Google is constantly working to improve their search experience and has recently referred to the Google Search Engine as the “Google Answer Engine.” Google’s goal is to expand on its search results to show answers to user searches directly within the Google Search Engine. You can already see this happening with featured snippets within the Google Search Engine:
When a new Google update is released, it could mean that your website will start to lose visibility in the search results, and you may need to adjust your online strategy. Adapting and experimenting is a huge part of being successful with your SEO efforts, and it is no different when it comes to climbing the charts as a musician.
SEO: The Famous Game
Music and SEO are both an art that requires dedication, consistency and resilience to push your brand further. If you have a detailed plan of action and a motivated team, anything is possible. If you would like to learn more about Ontario SEO and our SEO and Digital Advertising services, we’d be happy to hear from you! We can’t play any instruments, but we sure know how to play the SEO game.
