by If you want your event to be found on search engines like Google, you’ll have to learn a bit about SEO for events.
We’re aware that you have a million things to think about in connection to your event, and SEO might not be at the top of your list.
But SEO for events is important, because it can help you sell more tickets—and that should definitely be at the top of your list.
In this guide, we’ll cover…
- What SEO for events is all about
- Why you should optimise your event website
- How to think about keyword research
- Tools that can help you find the best keywords
- The basics of on-page SEO
- Detailed guides on SEO for different website builders
- A cool life hack to save you time and money
What’s SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimisation and is the practice of optimising your event website so that it’s easily found by search engines. Most SEO work involves publishing content, such as web copy and blog posts, that includes popular search terms people use to find events.
That said, SEO for events is not such a straightforward task. There are over 200 factors that influence how well your site ranks on search engines like Google. Since Google accounts for almost 90% of all online searches, most SEO work is based on Google’s best practices.
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Why you should focus on SEO for events
If your event website comes up in Google’s search results when someone searches for “events near me,” you’re much more likely to receive more traffic. And more traffic generally equals more ticket sales. Google’s search results also include events. If you master the art of SEO, your event will be included in those listings.
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How to think about keyword research for your event website
The key to keyword research is to put yourself in the shoes of your desired event attendees. Ask yourself what you would type into Google if you were looking for a specific event.
If you want to attend a music festival in the UK, you’d probably type in just that: “music festivals UK.” Likewise, if you wanted to sign up for a yoga class, you’d probably type in “yoga classes near me.”
Some of the keywords will be a no-brainer. But it’s also important not to make assumptions. Many people aren’t sure what they’re looking for…they just want to attend a fun event. So they might type in something like “fun things to do in London in December.”
SEO tools to help you research keywords for event websites
Once you have a general idea of what your ideal event attendees would search for, it’s time to get specific. Fortunately, there are quite a few tools available to help you find the right keywords.
Some of the free tools you can use include:
If you really want to ensure that you target the hottest keywords and fully optimise your event website for search engines, you may want to invest in a premium keyword research tool.
Some of the most popular premium tools include:
Tip: You can consult this long list of both free and premium keyword research tools.
On-page SEO basics for your event website
SEO is more than simply including some keywords on your event website. Where they’re positioned also has an impact on how well your event will rank in Google searches.
Titles
The titles of your pages and blog posts should always include the main keyword you’re targeting. So if you want to target “jazz festivals,” the title of your blog post could be “The 10 Best Jazz Festivals to Attend in 2020.”
Headings
The headings and subheadings on your event website’s pages and posts should also contain the keywords you want to target.
Meta descriptions
A meta description is a small snippet you see in Google’s search results under the title of the website or blog post. Include the keywords there as well.
Alt text
Alt text is what will appear if the images you’ve used on a page or in a post fail to load. Alt text should explain what the image was intended to convey. It should also include your keywords every once in a while.
Readability
Google uses the Flesch Reading Ease Score to determine the readability of your website content. Content that is easy to read and understand will rank higher in search results.
Tip: If you’re using WordPress, install the free Yoast plugin to help you with SEO.
SEO guides to help you optimise your event website
SEO is a very extensive topic, and there are more details than we can cover in this overview. But there are plenty of resources available online, regardless of which website builder you’ve used for your event website.
Here are SEO guides for the three most common website builders:
How a ticketing site can help you with SEO
There are a million things to do as an event planner, and the budget is always looming somewhere in the background. If you don’t have the time or resources to optimise your event website for search engines, there’s another way.
Call it a life hack.
Ticketing sites like Billetto invest heavily in SEO, so you don’t have to. In fact, you’re looking at our efforts right now. When you list your event on Billetto, we’ll do the heavy lifting for you. We’ve already optimised our site for all the keywords related to the most popular event searches. Events posted on Billetto will automatically get the benefit of our SEO efforts.
Let’s optimise your event
Now that you have a better understanding of SEO for events, it’s time to put everything you’ve learned into practice.
The quickest way is to list your event on Billetto. If you’d rather set up and optimise your own site, you should now have all the tools you need.