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You have point A. It's an event landing page, video, blog, or social media post. You have destination B. It's your target audience who searches for activities online. How do you connect these points? The answer is search engine optimization for your event page.
Whether you have a dedicated event website or just want to make content more discoverable through organic search, SEO for event planners is an essential tool. It increases your organic traffic, improves the website's ranking, and lets you outperform other websites.
You may have heard about SEO in the context of blogs, online stores, or SaaS websites. However, event marketing, while quite specific, also relies on the success of your SEO strategy. Why? It's not enough to tell others about your upcoming events. You need to make your pages appear prominently, increasing the chance of engagement and ticket sales.
In this SEO guide for event marketing, we'll share some tips and tricks to ensure your website drives as many visitors as possible, looks captivating in search engine results, and matches the search intent of your target audience. We'll discuss such strategies as:
Planning an event and want to improve attendee engagement? You're in the right place.
SEO is the process of optimizing your website and its content to raise its search engine ranking on Google search engine results pages (SERPs). Why do you need it? The thing is that people most likely click those links that are closest to the top of the search results.
Remember the last time you opened something lower than the tenth position? We bet it does not happen so often, especially when you can find the needed information right there, in the top 10.
Google and other search engines leverage algorithms to decide what websites match what search intent and whether they're worthy of getting the desired place on the search engine results page. These algorithms rely on artificial intelligence and analyze hundreds of factors:
The purpose of measuring all the variables is to provide users with the most relevant search results. To do this, you need to learn how to make your website load faster, be responsive across all devices, and retain people longer on the page. So, SEO is not only about winning those lucrative spots.
For your event website to rank highly, you essentially only need to guarantee these two things:
Naturally, accomplishing these goals can be more difficult than one might think. But if we realize that search engine optimization (SEO) fundamentally consists of guaranteeing two things—user experience and indexability—it'll be more straightforward to develop your event marketing SEO strategy.
Not all potential attendees follow your social media accounts or subscribe to your email newsletter. Some people will just type their requests in search engines and explore the available options. This creates an opportunity for your company to reach beyond your immediate network.
For instance, consider an indie music festival in Austin. If the event’s website is well-optimized for relevant keywords, a music enthusiast planning their visit might stumble upon the festival while searching for "live music events in Austin." Without SEO, this happy accident wouldn't occur.
A well-optimized event page attracts more website visitors. However, enhancing it for search engines also improves its usability, which leads to a better response from people, not only robots.
Imagine an event page with a sleek design, mobile-friendly button placement, and comprehensible navigation to additional resources. Chances are you'll be more likely to convert there rather than on a page with a wall of text, cluttered design, and messy links.
SEO-friendly event pages should guide people toward registration or ticket purchase. This entails incorporating persuasive, clear calls to action and optimized content that aligns with what potential attendees are seeking. For example, if your event promises networking opportunities for startups, a successful SEO strategy should target keywords related to entrepreneurship and startup events.
The click-through rate for pages that rank first is 39.8%, meaning that for every 100 visitors, there are 40 interested attendees. According to First Page Sage, it's much higher than paid ads (2.1% for the first result) and all the subsequent positions. Do we really need to say more?
Image credit: First Page Sage
Now, imagine you have to pay for every click on the paid ad while organic clicks are free. This makes SEO for event marketing a much more cost-effective solution than PPC.
Yes, SEO prosperity takes time, effort, and money. But once you've established strong SEO foundations, your event website can attract traffic on its own without the need for continuous investment. This is particularly crucial for event organizers with tight budgets who need sustained visibility.
Let's first dispel some widespread SEO myths that event organizers need to be aware of.
The truth is that while focusing on relevant keywords is crucial for any SEO effort, including too many search terms in one piece of writing might backfire. In fact, Google views this tactic—known as keyword stuffing—as unethical and may penalize you for it.
It's crucial to optimize content for search intent without sacrificing its quality or readability. To avoid hurting your SEO efforts, organically and selectively leverage your terms.
SEO is a long-term endeavor that requires constant attention, effort, and optimization. Google frequently rolls out new updates, removing existing websites from indexation and changing the rules of the game. So, it's critical to continuously track your positions, organic traffic, metrics, etc. This will allow you to make informed decisions and modify your SEO strategies as necessary.
In reality, while necessary, link building—the process of obtaining backlinks to a website—isn't the decisive factor. Google takes into account the number and quality of websites mentioning you, so obtaining more connections from relevant, high-quality sites is necessary. However, your SEO campaign's effectiveness depends on producing excellent content, technical SEO, and keyword optimization.
Many website owners leverage black-hat (or grey-hat) SEO tactics. They purchase links, stuff keywords, or establish private blog networks (PBNs). Still, developing high-quality, valuable, and pertinent content that satisfies the demands and search intent of the target audience is the key to sustainable and effective SEO.
You can recall the recent Google update, which removed almost half of the existing content. It's not the end as the company tries to combat AI-generated, spammy, and unoriginal content in search results.
So, while some tricky measures can boost your search rankings for some time, you'll finally end up being penalized and removed from indexation. SEO is all about producing excellent content and making the website as user-friendly as possible rather than manipulating the system.
Now that you have a clearer understanding of what doesn't work in SEO, we can proceed to the main part of this SEO guide for event marketing. We'll go over the process of organizing and carrying out SEO for your event website step-by-step, starting from the preparatory stage.
The first thing you need to do is decide for whom you are creating this event page:
After answering the questions mentioned above, craft a buyer persona. It's an overview of potential attendees most interested in your event. It should be the ultimate distillation of audience insights, such as:
Where can you gather this data from? Consider these methods:
It's the 'why' behind event searches. For example, a person may look for information about a particular performance (when the script was written or where it was initially staged). It'll be an informational intent. If they type in "[the name of the play] + buy tickets", the intent will immediately become transactional. Other types of intent are navigational and commercial.
Conduct keyword research to identify what terms your target audience uses and incorporate them into your content. Start with basic keywords related to your event's theme, location, and type. For example, if you're hosting a tech conference in Toronto, your base keywords might be "tech conference," "Toronto," and "2024."
Employ keyword research tools like Ahrefs or Google Keyword Planner to expand your base list. These platforms provide a list of relevant keywords, their search volume, and competition levels. Below, you can see a screenshot from the free keyword research tool, Ubersuggest, to get an idea of what these platforms look like.
Screenshot taken on Neil Patel's official website
Look at the keywords your competitors use to drive more traffic to their event pages. Maybe you can integrate them, too.
When picking keywords, you may go with simpler, shorter options. They usually have the most fierce competition but are the most popular among online searchers (they boast a high search volume). In this case, it'll be harder to rank well and compete with established businesses. That's where long-tail keywords may help.
These are more specific phrases with less search volume but higher relevance and conversion potential. For a culinary festival, instead of just "food events," target "artisan food events in Vancouver October 2024."
After the keyword research, integrate these terms into your content, for example:
The cornerstone of SEO for events is working on websites. One of the worst event page SEO errors you can make is skipping this step. Fortunately, optimizing your event page isn't that demanding. In this section, we'll zero in on a set of essential on-page SEO tips for event planners.
Structured data, specifically event schema markup, is a specialized language that tells the search engine what the page is about. It contains certain details about the upcoming event, such as:
Image credit: Google
This tool serves as the foundation for creating an event pack, rich search results with a brief event overview on Google Maps. To add this to your event landing pages, first, choose the proper schema on the Schema.org website.
After that, you need to apply this code. You can do it directly to your HTML or through JSON-LD scripts. It'll be easier if you utilize plugins compatible with your content management system (WordPress, Umbraco, Hubspot, etc.). They simplify this process, automatically integrating the schema as you fill out event details.
The last step is to validate the markup. Use tools like Google's Rich Results Test to check that the markup is correct and that Google can read it.
If you've created event landing pages, you need to make sure people can find them, and they meet their intent. Keywords solve this problem. However, they shouldn't just appear throughout the page. Include them in your metadata, like titles and descriptions. That's what users see on the SERPs before clicking a link to understand whether the web page is relevant to them.
The rule of thumb is to place them at the beginning of the title and description. Why? The reason is that you have a very restricted number of symbols:
That's why they should be concise, deliver the needed message, and encourage people to click.
Google also favors pages that have a logical structure. It includes an easy-to-read format, headers (H1, H2, H3), and sections like event details, speaker bios, and FAQs. Apart from that, when using visuals, improve them SEO-wise:
If your event is tied to a specific location, don't forget about local SEO optimization, namely:
Event marketing campaigns include several off-page SEO techniques to make your event known. These are social media marketing, collaborating with influencers, and building backlinks.
Social media interactions are important to Google. They demonstrate that your content is valuable, which can indirectly influence your rankings. Social networks also provide various tools to liven up your business.
For example, you can employ pertinent hashtags, engage in trending topics related to your event, and interact with your followers in comments and DMs. Facebook, in particular, has an event listing feature called Facebook Events, where you can view, book, or add events.
If you need to expand your reach, consider addressing influencers. If they have a blog or a website, mentioning your event online can be a source of an additional backlink to your page.
Speaking of backlinks, one of the most effective ways to get featured on a third-party website is by creating content that others want to link to, for example:
Plus, leverage social proof to your advantage. Let others' reviews speak for themselves. They add credibility to your event, boost ticket sales, and keep your page content fresh.
SEO is for the long term. That's why you need to monitor the SEO effectiveness of your listing and website. You can find various insights in tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Semrush, such as:
Event management software can also provide such information to inform your event marketing efforts. Based on the analytics, make corresponding adjustments. For example, enhance calls-to-action or page design to amplify conversions or add target keywords in meta descriptions to tweak the content relevance.
How do you attract more attendees to your event? Is it enough to launch paid ads and promote yourself on social media? While PPC and other marketing formats may bring you rapid results, while SEO may seem too complicated and logy, SEO for event planners is critical for playing in the long run.
We've uncovered key SEO secrets for optimizing event websites. Now, it's your turn to search for long-tail keywords, incorporate event schema, and perform meta-description optimization. Take action, invite people, and set the stage for greater success in event promotion.
Promote your events using this checklist for search engine optimization. Go through these steps and make sure everything is covered.
Before the event:
During the event:
After the event
To wrap up, event SEO success comes down to three core pillars: technical optimization, content quality, and ongoing maintenance. By implementing proper schema markup, conducting thorough keyword research, and optimizing event pages for both search engines and users, event organizers can significantly boost their organic visibility without relying solely on paid advertising. The article emphasizes that SEO isn't a one-time task or just about keyword stuffing - it requires consistent monitoring and adjustment of strategy based on performance metrics.
The key takeaways are:
While SEO may take longer to show results compared to paid advertising, it proves to be more cost-effective in the long run and helps build sustainable organic traffic to event pages.
