I’m aware that you, as a reader of Pro Mobile, will be someone who strives for professionalism in all areas of your business. And one area I’m sure you particularly give a lot of thought to is marketing. any more traffic from search engines, I’ll just put out more paid adverts on Facebook or print off more flyers or business cards to leave at venues. OK, fair enough, but the problem with both of those things is that they cost money.
SEO is actually completely free, but the benefits can be absolutely huge for your business. After all, your website can look incredible, the content can read perfectly, but if it isn’t optimised for search engines, you’re decreasing your chances of being discovered by all those potential clients surfing the web looking for a DJ right this second. By carrying out the following steps, you can increase the number of hits on your website, leading to more bookings and improving people’s awareness of you and your business.
1. Carry out keyword research to learn what your potential customers are searching for Keyword research is essential to carry out before you start optimising your website. In fact, it’s the first thing you should do. Now, surely your keywords are ‘DJ’ , ‘mobile’ , and ‘disco’ , or something along those lines, right?
Well, in theory, yes. But the problem is that those are the keywords for EVERY DJ EVER. In By Greg Cartwright With a degree in English Language, an interest in journalism, and a passion for music, Greg Cartwright spent two years as Pro Mobile’s Assistant Editor. In April 2016, he left behind his role to embark on a year-long trip through the Americas.
Back in the UK, Greg is now a professional copywriter but also continues to contribute articles to Pro Mobile on a regular basis. Basic SEO For DJs 8 Simple Steps for Optimising Y our Website Without marketing, very few people would even know you exist, let alone understand anything about the services you offer or how you could turn their average event into a truly special, memorable one. But the trouble with marketing is that it changes at such a rapid, almost daily, pace that it can be a struggle to keep up.
One marketing term you’ve probably heard or seen bandied around is ‘SEO’ , which stands for Search Engine Optimisation. As you might have gathered, this process involves optimising your website for search engines, so that your website is more visible, you get more clicks, and, in the end, more bookings for your services. Some of this optimisation happens at the back-end of your website (called off-page SEO). But what I mainly want to focus on in this article is the on-page SEO; the website content that the public sees, which can be optimised to improve your ranking on Google and other search engines.
Why should I bother optimising my website for search engines? It’s a fair question. You might be thinking: I don’t need order to rank higher, you need to research the specific terms that your potential customers are using when they search for a DJ. To do this, head to Google Adwords and sign yourself up for a free account.
Then find the ‘Keyword Research Tool’ and start searching for the key terms or words that you think your target customers might be using. The tool displays the search frequency, so you can see what people are actually searching for most often. What you want to find is that sweet spot between popular and niche: too popular and you are competing with thousands of other companies; too niche and you aren’t going to get enough search traffic. To begin with, try ‘mobile DJ [your town name]’ and see what that brings up.
When people book a DJ, they usually go for somebody local, so this makes sense as a starting point. Then see if you can you hone it down even more. Perhaps you specialise in ‘80s music? ‘Mobile DJ Birmingham ‘80s Music’ could be a key term that you want to optimise your site for. Or what about wedding DJ Harry Kilb’s Steampunk Disco?
That’s an example of a niche term that steampunk fans will no doubt be searching for, so you would optimise for ‘steampunk wedding disco DJ in [your local area]’ . You should aim to hone in on a few of these words and phrases and make a note of them, as they will be key to your SEO strategy. 2. Choose the right name for your business or change your web domain name This is a point worth considering, although I know many Pro Mobile readers own well-established companies with solid brand identities.
However, the name of your business and the web domain you choose are big factors in your web rankings. These days, you’ll notice that domain names don’t always match the name of the business, because many companies choose to use keywords or search terms instead. For instance, if you search ‘wedding DJ Essex’ in Google, one of the top results is , but is that the name of the business? No, it’s just a search term.
Upon clicking, we realise this is actually the website for Mike Aaron Entertainment (and, weirdly, he’s not actually a wedding DJ). This was a smart move by Mike, because now his ranking for terms such as ‘mobile DJ Essex’ and ‘Essex mobile disco’ is way better than it would be if he used www. as his domain name. If you’re just starting out, or you don’t mind changing your domain name, consider these SEO factors. 37BASIC SEO FOR DJS: 8 SIMPLE STEPS FOR OPTIMISING YOUR WEBSITE BASIC SEO FOR DJS: 8 SIMPLE STEPS FOR OPTIMISING YOUR WEBSITE3838 3.
Edit the copy on your website to incorporate your keywords Now that you have identified your keywords, you need to incorporate these words or phrases into the text (copy) of your website. You want them to appear frequently, but not so that it’s obvious (what we call ‘keyword stuffing’) or robotic sounding. The copy needs to read naturally. I am a mobile DJ based in Birmingham. becomes: I am a Birmingham -based mobile DJ specialising in ‘80s music , bringing the sensational sounds of the 1980s to your event, wedding or party.
So it might sound a bit cheesy, but you get the idea (note the keywords in bold). When someone in Birmingham is seeking out a mobile DJ that specialises in ‘80s music, you’re going to rank higher than if you optimised your website only for the term ‘mobile DJ’ . You’ve also used ‘80s’ and ‘1980s’ in your copy, covering both of those search terms, as well as words like ‘wedding’ , ‘music’ and ‘party’ . If possible, try to include your keywords and terms in your headlines, subheading and titles, too.
This will further increase the visibility of your website on search engines. TOP TIP: White Hat vs Black Hat. Loading your blog posts with key terms unnecessarily or creating ‘hidden’ pages crammed with keywords are both considered ‘Black Hat’ techniques by Google, and will be punished with low rankings. Instead, always use ‘White Hat’ techniques, such as writing useful, topical blog posts that incorporate your key terms in a natural and subtle way.
4. Spend some time adding metadata and alt-tags to your pages and images Once your copy is optimised with your keywords, you also want to plant those SEO seeds a little deeper, too. One way of doing this is adding metadata and alt-tags to your pages and images. This counts as off-page SEO, so you may need access to the back-end of your website, usually managed through a CMS (Content Management System) such as WordPress.
Images aren’t just aesthetic tools, they’re vital to SEO as well. When you upload or edit images at the backend of your website, you should have the option to add an ‘alt-tag’ and change the filename. You want to incorporate your keywords and terms into these tags. So your alt-tag (which is intended to aurally describe the image for visually-impaired web users) should say something like ‘image showing mobile DJ in Birmingham as he plays ‘80s music for an ecstatic crowd’ .
Your file name, meanwhile, could read ‘mobile- DJ-Birmingham-80s-crowd-3.jpg’ . You want to do the same for the ‘metadata’ sections of your web pages, which are the parts of your website that aren’t displayed for visitors to see but tell web browsers and search engines about each page. Of particular importance for SEO is the ‘description’ metatag which provides search engines with the page description that appears beneath the title in their results listings.
When you use your CMS to edit the pages of your website, you should have the option to enter a ‘description’ metatag. Make sure that you use this to describe what the page contains, but also try to incorporate some of your keywords or terms. 5. Add hyperlinks to your website content This is really important!
Links, both to and from your website, are really healthy for SEO. So, when you’re editing your web copy, make sure you include hyperlinks to your website’s other pages and also to reputable external websites. If you’ve written an article for Pro Mobile, for instance, you might link to the Pro Mobile website (a high-quality site that’s wellranked on Google), which will earn you points from the guys running the search engines. Link to your peers, link to respected industry sites, link to content that your visitors might find useful – it all helps with SEO.
6. Reach out to your peers and ask them to link to your website When a website that you link to also includes a link to your site (called backlinks) your SEO improves even more. You need to get creative with this. Your peers may link to your site, especially if you return the favour (it’s good for everyone involved), but aside from that, you might want to start commenting on blogs and forums.
For instance, answering brides’ questions on Q&A websites like Quora is a good way to build backlinks from a reputable and well-visited site. If a bride is asking ‘Should I book a DJ or a band for my wedding?’ , you can jump in, offer some words of wisdom, and leave a link to your website beneath your response. This gets you a backlink, but could also lead to a referral and even a booking - you never know! "Images aren’t just aesthetic tools, they’re vital to SEO as well.
" 7. Start a blog and begin writing posts that potential customers will find relevant It can be hard to find the time to write a blog, as it’s something that requires a certain level of commitment to do well. But this is a productive and proven SEO method that just happens to be completely free. The main purpose of your blog should be to inform and engage your potential customers, through interesting posts on the types of topics they want to read about.
Quora is useful again in this situation, because those questions brides are asking on Quora also make for great blog titles! If the titles of your posts can incorporate some of your keywords or terms, then that’s even better. You could launch your blog with an opinion piece on ‘Why ‘80s music is the best wedding music!’ or a post asking ‘Should I book a mobile DJ or a band?’ . Or how about ‘These incredible mobile DJs specialise in ‘80s music!’ , a post in which you could include yourself as well as your peers, encouraging them to share the post and link to your website?
The purpose of blog posts isn’t to go for the hard sell, it’s simply to inform your potential customers about things they’re interested in. This endears you to potential clients while also acting as a vehicle for SEO. In my eyes, that’s a win-win. TOP TIP: Sit down with a pen and paper and brainstorm a profile of your target audience.
Who are your services aimed at? What is important to them in life? What kind of event would they most enjoy? What are their emotional drivers?
Once you’ve built up what is often known as a ‘buyer persona’ (you’ll probably need a few), you can start planning out blog content that will appeal to their emotions, concerns, desires and interests. 8. Share everything you create on social media, including Facebook, T witter, LinkedIn and Pinterest I can’t stress this enough: share everything you do on social media. Your website should link to all of your social accounts, and vice versa.
Once you’ve added a new page to your website or you’ve published a new post on your blog, share it on all of your social media platforms, and ask your followers to share it too. This constant activity, along with all those links to and from your website, is only going to improve your ranking in the search results. Just remember, the search engines want to see websites that are regularly updated, well-written, well-built, contain lots of links, and give visitors content that is useful to them (without being ‘salesy’).
Do this, while also incorporating your keywords, and you’ll find your website becomes much more visible on Google and the other search engines. More visibility means more clicks, which, hopefully, leads to more bookings. Make sure you nail your keyword research – everything else will follow. If you’d like to discuss the principals of SEO, either those covered in this article or otherwise, or you need help creating unique content for your blog or website, please do not hesitate to get in touch: "search engines want to see websites that are regularly updated, well-written, well-built, contain lots of links, and give visitors content that is useful to them"
