Music site for new hip hop, electronic, indie rock, pop, & RnB -- feedback please

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ryan25r9

New Member
Hey everyone,

I'm pretty new here so I figured I'd simultaneously introduce myself along with my website, WayUpHere.

I just graduated from college with an accounting degree and am looking for a job. However, I'm also learning ruby on rails and it's making me think I would much rather go into web/app development. We'll see.

As for my site, my partner and I built WayUpHere to share good music since I can't stand the radio and know there's tons of good music on the internet. I know there's a lot of similar music blogs out there, but we feel we have some unique advantages now and have big plans for down the road.

For the immediate future, we're working on a mobile site, featured images up top, speed optimization, and a couple more small things. Then, we're going to rebuild the site from scratch in RoR, since the CMS we use (Pligg) is terrible. It will take a while, but the new site will have features such as the ability to follow artists and subsequent artist pages, a social feed showing what friends have voted for/commented on/etc., an artist feed showing the new content solely from artists a user has followed, a version of our music charts where users can weight genres allowing for a personalized experience, and much more. We'll also be opening up some new revenue opportunities and allowing any user to submit music with strict filters in place. Currently, there's no central platform where users can easily find the best new music, get information on the content, and stay up to date with their favorite artists. We're hoping to capitalize on this opportunity.

So, I'm looking for your feedback. The site is definitely too slow at the moment. We're going to be implementing Google Pagespeed over the weekend but we definitely need to optimize a lot more on our end. The other huge issue is our SEO. I don't have time to manually build backlinks while also developing, applying, posting new content, and managing my volunteer contributors. So, we're definitely behind in that department.

Let me know what you think of the current layout, what you would want to see added and any other general thoughts. Now that I know the basics of what goes into development I have an immense amount of respect for you guys and would love to hear your opinion.

tl;dr: Website that shares new music looking for feedback.
 
chrishirst

chrishirst

Well-Known Member
Staff member
The other huge issue is our SEO. I don't have time to manually build backlinks while also developing, applying, posting new content, and managing my volunteer contributors.
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If you have good content YOU don't need to "link build", and manually building links hasn't been and isn't particularly useful in this century.
 
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ryan25r9

New Member
chrishirst said:
If you have good content YOU don't need to "link build"
Click to expand...

That's true in most cases, but not really for our niche. The music blogging community generally posts the same content, so the advantages come down to the community, timeliness, and site design. Our write-ups and site are better than most, yet we still get crushed by those with inferior websites/write-ups. Here's a few examples that rank very high:
FistInTheAir(dot)com
xclusiveszone(dot)net
2dopeboyz(dot)com

Yet, they have generally terrible articles. So, based on what I've gathered, I'll need to focus on SEO in order to surpass them (we already have a decent, growing social media presence). However, I'm new to link building and I've read that things like Fiverr end up hurting your SEO rather than helping. In addition, figuring out which keywords to focus on is tough for me to figure out because so much of our search engine keywords are based on the artist and title of the new music (Kings of Leon - Supersoaker). So I feel like I would need to focus on things like "new music" and "listen to music", etc.

chrishirst said:
manually building links hasn't been and isn't particularly useful in this century.
Click to expand...

Since manually building links is apparently useless now, how could I go about automating it?

Thanks for any help in advance. I really do appreciate it.
 
chrishirst

chrishirst

Well-Known Member
Staff member
how could I go about automating it?
Click to expand...

That would be even WORSE than useless.

The music blogging community generally posts the same content, so the advantages come down to the community, timeliness, and site design.
Click to expand...

I'm sure have already worked out the answer to that 'problem'.
 
chrishirst

chrishirst

Well-Known Member
Staff member
What did you expect?????????????

There are no magic tricks or "Secret Sauce" solutions to REAL SEO only the dumbarse algo chasers think that there are, and they spend all their time changing and rebuilding when their tricks get shut out.

In the world you are in, different and interesting content is going to attract natural links and genuine visitors, Doing the same as everybody else is going to get you nowhere.

I suggest you read the articles in the HR Tips for new SEOs and get rid of the "links are everything" ideas.
 
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ryan25r9

New Member
I expected some feedback on the site and potential SEO advice.

I never once implied that there was a secret sauce or magic formula, nor am I foolish enough to believe that.

In the world that I'm in, I explained how other sites have had success posting the same content we are, so your logic is flawed.

I never once claimed that "links are everything", and even added that we have a growing social media presence, which is a continuously growing factor in SEO.

You clearly have a vendetta beyond this conversation, so I think I'll opt out. Have a good day.
 
chrishirst

chrishirst

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I expected some feedback on the site and potential SEO advice.
Click to expand...
Not my kind of music so I have no idea what your target audience would prefer, however I do know a bit about SEO so that IS SEO advice, REAL SEO not the imaginary stuff that "experts" prattle on about with.

If you want more REAL advice ...
Read this, SEO for Google by Google

More from me http://webmaster-talk.eu/articles/7-website-marketing-and-search

Watch and listen to Common sense from Matt Cutts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdmzKzuXurY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnFCGqySlv8

A vendetta??? Assuming you mean agenda, then yes I have, which is to dispel the many and varied SEO myths whenever I possibly can.
 
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