Despite what many social media “gurus” will tell you, the reality is that if you are in a band, or are a budding solo musician, then you need to have a stable online presence where your fans can find you. After all, social networking websites’ popularity comes and goes, there is no reason for your own website to ever do so.

Luckily, there’s plenty of options available to you when it comes to setting up your own website. I’ve been a WordPress enthusiast for quite a number of years and have recently produced websites for my band “Doctor Caligari” and my friend’s band “Graveyard Johnnys” using the platform.

Out of the box, WordPress won’t have the features that you need for your website, but that really isn’t much of a problem due to the incredible amount of additional plugins that have been developed by the WordPress community – both free and paid.
Here are some plugins that I used and would recommend that you have a look at for your band/musician website:
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Yesterday I had the privilege of running a 3 hour session as part of the University Of Wales’ new Digital Marketing course.
The evening session was attended by 6 eager to learn students who had incredibly varied backgrounds. Some were in full time education, while others were studying part time alongside their jobs, interestingly two of the attendees had found their role becoming more focused on SEO, so it was great to try and share some knowledge with them.

The session covered
- Keyword Research
- On-Site SEO Basics
- Google Analytics
- An overview of Google Adwords
- Considerations for Conversion Rate Optimisation

It was a lot to fit in during the three hours, especially when including a much needed “comfort break”, but the students stuck with me and asked really good questions throughout the session, which if nothing else, proved that I wasn’t speaking complete nonsense!
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2012 was my sixth year in the world of Online Marketing, I consider myself to be somewhat of a veteran in the industry, which still has many years left in its infancy.
The past twelve months though have been significant in my growth as a marketer, for years I’d considered myself solely an “SEO”, that’s what I specialised in and that’s what I was getting results in.
I’d been aware of the need to change my focus in 2011, but held off doing so for as long as possible, however there were opportunities available to me should I broaden my knowledge and subsequent skillset, so that’s what I did!
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“So, What Did Your Online Marketing Achieve?”

I had an interesting chat with a potential client over a few beers the other evening and they (like many people I speak to these days) had dabbled a little bit with various online marketing activities and were less than impressed with the results.
When asked what they actually got back from it, the response was “nothing!”

Digging a little deeper, it become apparent that “some” SEO work (in this example) had gone on as visitors had increased, however it was impossible to measure the effect it had on the business.

From a client perspective, I can understand their frustration, as they have in their eyes, wasted their money. In my time as an Online Marketer I have worked with clients who are either unwilling, or unable to put measurements in place to measure the impact of my work, inevitably they wouldn’t remain clients for too long.
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Yes that’s right, me, an experienced advocator of all things SEO shouting the benefits of Adwords from the roof tops!
The truth is over the years Google has been squeezing more and more of the SERP real estate away from the organic results, meaning that less people click on the organic listings (I have clients sitting pretty at the top spot for their keywords with click through rates of around 15%, where as in years gone by that would result in a CTR of over double that amount) and less people actually being able to see them without having to scroll.
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It’s been just over a month since Google’s Matt Cutts announced the impending rollout of an SEO “over-optimization” penalty at South by Southwest (SXSW), with the quote:

“The idea is to try and level the playing ground a little bit. So all the people who have been over-doing SEO, compared to people who are just making great content and trying to make a fantastic site, we want to address that.”
What is actually classed as “over optimisation” which will subsequently trigger a penalty (ranging from downgrading your ranking to even de-indexation) wasn’t revealed.

In conversation a few days ago I was asked if I thought a website could be considered to be “over optimised”. I won’t reveal the website in question, but after some consideration the answer was swaying rapidly towards yes!
Based on the website in question, I would suggest that these on-site factors (without considering any external links) could be enough off a giveaway that you have attempted to get an unfair advantage over your competitors, based on what you have published on your website.

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Having began the quest of “Getting British Business’ Online” in Liverpool last Autumn, Google has now brought the initiative to Wales!

The initiative offers business’ without a website to get a free one (via the Yola web builder tool) and will look to get them starting with website promotion such as via Google Adwords & via Social Media.

Currently there are two types of session available to business owners, freelancers, sole traders (or those considering starting a business and the curious!), the first being a “Juice Bar”.

The Juice Bar sessions are essentially 40 minute 1-2-1 sessions with somebody in the know who can help you set up a free website, introduce you to AdWords, or can answer your questions, even if they are of a more advanced level.
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