Virtual and in-person events generate leads, boost brand awareness, and increase engagement.
Event organizers do not typically rely on organic search traffic for registrations, instead promoting on emails, social media, display ads, and referrals. This is understandable because search engine optimization takes time and may fail to generate results before the start date.
Yet SEO, done right, can help.
This is an essential first step that is often overlooked. Use a consistent URL for all events, present and future (see 4. below). It will eventually rank in Google for those keywords, generating visits and registrants.
Use a keyword tool to discover ranking opportunities. For example, “marketing conference” could be difficult, but “sales conference” has much lower competition and decent search volume. Plus, it’s arguably better targeted for businesses looking for revenue.
Other keywords to include in the title and copy include:
If you often host frequent mini-events such as meetups and webinars, create a single landing page to list them all. This approach has two benefits:
A page with event schema will show upcoming events and dates in organic search snippets. Click image to enlarge.
Event speakers are often well-known and attract search queries. You can capture traffic by ranking for their names on a unique page.
The title of the page should include the speaker’s name and your brand, something like:
[Speaker’s Name] of [Business] – Conference Name [or Keyword] – Your Brand Name
Separate pages for each event speaker can rank in organic results for that person’s name, such as “Rand Fishkin,” the founder of Moz. Click image to enlarge.
Plus, associating your own brand with prominent experts helps Google understand the connections. Event marketing has a huge influencer component, allowing brands to build trust through the speakers. Rank your page for entity-driven searches and create stronger associations through branded snippets.
Separate pages encourage links from those speakers. Most prefer linking to their own pages versus a home or landing page. Use internal links to direct external link equity to your main event page.
There’s no point in creating a new landing page every year and losing all the previous external link equity. Re-use the URL by updating the content for the new event.
If you host in-person events in different cities, create a separate URL for each to rank for location-driven searches.
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