SEO Case Study: How Strategic Optimization Boosted Ticket Sales by +10% for Local Music Festival
- Steve Berg
- Jul 11
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 17
Written by: Steve Berg
Overview
I compiled a thorough strategic music festival search engine optimization (SEO) plan with the Victoria Jazz Society to enhance online visibility and drive ticket sales for the 2025 TD Victoria International JazzFest. Through targeted SEO strategies, I significantly increased website visibility in branded searches and successfully broke into local search queries related to local events. This led to a drastic increase in impressions, which directly resulted in a substantial increase in ticket revenue.
Challenge
While TD Victoria International JazzFest had an established core audience dating back to the 1980s, the festival aimed to broaden its reach, attract new attendees, and increase overall ticket sales after a brief hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and a shift in audience demographics following the pandemic. Prior years indicated a reliance on repeat visitors, highlighting the need to attract and convert a broader audience through improved online discoverability.
Music Festival SEO - Strategic Approach
Focused Keyword and Content Optimization
I strategically targeted event-specific and locally relevant search terms, including:
"victoria jazz festival 2025"
"jazz fest victoria"
"music festivals bc"
"festival victoria bc"
The organizations' branded search queries for their music festival remained consistent and strong; however, they lagged in locally relevant search queries and experienced high competition with various music festivals overlapping with their own in the summer months (June/July).
On-Page SEO Enhancements
Optimized key festival landing pages to improve relevance, click-through rates (CTR), and overall ranking performance. Core pages targeted included:
JazzFest Homepage (Their primary music festival landing page)
Festival Line-Up (A subpage leading to a full line-up of attending artists/bands)
Tickets Page (A subpage for the organization's various performances with ticketing links)
A complete redesign of the music festival landing page followed this. Including dynamic sections of text and photos, more page copy with targeted keywords, and custom markup schema for search results.
Early and Consistent Updates
Ensured the early publication of lineup and ticket information, regularly updating content to reinforce Google indexing authority. Utilizing artist content to create engaging individual pages that encourage user discovery on the website.
Results
Impressive Growth in Organic Visibility
A 49% increase in impressions for the primary JazzFest homepage was seen in 2025. Leading to an expansion of the music festival's audience from locally relevant search queries.
New, event-year-specific queries such as "victoria jazz fest 2025" immediately ranked at position 1, vastly expanding branded and geographic visibility.
Increased Traffic and Engagement
33% increase in clicks on the main festival homepage.
Overall clicks across essential pages remained steady or improved modestly despite broader competition.
Revenue Impact
The strategic SEO campaign directly contributed to a +10% increase in ticket sales compared to the previous year. Enhanced online visibility resulted in greater awareness among first-time visitors and casual attendees, effectively driving ticket sales.
Key Metrics
Metric | 2024 | 2025 | Improvement |
Impressions (Main Page) | 58,613 | 87,355 | +49% |
Clicks (Main Page) | 8,454 | 11,256 | +33% |
Overall Ticket Sales | Baseline | +$20K | Significant Increase |
Strategic Takeaways
Broader Reach, Greater Impact: Expanding impressions through targeted, relevant queries significantly boosted overall festival awareness.
Quality Over Quantity: Even with lower click-through rates resulting from broader audience targeting, the absolute increase in impressions had a positive impact on ticket sales.
Early Content Updates: Timely and consistent content updates helped establish authoritative rankings and capture early searches.
Future Opportunities
Building upon the successful strategy used for TD Victoria JazzFest, the same approach is now being applied to the organization's secondary summer music festival: the Harbour Blues ‘n Roots Festival. Anticipating positive results and increasing momentum in broadening the organization's online presence in Victoria, British Columbia.
Conclusion
EdgeCraft Digital's tailored SEO strategy effectively expanded the TD Victoria International JazzFest's audience, significantly increased online visibility, and directly contributed to an impressive increase in ticket revenue. This case illustrates the clear value of strategic SEO as a powerful tool for driving meaningful and measurable business results.
Interested in achieving similar results for your event or business?
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