Building My Music Blog: The Journey Behind New Music Review
Back in the lockdown days of COVID, I started writing a few music reviews just for fun. That small spark grew into something bigger — I built my own music blog, NewMusicReview.co.uk. From designing the site to running Reddit feeds and social media, I dived into everything that makes a music blog tick.
In this short series of articles, I’ll walk you through how I built it, what’s working (and what’s not), and what I’ve learned along the way. If you’ve ever thought about starting your own music blog, this might just give you a nudge — because while there’s not much money in it, it’s a whole lot of fun.
What do we do..
Each blog post contains artist images, some Bio information, latest track release and a short review of the track. Links to their YouTube , streaming platforms and Social media ar also included to allow readers to go straight to the artists pages.
This is Part 2 of my “Developing NewMusicReview.co.uk” series.
In Part 1 I introduced how the site began, the template system I use, and some of the artists I’ve covered.
In this part, I’m focusing on SEO: what I’ve tried, what’s worked, and what hasn’t.
Getting to Grips with SEO
In this episode, I’d like to talk about SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) — how I’ve integrated it into my music review website and what I’ve discovered along the way.
SEO can feel a bit complex at first, but once you get into it, there are definitely some easier sides too.
Finding the Right SEO Tool
Like many people starting out, I experimented with one or two SEO plug-ins I found by randomly searching the internet. Eventually, someone recommended Rank Math, and that’s the tool I ended up using.
Because I was building my site with Elementor and WordPress, Rank Math fit in pretty smoothly. It uses a simple traffic light scoring system:
- Red: poor SEO (0–50)
- Orange: average (52–80)
- Green: good (80+)
It looks at things like your keywords, meta descriptions, and tags, then scores your post out of 100. For me, that meant I could quickly check whether my reviews were likely to perform well in search results.
🔎 What is Rank Math?
Rank Math is a free WordPress SEO plug-in designed to make optimisation easier for bloggers and small website owners. It:
- Analyses keywords, titles, and meta descriptions.
- Suggests improvements to boost search rankings.
- Uses a colour-coded scoring system (red, orange, green) to show how well a post is optimised.
- Integrates with Google Search Console for deeper insights.
It also offers advanced features like schema markup and internal linking suggestions, but I mostly use it for the basics — making sure my posts are set up to be as visible as possible.
Working with Keywords
My approach was simple:
- Use the artist’s name and track title as primary keywords.
- Add relevant music genre tags (folk, indie, rock, synthwave, etc.).
- Sprinkle in a few descriptive terms in the post body and meta description.
Once I got the hang of it, it wasn’t difficult to push most posts into the green (usually around the 85 mark). That was good enough for me.
One advantage of my template system (from Part One) is that each post is about a different artist, which naturally creates fresh keywords every time. That consistency really helps SEO without me needing to overthink it.
The Switch to Divi 5
Later, I switched my site design over from Elementor to Divi 5. That’s when I hit a snag: Rank Math no longer seemed to integrate fully with my posts. Instead of analysing the full article, it only picked up the basics — artist name, title, image, and maybe the first line.
Strangely, despite losing that handy Rank Math scoring system, my site traffic didn’t really change. Visitors still came at the same rate. That made me wonder how much difference the plug-in actually made. Was it Rank Math improving my SEO, or just me naturally writing posts that already contained the right keywords?
The Pros and Cons of SEO Plug-ins
Here’s what I’ve learned so far:
What works:
- Plug-ins like Rank Math are great for beginners — the traffic light system shows you quickly if you’re on the right track.
- Using artist names, song titles, and genres as keywords is both natural and effective.
- Templates make SEO easier because they encourage consistency in layout and keyword placement.
What doesn’t always work:
- Switching themes or builders (like moving to Divi) can break integrations.
- Too many plug-ins can cause conflicts — I’ve already had to disable some to keep things running smoothly.
- SEO scores don’t always translate into more visitors.
So… Does SEO Work?
That’s the big question. Honestly, I’m not sure how much difference a plug-in makes on its own. My traffic seems to come more from sharing posts on social media and word of mouth in the indie music community than from ranking in Google.
Still, SEO is part of the puzzle — even if it’s just making sure that when people search an artist I’ve covered, my review has a chance of showing up.
What’s Next
In the Part 3 of this series, I’ll dive into Analytics — the tools I’ve been using to measure traffic, what they tell me about my audience, and how I’m trying to use that data to keep improving the site.