Name optimization has become more and more important in this digital age. Back in the days when the man in the record shop was responsible for finding you music, the phrase ”Err…It’s some kind of punkrock, eh, Tars… something” could well be enough for him to know what you where talking about. In the digital age ”Tars… something” will lead you nowhere. Since you don’t have the full and accurate name, no search engine can understand what the man in the record shop knows. For this reason, making your band/artist name and music easy to search for is key to a successful presence on the Internet.

A good first step is to make sure that the titles of your tracks and albums are easy to remember. Ideally, this should also be the same for your band or artist name  (so if you are starting a new band then this is something to think about). It is difficult to know for sure what will stick in the mind of a listener, it’s individual, after all. Name a band “Torsten” and I will remember it because of my late grandfather. Name the band “The Save” and I will forget it. I always forget to save. The key is to be creative and come up with something everyone will remember - something which sticks out.

Another thing you should think about is this how common the names you are using are. In search engines “Torsten” is pretty uncommon and might be a word which makes you come out near the top of the search results . “The Save”, on the other hand, may be bad as since it’s a name at least 36 artist use in combination with something else. Then there is the aspect of radio- or random party play. If you have a rather bizarre chorus line where the lyrics goes ”I love dogs while they sleep” or “Purple elephants are better than pink ones” over and over again then its silly to name the song something else. I am sure we have all heard a song somewhere which we really like but all we can remember is the chorus line - wouldn’t it be a shame if someone searched for this chorus line and then didn’t find it?

One can also be a little militant in how one names songs and albums, and play search engines at their own game. Naming your song “Madonna slept with U2 and Coldplay” or something like this will guarantee that you get lots of search hits from people searching for Madonna, U2 and Coldplay. Its a little cheeky, but hey, if people check out your music, its worth it, no?

If you name your song ”Michael Jackson sleeps With Madonna” you may hit the Jackpot.

- P.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 15th, 2010 at 3:09 pm and is filed under Promotion advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.