3.08. Implementing an SEO Strategy: The Minimum, the Realistic

Here, we discover how the efforts made to make its site "comprehensible" and relevant for search engines and algorithms serve your marketing strategy on several levels... between marketing, discovery and mediation.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization), also known as natural or organic search, is for all cultural marketing professionals one of the key levers to improve the discoverability of events and enrich the spectator experience.

The term encompasses all methods and strategies aimed at optimizing your website to make it usable ("understandable") by search engines and algorithms, thereby improving its ranking in search results.

A successful SEO strategy is built on a combination of thoughtful planning, optimized content, effective technical setup, and maintaining the site's popularity. By applying these fundamentals, your website becomes a true tool for mediation and engagement with your audience.  

Prerequisite: Auditing Your Website

Before going further in defining your strategy, it can be useful to conduct a quick audit of your website and its current content. Several options are available:

  • Free online SEO audit tools: many exist and will provide you with an overview of the priorities to improve on your site.
  • SEO audit via a specialized agency: usually included when you hire an agency to improve your website's SEO.

Using generative AI? A good test is to submit your site to NotebookLLM and generate a podcast summarizing what your site is about. If the algorithm understands your project and identity well, that's a good sign. Otherwise, consider what visitors might perceive.

    It is also possible to perform a quick health check of your website-in terms of SEO and more broadly-as presented in this webinar (in English) by Andy Leitch for Digital Culture Network.  

    The pillars of SEO

    1 - A solid technical foundation

    In SEO, technical optimization covers all efforts to improve a website's technical performance: HTML structure, speed, page indexing, quality of mobile navigation, and more.

    A slow or poorly structured site can ruin your efforts and completely undermine your SEO strategy. It's crucial to ensure your site is fast, secure (HTTPS), and responsive-that is, mobile-friendly-as many visitors search for information or book tickets via their phones. Finally, the quality of your metadata and adherence to web standards are essential.

    In short, key points to check:

    • Verify your site's pages are properly indexed by major search engines.
    • Test loading speed on your homepage and key pages.
    • Monitor 404 errors and implement necessary redirects.
    • Ensure mobile compatibility.
    • Comply with web standards.
    • Carefully organize your site architecture and internal linking.

      2 - Popularity or Netlinking

      Online popularity relies on the backlink method, which consists of including hyperlinks in your content that point to other websites on different domains. These reciprocal links strengthen the authority of your pages in the eyes of search engine algorithms. For a cultural venue, this could involve partnerships with other cultural institutions, press articles, the website of the company producing the show, or nearby dining establishments.

      The key ranking factors

      3 - Semantic and Content Strategy

      Before taking action, it is necessary to define your objectives. Do you want to increase ticket sales? Attract a more diverse audience? Strengthen your online reputation? Your SEO strategy actions will heavily involve your teams and resources.

      That's why it's important to manage them within a global strategy. You will need to ensure it aligns with the reality of your organization. For example, you probably won't have the capacity to produce content daily, even though this is a factor that ranking algorithms are sensitive to.

      The core of your SEO strategy lies in your site content. Each page of your website must be written to meet both the expectations of search engines and those of your visitors. Your content creation should follow some best practices:

      • Web-optimized texts: Website presentation texts should ideally be written specifically for the web, but unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Often, texts are shortened reuses of content originally designed for print materials (brochures, flyers...) or even simple copy-pastes. Investing budget or editorial effort into texts crafted for the web could be an effective content strategy, improving site ranking beyond the basic presentation pages. Texts should be sufficiently long, properly structured (H1, H2, H3 titles, bold text, etc.), and include relevant keywords related to your topic, institution, and audience.
      • Original texts: One of the biggest enemies of SEO is duplicate content. If the same text appears on many websites, search engines will penalize those sites in ranking-common practices of using identical descriptions for a show across sites harm the discoverability of a program.

      If you want to implement a long-tail SEO strategy-focusing on more specific keywords that appear less frequently on the web-you'll need a regular content production policy, which is demanding both financially and in terms of communication team time and resources.

      Demand curve in search

      However, adjusting your content production according to these various factors represents a valuable lever for mediation and discoverability: such content will enrich the experience and knowledge of your venue's spectators while allowing others searching for related topics to find your content.

      It should also be noted that, for reasons of accessibility as well as SEO, media (images, videos, sounds) must be carefully described, as algorithms cannot interpret them. Thus, regardless of the richness of the site in terms of content, it is essential that it is well-structured and accompanied by clear and complete data and metadata.  

      Conclusion and Checklist

      Your SEO strategy will enhance the discoverability of your cultural offerings. Indeed, in an era where cultural and leisure options are abundant and access to information is primarily digital, ensuring effective communication between your website and search engine algorithms is essential. This does not replace or overshadow direct engagement with your audiences: Google, for example, promotes a "people first" approach, and its algorithm values substance, authenticity, clear structure, and relevance - just like your audiences do.

      Your SEO strategy should be integrated with your marketing and outreach activities:  

      ConceptObjectifLien avec les autres concepts
      SEO et métadonnéesOptimiser le dialogue avec la machine / l’algorithmePilier technique indispensable pour améliorer la découvrabilité dans un paysage numérique.
      MarketingPromouvoir, convertir et fidéliser, créer du désir pour la sortie culturelleS’appuie sur un socle technique solide et peut intégrer des techniques de médiation pour engager l’audience.
      MédiationTransmettre et connecter, créer du dialogue entre sphère culturelle et socialeBénéficie du marketing et du SEO pour renforcer son impact culturel, notamment en territoire numérique.
      DécouvrabilitéFaciliter la découverte d’un contenu culturel par quelqu’un qui n’en faisait pas spécifiquement la rechercheSe situe à l’intersection du dialogue avec le humain et du dialogue avec la machine, du court et du long terme

      To structure your strategy:

      • Keep your audiences in mind (resource: "Create useful, reliable, and people-first content," Google Search Central).
      • Implement a FAQ section (resources: "Should you add an SEO FAQ to your website?", ouiscribe, Jan 2024, and "FAQ: An often overlooked SEO lever on websites," SEMJuice, Nov 2024).
      • Conduct small, regular SEO audits rather than a full audit only during site redesigns: consistency is key!

        To go further

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