* SEO - Now More Than Ever!

Current circumstances have upended the entire marketing landscape and how people view our industry. Here’s why SEO matters now.

By Dirk Johnson

First, I hope you are all doing ok. None of us are doing great.

I am running at about 50% of where I was, but fortunately, I have other business interests that provide other steady income.

I hope that your business has not completely collapsed during this challenge. All of us have unique teaching situations and client profiles, and some solutions, like providing online lessons, work better for some than others.

Please be strong and THINK your way through this. This article is a part of that.

Is This the Time for a Business Marketing Discussion?

I’d say yes, but with a caveat. I am not claiming that this is the time to be putting on the “hard sell” and going all out. That’s probably not going to work right now.

I am instead, advocating that now is the time to start or tweak the search engine optimization on your website.

There Are Good Reasons For Doing Some Revised SEO Work Right Now

First, not every family is in dire financial straits here. Some people do have income, and with schools closed, they are looking for outlets for their kids. They might think that NOW is the time for them to get the kid into online music lessons, as a diversion.

These might be technically sophisticated parents, and they may have decent equipment to apply to the task.

Similarly, prospective adult students might look at this as an opportunity to take up guitar or piano, or brush up their skills, or whatever.

These people are going to go straight to a search engine like Google or Bing and search for something like “online [name an instrument] lessons in [your city]” or Zoom lessons, or Skype lessons.

Catching the Impulse Sale

It’s an “impulse search”, sometimes made just out of curiosity.

These people are not going to take time to seek out ads, and they may not participate in local social media. Facebook reaches only a fraction of the population, and other platforms, like Instragram, much less. If someone doesn’t participate, they’ll never, ever see your social media postings.

Instead, these people are just making quick investigation, maybe while at their laptop while working from home, or on their phone while watching TV.

After all, there is a lot of “homemade” music being broadcast right now, which makes music seem accessible to everyone once again.

You HAVE TO Be Prepared

Sure, some of us might get lucky and earn this traffic, if you are in a low competition environment without doing much of anything. That’s likely a small city or town.

In larger cities, none of this is search traffic happens by chance. There’s already competition for search traffic. If your website is prepared and properly positioned for this kind of search, then there’s a good chance that you’ll get an inquiry.

There Is No Going Back – This Is “NEW NORMAL”

When were return to “normal” (whenever and whatever that is), we’ll find that a wide swath of the entire population has now been exposed to “online learning”, often through their jobs.

That means they have options. Maybe no more driving to the studio, dropping off the kid (or waiting around), and then picking them up afterward. It’s not necessary.

For me, I have adult students who used to travel up to 40 miles to come here. I suspect that I won’t see them all that much in-person in the future. This is online training is working (with some disadvantages, of course), but it is saving them a lot of time and mileage.

From now on, SOME people (especially busy people) will be seeking out online lessons, even in their hometown.

What To Do Now?

It is simple. Set up your site to attract traffic for various types of online lessons in your town. That is, properly designed title tags, page descriptions, page headlines, on-site images of your capability, and content that describes your online capability and experience.

You have to use “online” and Skype, and “Zoom” and “Facetime” and whatever else, in your tags and content.

By doing that, you can corner your local market that exists for this “new normal” that’s most likely coming to stay.

Most certainly, someone in your city will do thisSEO work on their website. It should be you.

In the Meantime Don’t Hold Yourself Back!

Using the SEO Guide for music lesson studios, you can either do all of this yourself, or if you don’t have time, or if you prefer to have someone else manage the basics of SEO for you, please contact me.

And, as always, if you want to get a quick review of your current website SEO condition, please contact me with your website address, and I’ll be glad to have a look and report back to you what I find.

Thanks again for tuning in!