Last week, I posted a list of the five things every performing artist needs on their website. This week, we’re going to delve a bit deeper, and go over how to take your current website and make it work harder, and more successfully.
To do this, you need to understand how search engines work. How do they come up with the results you see once you type in your query?
Search engines operate on an algorithm, a constantly changing equation that browses through the pages on your website and determines what each individual page is about. It then takes that information, compiled with the information from all of the other pages on your website, and that’s the data search engines use when determining what the most relevant result for any possible search query is. In other words, if you search for [Brooklyn Dance Production Management], the algorithm takes all of the known instances of that search term, along with similar search terms, and ranks them from the most relevant to the least. The most relevant results are the first ones you see on the search engine results page (SERP).
Being in one of those top positions in the SERPs is a big deal, especially if it is for a search query phrase (or keyword) that is highly relevant to your website and likely to bring in a lot of new visitors. Fortunately, there are ways to influence where your website ranks, and those methods are known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Now that you have a basic understanding of how SEO works and why it matters (more visitors means a bigger audience), we can get into how to get more from your artist website.
Learn the Basics of SEO
Understanding what SEO is, is only half of the battle. You need to understand how to use it correctly. There are hundreds of basic guides online; my favorite is Moz.com’s SEO: The Free Beginner’s Guide to SEO. Read it. Take notes. And try to work some of that information, especially the use of keywords, into your website.
Update Regularly
Search engines are more likely to crawl (browse through for new content) your website if you update it regularly. For most sites, this means creating a blog and posting regularly. If you’re not a writer, post pictures or short updates instead of full-length blog posts. The important thing is that you have a growing, dynamic website.
Editorial Calendar
If you’re publishing regularly, create an editorial calendar. Most commonly found in the journalism field, editorial calendars are the best way to map out what you want to post about and when you’re going to make those posts. If you decide to include a blog on your website, figure out what topics you want to cover in advance and what your publishing schedule will be. That gives you time to research (if necessary), gather images, and write before the day of publication.
On a side note: Editorial calendars are also excellent for scheduling social media posts, especially if you’re leading up to a big event. You can figure out what information or promotional material you want to share in the months, weeks, or days before the event, and even schedule those posts in advance, if you’d like (Hootsuite is a great option for this).
Mobile Friendly
This is a newer requirement for websites, but it definitely affects how well your website ranks (especially for mobile search results). You need to make sure that your website is going to play well with cell phones, tablets, and even small-screen computers. Google offers a free Mobile-Friendly Test. If your website isn’t mobile friendly, the Google resource will also provide tips on how to make the necessary improvements.
Go Offline
You can do a lot for your website without having to sit at a computer desk to do it. Put your website URL on your business cards. Go to networking events and other performances to meet people. Tell your friends and family about your website, and invite them to check it out.
This is a lot to try to add into your website all at once. Start small, and work consistently. Keep at it. Learning the more technical side of running a website will make it easier to reach your audience, and it will also have the benefit of creating a better website overall.
Inspirational Corner:
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
