Search Engine Optimization and Your Event Marketing
More lessons keep streaming in from the last week’s press conference to announce a client’s big event. For today I’ll take a look at how search engines can help your event marketing. One of my biggest performance references has been web stats. For this post I’m using the simple and unrefined metric of visitors to an event web site. There are more advanced metrics that you want to eventually focus on, but for simplicity sake I decided to go with visitors.
Search Terms Bring Relevant Traffic
After last week’s press conference search engine traffic accounted for the largest portion of web site visitors. What’s more important is that the visitors prequalified themselves as being at least interested in the event because of the search terms they used. How many people are going to search for an event that they have no curiosity or interest in attending?
How Most People Search for Events
Based on years of web stat analysis one can deduce that people have fairly specific search phrases that they use to look up a given event of interest. The search phrases are a combination of the type of event “Festival, Workshop, Seminar” or the actual name of the event “Lilac Festival, Flour City Brew Fest, Park Ave Fest” and the location “Rochester, Buffalo, Toronto.”
When trying to optimize your event web site for search engines, focus keywords on the TYPE of EVENT, the NAME OF EVENT, and EVENT LOCATION.
Actual Top Search Phrases:
- "rochester air show"
- "rochester international airshow"
- "rochester airshow"
Where do the Keywords Go?
You’re going to optimize for those search phrases in the title tag of each page on your web site. The title tag is comprised of the words you see in the bar at the very top of your browser. Your keywords are some of the most important words on your web site pertaining to search engine optimization. Keywords in the actual body text and navigation are also important. I’ve included a link to the resource section below for additional insight.
Why Not Go for More Popular Search Terms
Some people have asked if it’s worth trying to go after the more general keywords like “Summer Events Rochester” or “Festivals in New York State." You could if you so choose and there is some benefit, but there are also counterpoints. One of the biggest caveats is time and competition. You’re going to have a harder time getting listed with more competition for the same keywords. Ask yourself “Do I want to try and lure people who might be interested
in my event or those who have basically qualified themselves as
interested?”
When users go looking for your event in search engines they’ve already prequalified themselves. Search engine marketing and optimization is the easiest way to capture your targeted prospects. Use the information above to get some great free advertising.
Additional Resources:
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