SEO is essential for marketing any event, concert, or conference to help people find it when searching online. Event SEO is pretty specific. But it’s not rocket science to help your events rank high on search engines.
Read on to find out how to apply SEO fundamentals to maximize visibility, event registrations and ticket sales.
Booking the most obvious places, towns and cities for your event is tempting. But before you do that, you should do some keyword research.
Use Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer to identify event and location keywords that can drive traffic to your event:
- Enter a seed keyword such as concerts, music, eventsor concerts in the keyword explorer
- Use the filter to enter locations, e.g. Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth, Dundee
In this example, the search volume and traffic potential are much higher in Glasgow than in Edinburgh, even though the populations of the cities are similar.
So you can consider Glasgow above Edinburgh as an event venue if you have an audience or fan base there.
Also, I can see concerts scheduled in Glasgow today, tomorrow, next week and so on for keywords like “Glasgow concerts”. That’s why it’s important to do a little keyword research and why SEO is needed to appear in this event pack.
What is the event package and why is it important?
An event package is a special type of Google SERP function that appears when you query for an event.
The event pack is important because it allows event organizers to appear at the top of Google searches for their events.
It is powered by Google Events schema markup, which allows you to structure web pages with event information that can be displayed in the event package.
When you click on a result, you are taken to Google’s event calendar, which shows more detailed information about the event such as location, directions, and links to tickets.
If you want to be featured in the event package, you need to fill in the correct event details.
It is important from an SEO perspective to collect the following details about your event to maximize the visibility of your search.
| Essential details of the event | Optimal event details |
|---|---|
| Event title | Photography, graphics or video |
| Description of the event | Dress code |
| Start and end date | Age restrictions |
| Start and end time | Refreshments |
| Name of the place or office | Structures |
| Address, city, country, state, postcode or zip code | What is included in the ticket price? |
| Telephone number | Is there Wi-Fi? |
| Website | Entry requirements: age, visa status, vaccination status |
| Name of the organizer | Access and facilities for the disabled |
| Phone number of the organizer | Refund or cancellation policy |
| Organizer’s website | How to get there by public transport, car, etc. |
| Event website URL (booking link) | |
| Cost of the event |
All these details are used for the event schema, which allows Google to show them on the SERPs.
Find out more: What is schema markup? How to use it for SEO
There are various ways to get the event information on Google: add an event plugin to your website, use a third party website, mark the code on your webpage with the event schema or a combination of all three.
1. Use an events plugin to add events to your website and Google
In this example, I’ve created a couple of golf demo days using the Events Calendar plugin for WordPress.
Install the plugin and add a new event using the event details.
Preview the event and publish it.
Designers and developers can customize the design and layout of this very simple event page.
2. Add events to third party websites
In addition to listing events on your website, there are many popular and industry-specific ticketing and event solutions, including Eventbrite, Ticketmaster, Live Nation, and so on.
Most of these solutions have structured event data built into their event creation tools.
In this example, I’ve created an event using eventbrite.com.
Here are the steps to do it:
- Create an event from the event menu
- Enter your event details
- Add your images and description
- Add the price and capacity of your ticket
- Preview the event and publish it
3. Mark the event page manually
If you don’t use WordPress or can’t use a third-party plugin or solution, the third option is to manually mark the event page with the event schema. This is the simplest way to do it:
- Create your event page and publish it
- Go to Google Data Highlighter
- Make sure you are signed in to Google Search Console
- Select your site
- Press “Start Highlighting”
- Enter your event URL
- Select “Events” from the drop-down menu
- Choose “Tag this page and others like it” or “Tag this page only”, then press “OK”
- Highlight the event name and select the name field
- Highlight the time, location, and other information with the correct fields
- Then publish
Here is a short video showing how easy Google Data Highlighter is to use:
After publication, Google Data Highlighter will confirm that the data has been successfully published as an event in an event schema format.
Next, use Google’s Rich Results Test tool to make sure that Google has crawled your page and is showing the correct details about the event in the event pattern format.
In this case, the validator highlighted in yellow a couple of details that can be added using the Data Highlighter tool in the previous step or by optimizing the event listing in the event software.
By promoting your event with the tips below, you can get press coverage and links to your event that will support your event marketing and SEO efforts.
Facebook events
Facebook has an event listing feature that allows you to view, book or add events.
- Go to Facebook Events
- Create new events
- Use the event details to fill in each field and post
Alternatively, many of the ticket and event promotion websites integrate with Facebook Events to showcase your events, gigs, and gigs.
Email list
Send an email to your email subscribers and customer base, notifying them of upcoming events.
Links to events on social profiles
Add your events to your social media channels using a free tool like Linktree.
Connections
On your website, add events to your main navigation or link blog posts to events.
Add concerts and concerts to Spotify
For musicians and artists, you can list your events under your artist profile on Spotify, as long as you work with one of its approved ticketing partners.
PR, trade or local press
Contact people in your industry or the local or industry press to tell them about your events.
For example, to identify people who write about SEO events, you can:
- Enter the following in Ahrefs’ Content Explorer:
"SEO" AND ("conferences" OR "events" OR "seminars"). Use the “In title” path to show only the most relevant pages. - See the author next to the relevant pages; these are the people you can contact.
Here you can see a link to an SEO event in Barbados that has yet to happen:
You should aim to get similar mentions with your outreach activities.
Joint promotion with the venue organizer or event sponsors
The venues hosting your event should be more than happy to help you promote it, but you need to provide them with the details and resources of your event.
Venue or event sponsors can promote your event on their email lists, websites and social channels.
Consider providing them with exclusive promotional resources such as pictures, interviews, videos, or ticket sales incentives.
Use Google Search Console to track events in the Performance section in the Search Appearance section and the clicks you receive.
Eventbrite provides reports on sales, attendees, and traffic.
Alternatively, use Google Analytics to create a conversion report.
Final thoughts
To ensure greater event success, follow these SEO steps: Do a keyword research before booking venues, collect event details, get listed on Google, promote your event, and review the results after an event.
Do you have questions? ping me on Twitter.
