Day 17

WHAT IS SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)?

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.). SEO targets unpaid traffic rather than direct traffic or paid traffic, so having optimal SEO practices is a great way to drive new fans to your site without having to consistently promote on social media or run paid advertisements. Having good SEO practices can help improve your site’s rankings on search engines, in turn boosting the number of visitors on your site.

Publishing relevant, quality content is the number one driver of your search engine rankings. Producing great content specifically for your intended audience can increase your site traffic, which in turn can improve your site’s authority and relevance. You can produce quality content on your music store by consistently uploading tracks, writing blogs catered to your audience or uploading videos. Updating your content regularly is viewed as one of the best indicators of a site’s relevancy, so be sure to consistently audit your content and make updates as needed.

Keywords are the glue that holds good SEO together. They are the words and phrases that people type into search engines to find what they’re looking for, and ultimately determine where your site ranks on these search engines. You’ll need to find keywords that have relevancy (there’s that word again) to what your business does. Think about how your potential customers might search for your specific page with search terms like:

    R&B type beat free

    Drake type beat 2021

    Lo-fi instrumentals

As you’re coming up with keywords for your site, it’s important to remember that it’s extremely difficult for a web page to achieve search engine rankings for multiple keyword phrases, so come up with one fire keyword phrase and use that consistently on your site by:

Using part or all of the keyword phrase in the page URL

Using part or all of the keyword phrase in the page’s title

Using part of all of the keyword phrase in the page’s headings, subheadings, content, and ‘About’ sections.

So, if your chosen keyword phrase is ‘Purchase R&B Beats’, be sure to use that phrase (or parts of it) as many times as you can in the webpage you’re trying to rank higher.

Meta Data is what appears on search engine result pages when a website comes up for certain queries. It includes the title of the page and its meta description (descriptive text below the title).

A good meta description averages two full sentences, and acts as your site’s window display, encouraging people to enter with an appealing description. Your ‘About’ description on your BeatStars profile acts as your meta  description, so put yourself in the searcher’s shoes and try to incorporate search keywords into your ‘About’ section (so long as it makes sense and flows well).

When you upload a video or an image, you typically have the option to use tags or ALT tags. ALT tags are known as alternative text or image descriptions, and are an essential component to your website. There are several uses for ALT tags such as:

Screen readers can say the ALT tag of an image for users who are visually impaired

If an image can’t be loaded due to a network or IT error, the ALT tag will display instead

ALT tags will boost SEO rankings and can help a website’s image or videos display in search results

When creating tags for your images or videos, be meaningful with your word choice and description. Make sure that you are accurate and giving the same function to your text that your image already serves. For example, if you upload a picture of your studio setup, use the phrase, ‘[Producer Name]’s production studio setup’.