I'm looking for any information on search engine optimization (SEO) for magician websites. Any recommendations?

I would recommend 2 things.

1) Search the Magic Café to find the various threads that talk about SEO. Pay particular attention to post by Mike Clay.
2) Look at the sites of Magicians that rank high for google searches in your city. Look at the "View Source" for their pages and find out what key words they are using.
3) Use google's key word tool to find out what people are actually typing to find magicians.
4) Subscribe to a couple of SEO podcasts in iTunes. Google's algorithm keeps changing so it's good to listen/read folks who stay current on the changes so you can adapt. You can also search for someone who sends out a newsletter to stay current.
5) If you don't have the time and/or skill....hire an expert.

Beyond basic seo (titles, post tags, meta descriptions, etc) focus your efforts on content.

Google is rewarding those who create excellent content for their users. The seo tactics we all know is just the very beginning.

If you're interested I have a free email course on PPC/Internet Marketing at www.Josh-London.com - sign up form on the sidebar.

Josh

OMG!

Step 1..
Look for SEO info from experts in SEO

Digital Marketing isn't specific, those who make it specific are MARKETING to you.
You should be specific in your marketing.
Example I targeted Small Business Owners thinking that was specific for YEARS
When I started targeting Lawyers, Dentists, Chiropractors specifically my sales more than TRIPPED overnight.

Also SEO is just 1 PART of the Equation

1. You need a SOLID landing page that is optimized for conversion... http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/case-studies.php
2. You need to get ACTIVE in Social Media and not just post about you. Build a client Avatar (what does your ideal client look like, what do they read, what are there hobbies, where do they shop) and build an audience by posting things FOR your ideal client. Mentioning yourself SOME
3. SILO your website so it has the ability to GROW and have content pushed out sending weight to the RIGHT pages http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/importance......rd-data/
4. CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT ... blog.. and when you do answer a problem think of it this way. you want to be a pain pill not a vitamin
Example
Vitamin : Birthday Party magic is fun for all your guests and we will make every child happy and they will talk about your event for months to come
PainPill : 3 ways to take the STRESS out of planning the PERFECT party for your child and a FREE magic party planning guide

Basically search yahoo answers and figure out why questions people ask and YOU ANSWER those questions in blog posts, within a SILO structure
5. Target the right things. Google Keyword planner is good, but also search those phrases and find the "Suggested Search" Terms and use them as well

if you do these things on a properly configured wordpress site and are pushing out 3 articles a week you will increase your traffic.

Mike, I read recently where goggle factors in your web site load time. Do you know how important that is? Do I need to look into this? And what would I do, use smaller sized pictures?

Ken,

It is a FACTOR.. and it's the BANE of my life right now

You need you 1st load to be under 7 seconds

http://www.webpagetest.org/

If your over 15 sec for 1st load the Bot leaves the site (this number could have changed in last weeks algorithm update I havent had time to RETEST)

But this is part of Googles Quality check. If you site loads to slow, your QUALITY score suffers, because visitors don't like to wait.

the reason it's my bane is because we have a SERVER issue with security that is causing my TIME to first BYTE to be higher than I want..
I am seriously thinking about moving my content to Amazon S3 cloud to speed the first byte time up

HOW much does this effect rankings?

Ehhhh depends on how BAD IT IS

if your site takes 30 sec to load. Your rankings will be HEAVILY effected
if it takes 13 sec to load ehhh it MIGHT effect you
if its 6 sec or LESS .. you MIGHT get a boost in HEAVY competition markets

So YES, it is something to LOOK at
but unless you have HIGH load times, it isn't something to WORRY about

From looking at your site the images are what is slowing you down.
We use kraken.io on images to optimize them

I hope that helps some.

Your the best Mike! Thanks!

Mike offers some great advice. When I consult with other magicians and business owners on SEO strategy one of the biggest issues in the SEO Audit Reports I see is not properly using ALT Text with their images. If you use Wordpress this is an easy fix and important because the search engine index and crawl images just like text.

Most of the time magicians forgot or don't know to add ALT Text to images.

Josh London

http://clickconvertprofit.com/seo-audit/

This. Don't ask magicians/entertainers, ask someone who specialises specifically in SEO. They are more likely to be able to help you.

- Mike

I agree. Josh London, however, knows his stuff! if you do a search for San Diego Magician in google, his two magic websites come right up organically. I'm working with him right now for my website and I have some specific steps I need to take to help my rankings.

There is one thing that I have learned from experience since I posted my question. Time seems to be a big factor in website ranking. The longer one's website is around, the greater chance of getting ranked high by Google.

Of course, there are many other factors as well.

And in talking to Josh London, I'll attest that he does know his stuff.

Hey thanks for the kind words guys! Ranking organically does take time but there are numerous "short cuts" you can use to increase the time it takes to rank. Keep in mind it's not just the seo metrics that search engines look at, but also the design of your website, ability for visitors to easily navigate the site and ultimately give the visitor the answers to their questions.

I go over a lot of this in my emails (FREE!), on my blog and through my seo and PPC services.

Feel free to have a look and if you need help reach out: www.ClickConvertProfit.com

Josh

I am curious Josh. How much time during a week do you spend on SEO?

Hypblake, I am starting to take on less magic shows as my consulting business is growing really quickly so right now I am spending a lot of time inside my clients' websites fixing issues and changing visual elements to increase conversions.

The other half of my time is spent managing PPC campaigns for clients.

At the end of the week I'd say I spend about 50 hours working on my clients projects.

When I started ClickConvertProfit I seemingly instantly had 4 clients right off the bat (3 magicians and 1 juggler) and now that I'm a few months into it the business is starting to replace a lot of my magic income.

Ideally, I'd like to spend time on my own seo efforts for ClickConvertProfit, but I'll fix a few of the bugs everyday as my time is mostly devoted to others' projects.

Oh, this is on top of performing every weekend at kid shows. I really do enjoy it and my clients are loving the results.

This isn't to say that you could fix your own seo issues by yourself. You just need to have a roadmap of why needs fixing. If you're interested in that PM me and I'll send you some details.

Josh

"short cuts"

no offence intended, but that phrase in the topic of SEO is a HUGE red flag.
I spend over 60hrs a week in the SEO industry, not to mention I have multiple staff members that do also (3 staff members that work min 40hrs a week) and I spend PERSONALLY 20 hrs a week tracking changes in the Algorithms. This industry has been what has paid my bills and fed my family and the families of my staff for almost 18 years (I have been in the web dev / digital marketing industry for 18 years).. For a short time balloons became my full time job as I was going to get out of this, but my health has not allowed me to remain in performing.

I spend a TON of time and charge an insane amount of money to do Search Engine Penalty Recovery (when it's possible, sometimes the short cut means you THROW IT AWAY and start over)
"Short Cuts" is a phrase I heard 3 times last week from business owners who lost over 20k a WEEK (one company was doing 100k+ per month through there website that was deindexed last Google update) in revenue because the SEO guy took short cuts and got them NAILED..

Because of the type of penalty it's going to take about 90 days to get them OUT of it.. then another 90 days to get them re indexed the proper way.
So 6 months of revenue loss, and about 45k out of pocket to PAY to have this fixed, I don't know any entertainers that can afford to FIX a massive penalty like this.

Don't ever take SHORT CUTS on a money site.. PERIOD.. Google has 250 project managers with Doctorates who run teams to catch people taking shortcuts. You will only outsmart 250 guys with a better education with teams of people who are specialized in catching people who take SHORTCUTS.

Ranking a website for entertainers is SIMPLE..

1. Build a website with PROPER site structure..
Keep the navigation simple
Build out highly targeted landing pages with good sales copy
Add a Blog
Separate the blog into service related categories.
PER category link ONLY to other articles within that category, and back to the related landing page.
2. Properly Optimize the Landing pages
Title tag should be a sentence with the target Keyword
Use Headers like newspaper headlines ONLY.. H1 is main header, h2 sub header
Give ALL images Alt text
Get your Call to Action Visible no matter where people stop on the page.
3. Generate Backlinks, via Social Media, DO NOT USE SOFTWARE TO DO THIS cause search engines are getting smarter
Use Ifttt.com to syndicate your content to ... Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Delicious, Digg, G+, youtube
Build youtube videos with Google hangouts (share them across the social webbsites) "HINT HINT IFTTT.com"
4. in wordpress add a pinglist, use proper permalinks, avoid 404 errors, avoid Search Engine loops (Screaming From SEO Spider, it's FREE)
5. Track your backlinks % levels using majesticseo ... the anchor text of your backlinks should be around 2-4% your keywords and the REST other.
6. After EVERYTHING is setup BLOG, BLOG, Blog... Write about the related Keywords to your primary keywords, but do so in ANSWERING problems your clients have.

I promise you will rank... not only that.. IF your keywords have been properly selected.. I promise you will dominate.. and do it QUICKLY

Seems like a lot of working in your business rather than working on your business.

Mike,

By "short cuts" I'm talking about using the proper tools to research, analyze and optimize a website. I apologize for the confusion and both you and I know this take many many hours to do.

I don't have nearly as many clients as you do and respect your authority

Josh

Josh,
didn't mean to be aggressive just wanted to make sure you weren't doing something like automated backlinks with spun junk content..

It will rank ya fast, but a Panda update and you get NAILED hard, and the client loses BIG TIME..

Look me up on Skype Michael.clay35
I love workin with consultants that are going from Advanced personal SEO to a Pro that's providing services..
Cause chances are, your working WAY to hard because you don't have the processes down to streamline it all ..

Hey Mike,

Ya I'm definitely not doing anything black hat. I know Google is way too smart for that. I advocate 2 things in my work:

Josh