As an event organizer well-versed in the power of digital marketing, you’re always looking for ways to promote your event online and boost your ticket sales. A powerful, yet often overlooked method for getting your event in front of more audiences is by implementing some simple search engine optimization (SEO) principles across your website. With just a little bit of SEO knowledge, you can boost your website’s visibility online, drive more traffic to your site, and ultimately drive more ticket sales!
Read on to discover how to take advantage of SEO opportunities to maximize your event marketing efforts.
1. Optimize Page Title and Meta Descriptions
When you look something up on a search engine, each result listed has a title and description that explains what the webpage is about. The page title, or SEO title, is the HTML title tag of your webpage. Your meta description is the other HTML element that appears below the page title on the search engine results page (SERP) and gives more detail on what you will find on the page.
Add relevant keywords to your page title
To increase your event website’s organic search visibility, be sure to include your event name and relevant keywords in your title, and keep it around 60 characters. For example, if you’re organizing a pop-up event in Seattle, WA, consider using the terms “Pop-Up” and “Seattle” in your page title. If a potential customer runs a search engine query containing your event name, or a phrase like “pop up events near me” or “Seattle events”, your site will be more likely to show on the SERP.
Improve organic CTRs with your meta description
Utilize your meta descriptions to provide prospective ticket buyers information before they click on your website. This description should (ideally in 160 characters or less) include what the site visitor is about to see on your page, relevant keywords, and a call-to-action (examples: “Find out more!” or “Get your tickets today!”). The better your meta, the better the click through rate (CTR) you can expect to receive. The better the CTR, the higher your position can be on the SERP!
2. Include Relevant Event Details on Your Landing Pages
Once you get a potential customer to click on your search result, you’ll of course want to convert them into a future attendee! To do so, be sure that you provide them with the most important event details they were expecting to find on your site. The text should include relevant keywords they saw in the title tag and meta description, a call-to-action (CTA) to purchase tickets, and relevant imagery to get them excited for your event.
More specifically, you need to wow them with the “above-the-fold” section of your site. Above-the-fold (borrowing from newspaper jargon) refers to the top part of a page that visitors see before having to scroll for more information. This section must entice visitors to take an action; scroll down to learn more or click on the CTA to purchase tickets. There are a few specific details you should always include above-the-fold on your main landing page:
- Event name
- Date and time of event
- Location of the venue
- A strong call-to-action for users to purchase tickets (Buy Now, Get Tickets, etc)
- Engaging header photo or video
3. Build Links to Your Event Site
Another important part of your SEO strategy should be getting other reputable websites to link to your event website. This is known as “backlinking.” This demonstrates to the search engine that the content you’re providing is valuable and trusted by other trusted sites. The simplest way to gather quality backlinks for your event is by asking speakers, performers, affiliates, and/or sponsors of the event to link to your website from their own sites. For example, if a representative of your organization serves as a guest speaker on a podcast or sits for an interview with an online blog, be sure to ask the host or editor to include a link back to your own site when the content is published.
4. Make Images and Videos Accessible
Alt text (short for “alternative text”) is a short written description meant to appear in place of an image if it fails to load on your website, and allow search engines to better crawl and rank your site. If your website is heavy with images or contains video content, use alt text to describe this visual content textually. This not only ensures search engines better understand the non-text content on your site, it can also make your content more accessible for potential ticket buyers that may be visually impaired and rely on screen reading technology. On the same note, if you’re displaying video content, be sure to make use of closed-captioning or transcripts!
5. Track Your Success
When it comes to evaluating your campaigns, don’t forget about your SEO efforts! Utilize analytics software to keep track of how many organic web visitors and conversions came from organic sources. Tools like Google Search Console can help you understand what sort of queries made your event site appear in search results and where the webpage ranked. Remember, SEO is a marathon, not a sprint! It’s a process that should be done alongside your paid and social marketing campaigns. You should always be analyzing your SEO data so you can continue to increase event visibility, grow your website traffic, and drive ticket sales!