Top Canadian Songs: an SEO Case in Point
Every once in a while I get an email from a complete stranger somewhere in Canada who writes to critique, correct or otherwise comment on my list of the top 100 Canadian songs of all time. While this search phrase is not horribly competitive, I still find it fun to get feedback on such a larky web page. When I put it up I made sure to mind all my SEO p’s and q’s and then I interacted with one of the most popular blogs in the country and created an idea that probably ranks as the most “viral” thing I’ve ever done online. (I’m not really a viral kind of guy.)
In any case, it’s fun to see that that page still ranks well and to see that canoe.ca or anyone else has not even thought of trying to come up with their own list. I get an email about once a month, on average. In some cases these are quite interesting. One of the most recent ones I got was from Sammy Kohn, drummer for the Watchmen, who wrote to lament that they were not included originally, which I admitted required correction. I just got another email from someone in Tampa Bay, in fact.
It’s a case in point that creating a unique web page and doing it properly can have rewards over many years. When you appear at or near the top of Google results, people believe you are authoritative… apparently whether you are or not. All this from simply throwing up a page that was simply optimized properly, even if it was highly self indulgent (and remains so).
Anyway, for anyone who wants to comment on the list (which I just updated) in the future, please comment below.
Cheers!
Thanks for the story of the “magic musical post”. I wrote a short post a few years ago on an aspect of social media – it was practical, not theoretical – and it just keeps coming up month after month as the most visited post on the site. Not so long ago I posted an update, linked to the original, and now they are together the most visited. Search is definitely interesting.
I finally put G Analytics on this page and discovered that it receives a steady 500 visits per month, from a long tail of keywords related to “best canadian songs,” synonyms and combinations. Hilarious. Thanks for the comment, Des, I just started following you earlier today.
What about the Spoons? Nova Heart should have cracked the top 50 for sure. I love the Hip too, but c’mon!
@Chris K
Thanks for the comment. I was there when the Spoons were as ‘big’ as they were and I gotta say…… nnnnnnnnnnoh. I appreciate the “old emotion’ of your myspace writeup but the list is subjective and to me Nova Heart is neither quintessentially Canadian nor… great. They were from Borington (suitably), where I was living at that time. Sorry.
Good list. However, I would have Edward Bear’s ” You Me and Mexico ” on the list.
from Richard Gordon
to jim.huinink @ gmail.com
date Sun, May 23, 2010 at 5:40 AM
subject Somebody’s missing
mailed-by gmail.com
signed-by gmail.com
Hi there,
Where did Sarah McLachlan go
Richard
—
Sorry, Richard, you need to read to the bottom of the web page that contains that list where I discuss the absence of Celine Dion, Bryan Adams, Nickelback and (yes, all in the same sentence here) Sarah McLachlan. I have great difficulty with her over-stylized singing, sorry to say. I did sort of like “Surrender” for a while but not for long.
@Barbara Taylor
You could also make a case for “Last Song.” The problem with a top 100 list is that there are only 100 spots. And as is apparent, there have been a lot of great Canadian songs.
Great list, obviously you are a hip fan, not enough blue rodeo
@Kelly Allin
That’s a fair complaint. I love the album Lost Together and really like Five Days in July.