[2011 Update] WordPress for music promotion! Top 10 List of “Must Know Principles”, SEO tip and best plugins! Successfully promote Independent Music on Internet!

The waterfall represent the funnel of the flow. A website can be like a lake where flowing streams (of visitors) enters and leave. If you just dig a hole big enough in the right place it will become a lake one day, right? Google, well, they created a virtual Sea!!!

A short resume and a few tips and tricks on how to get the most out of your WordPress based music website. Script suggestions and plugin list. Use this info as a basic guideline for how to optimize any specific subject WordPress script for search engines like Google, MSN and Yahoo Search

To accomplish the following...

I've been investing quite an amount of time. I had to since I used mainly free resources which require investment of time instead of money.  Since my part time job has been building web pages for people I realized the power of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and the built in power in the free WordPress PHP application

By adding content to the WP site with carefully chosen keywords built into every post Google responds very positively to my site. Additionally I joined a few music forums and social networking sites biased towards electronic music production and psychedelic trance music.  I also maintain pages on the basic unavoidable sites Myspace.com and Facebook. Also recently started Blogger.com Blog page called psychedelic-trance-music.blogspot (just to cover the base and pump the net with my keywords)

Then I post free promo songs or/and posts on the three authority sites for psychedelic trance music which are Goabase Goatrance.de, IsraTrance forum and Chaishop.com.

There are a few 'tricks of the trade' that I frequently use. Example; make a few different searches on Google for what you believe people would use to find your own site. In the top ten results one will then find that certain websites 'always' appear. They are, in the eyes of Google (and most other search engines) the 'authority' sites for the chosen subject. Now... within those top sites there are, very often, one or two of them that allow free membership, posting of articles, links exchange or some other free service (even Yellowpages will do fine..).
I then join up with some of these sites and post something, like a blog, link, article, music or comment. The links and word content in those posts are picked up by Google (and other search engines). Like that I create an association of the very highest quality available on the Internet.
The result is that my own site ascends in Googles search results. Now there are some sites that automatically add a "nofollow" command to all outgoing links in posts, so I find it better to concentrate on the content rather than the links. And, to not get dissed for spamming, stick to the rules on whatever site you deal with. After all It's your reputation as artist / music promoter that is at stake.

However, Google is smarter than that. To maintain a high position one have to post fresh content regularly, on your own site and preferably elsewhere too. Already after about one month of not posting anything new one will slip down the ranks again. One way around this is to use the time / date function in WordPress. If I have more than one post to publish I always trickle them out by setting the post dates ahead in time. So if I have 4 posts they would typically be set to get published every second day. Apparently this method keep Google happy. Or if I'm travelling I do the same just before I leave. Thus keeping the flow of posts trickling while I'm gone one week to dj at a festival.
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Top 10  WP plugins indispensable for music SEO:

1. All in One SEO Pack or Headspace 2 (advanced SEO wp plugin)
2. Audio Player
3. Drain Hole (Advanced download management)
4. Email Users (Sorts sending a newsletter to registered members)
5. Google XML Sitemaps (Sorts the noticing process to the major Search engines)
6. SABRE (sorts all spam registrations to the WP site)
7. Dagon Design Form Mailer (Easy install contact form)
8. Get a Social network plugin (so many to choose between) that let fans share your content easily
9. Choose a plugin that fits your site... too many to choose between =/

Top 10 principles that I try to practice. Some might not fit your specific way, but you get the idea

1. Stick to the truth when promoting a music site. The music speaks for itself
2. Content = "God" Everybody loves good content! Fans, Google, Family, friends...
3. Spell Check all site promotion. Avoids confusion & optimizes visibility
   
4. Respect the rules on the sites you post on. Confidence...
5. Target Peoples intelligence. Some brilliant minds out there... your friends?
6. Don't let a music upload site hog your time "Free" often equals zero options...
7. Full length songs Free Downloads? ONLY on band domain name website!!!!!
   
8. Minimize your work! Keep up to date with the Internet Sharing technology
9. No html tags allowed? Plain text url (aka: http://your-site.com) works fine
10. Time is your friend. Before you know it the tide is turning in your favour...

Okay, that's it for now, this became a long post. If you read this and have a WordPress music site without these plugins, well, go for it... . But remember, it's more or less required that the WP site is installed on a independent server/domain in order for this system to work optimally.

There is, of course, more to it. And you might have some special circumstances on you site that need a slightly different strategy. But the basics are pretty much the same for any WP script website. Feel free to ask me anything if you have questions regarding how to optimize your WordPress for music promotion. Then use either the comment form below, or send me a message by using the contact form.
Peace
d(·.·)b Ricky - Qubenzis Psy Audio