Monday, September 14, 2009

Search Me

According to Google, these are the things America is searching for: sports, music, Oprah.

If I were to write a song today about a singing football player who appears on Oprah, would people search for it? Would I be giving America what it wants?

Today, if you want your music to be heard or seen, it has to be on the Internet. If you can be Googled, you’ve got a chance.

I searched for Google hit statistics on “Paul McCartney.” Hit results were astronomical. I was surprised to learn that Canadians searched for Paul more than Americans, followed by Mexicans and Argentineans. The Brits were somewhere behind Argentina. People are nuts for his lyrics, which they look for more often than info on his tours, which came in second.

I then entered Texas-bred band Bowling for Soup. We cover one of their most popular songs, “1985.” It is just too perfect for our band of five women. I learned they are bigger in the U.K. than they are in their home country. What is it about hometown folks not being number one fans??

I then entered Merry and the Mood Swings. The message came up: “Not enough search volume to show graphs.” Well then! Here we have a wonderful home website and a presence on myspace, Facebook and now ReverbNation. I know we are searched for because ReverbNation can show me examples of where we have appeared on the web, and Google sends Mary H. updates when we appear on the web.

So I’m experimenting. If I salt hot topic terms into my blog posts and the band websites, will they eventually come up on Google searches? If they do and people click through, will I write a hit song titled “Oprah’s Football Music?” Maybe an entire CD, “The Battle of Jon and Kate,” “Taylor’s Swift Kick to Kanye,” “Facebook Virus Blues,” etc.?

Will I?

Search me.