Event Promotion and SEO

Event Promotion & SEO
How to attract record crowds through search.
George Freitag
SEO Strategist for Portent, Inc.
@number1george

bit.ly/bpt-seo
Event Promotion & SEO 101
How to Attract Record Crowds

About me.
(Illustration by @flashmurphy)

About me.
2.5 Years at Portent
6 Years Web Consulting
1000+ Businesses
Various internal and
external trainings

About Portent.
We are a leading integrated internet marketing
agency set in Seattle, serving world-wide clients
We are 55+ strong
Founded in 1996 (pre-Google)
We rally around the definition of “Portent”: the
forecast of something big on the horizon
With 18 years in the industry
you can trust our expertise.
Gree$ngs
from
the
#smithtower

What
is SEO?

SEO
is getting more
relevant traffic to
your website from
search engines.

• Showing up higher in
search results
• Showing up more often
in search results
• Showing up better in
search results
Ways to get
more traffic
from search
engines.

Be Online.
1. Be
Online.

• If you have a website, it
should be there
• If you don’t, it should be
somewhere
• Just be online; anywhere
Event Promotion SEO 101
Be Online.
Have a
webpage for
your Event.

12
Or have a whole szi
te online.

13
Just have a permaz
nent spot.

14
Make a page devoz
ted to your event.

15
If you don’t have your own site,
z
make one somewhere else.

• Make sure that search
engines can get to your
page.
Be Online.
Be
Findable.

17
Be Online.
Search engines caz
n’t use this.

Be Online.
You need to
be able to
get to the
page with
the mouse.
(Like this.)
Homepage
(click!)
Category Page
(click!)
Event Page

19
Copy/paste text toz
test.

20
Use Categories on Ticket and Event
z
Submission Sites

Be Useful.
2. Be
Useful.

At least these:
• Event name
• Event Date
• Event Location
• Description
• Links to outside sources
Be Useful.
Include
Important
Information.

23
Event name
Date Time
Useful informatiozn
like this.

Search engines see
duplicated content as
useless and spammy.
The description on your
page needs to be
different than descriptions
on other sites.
Be Useful.
Be
Unique.

26
Be Useful.
Including other evz
ent sites.

27
Like this.
Have a call to actizo
n.

Brown Paper Tickets
already has these set up
for you!
Be Useful.
Call to
Action.

29
Link to Brown Papz
er Tickets.

30
Image link to Browz
n Paper Tickets.

31
Click
“Linking”
How to link to Broz
wn Paper Tickets.

32
Links
Linking
Code
Image Code
Links to Brown Paz
per Tickets.

Be Relevant.
3. Be Relevant.

What I mean by “relevant”
• Know what topics people
are looking for related to
your event
• Know what terms people
use when looking for
events like yours
• Know what terms people
use to get to your site
Be Relevant.
Be
Relevant.

36
Be Relevant.
Best research toozl
ever.

37
Autosuggest (Donz
’t Hit Enter)

38
Be Relevant.
Google Suggestiozn
s.

39
Ubersuggest (ubez
rsuggest.com)

40
Ubersuggest (ubez
rsuggest.com)

41
tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/
z
seobook/

• Use this term 10,000
times
• Create 10,000 pages
with this term
• Rename your event
Be Relevant.
What NOT
to do.

Twice as many people
search for “cooking
class” than “cooking
course”, so maybe I
should use that.

Think
keyTOPICS
not
keyWORDS

(You’re gonna neez
d this.)

Be Relevant.
Log in to
Google
Account
Google Webmastez
r Tools.

Be Relevant.
Verify
Account
Google Webmastez
r Tools.

If you have
Google
Analytics
installed you
can just use
that.
Google Webmastez
r Tools.

See if you’re in
Submit
XML
Sitemap Search
Queries
trouble
Google Webmastez
r Tools.

Be Relevant.
See terms
people use to
get to your
site.
Google Webmastez
r Tools.

Be Relevant.
See the pages
they’re
getting to.
Google Webmastez
r Tools.

Be Popular.
4. Be
Popular.

• Search engines want to
show results they know
people like
Be Popular.
Be
Popular?

• Links to your page
• Links to your site
• Mentions online
• Shares
Be Popular.
Be
Popular?

61
Get as niche as yoz
u can.

62
Or as regional as yz
ou can.

64
Share icons
Make sharing as ez
asy as you can.

(or like
this)
Make sharing as ez
asy as you can.

66
Be Popular.
Promote it
on your
own site.

67
Write your own blzo
g post.

68
Be Popular.
Write lots
of blog
posts.

Be Popular.
Get others to
talk about
you.
• Talk to local bloggers
• Write about specific
parts of your event
• Highlight presenters and
performers so they’ll
share your posts

Be Pretty. 5. Be
Pretty.

73
Title tag Meta dze
scription

Title tag:
• 50-65 characters
• Direct impact on ranking
Be Pretty.
Pretty Title
Tags.

Meta Description:
• 155ish characters
• NO direct impact on
ranking
• Ad copy to get people to
click on your result
Be Pretty.
Pretty Meta
Descriptions.

76
portent.com/serp-z
preview-tool

78
Really Pretty Searz
ch Results.

• Events Markup
• Lists event info right in
search results
• (Only works in Google)
• 20-30% increase in CTR
Be Pretty.
Really Pretty
Search
Results.
http://searchengineland.com/how-to-get-
a-30-increase-in-ctr-with-structured-markup-
105830

Get ready for some
coding stuff.
Be Pretty.

81
Event Markup in Gz
oogle.

82
h3 itemprop=nameEvent Planning and SEO with Brown Paper
Tickets/h3!
pimg itemprop=image class=image float left src=http://
professionalgeorge.org/images/bpt-pic.png alt=Event Planning
and SEO with Brown Paper Tickets/!
p itemprop=location itemscope itemtype=http://schema.org/
PlacestrongWhere:/strongbr/!
span itemprop=nameBrown Paper Tickets Community Events
Space/spanbr/!
span itemprop=address itemscope itemtype=http://schema.org/
PostalAddress!
span itemprop=streetAddress309 N 36th St/span (2nd
Floor)br/!
span itemprop=addressLocalitySeattle/span!
Event Markup. z

83
Data
Highlighter
Option 1: Tag in Wz
ebmaster Tools.

84
z
Start
Highlighting
Tagging in Google Webmaster Tools.

85
Enter URL
and add
type
Tagging in Googlez
Webmaster Tools.

86
Highlight
data
See tagged
data
Tagging in Googlez
Webmaster Tools.

87
Check all
pages you
want to tag
Tagging in Googlez
Webmaster Tools.

88
Publishes
immediately!
Tagging in Googlez
Webmaster Tools.

89
Option 2: Mark it zu
p yourself.

91
Tag it up just
like before
Data Markup Helpz
er.

92
Hit “Generate
HTML” and copy/
paste code
Data Markup Helpz
er.

Event Tag in GWT Pros
• Easy to use
• No coding
• Immediate
Event Tag in GWT Cons
• Manual
• Only goes to Google
• Easily breaks
Be Pretty.
Event
Tagging in
GWT.

Event Markup Pros
• Scales well
• Supported by all search
engines
Event Markup Cons
• Slower to publish
• Requires coding
resources
Be Pretty.
Event
Markup in
HTML.

95
Musicians Markup:
Google might be
doing this for all
events in the
future.

Twittercard Markup
• Gives you a bigger tweet
• Let’s you highlight image
• Links to your Twitter
handle regardless of
who tweets
• Lets you customize title,
image, description
Be Pretty.
Pretty
Tweets.

97
!-- Twitter Card data --!
meta name=twitter:card content=summary!
meta name=twitter:site content=@number1george!
meta name=twitter:title content=Page Title!
meta name=twitter:description content=Page description less
than 200 characters!
meta name=twitter:creator content=@Portent!
-- Twitter Summary card images must be at least 120x120px --!
meta name=twitter:image content=http://www.example.com/
image.jpg!
Twittercard Markuz
p.

101
You need to be approved in Card
z
Validator.

Twittercard Markup
• 36% increase in clicks
• 41% increase in retweets
• 48% increase in favorites
• 31% increase in visits
• 33% increase in visitor-to-
lead conversion rate
• 55% increase in leads
Be Pretty.
Pretty
Tweets.
http://www.shopify.com/blog/12915741-
everything-you-need-to-know-about-twitter-cards-
for-ecommerce

Open Graph Markup
• Lets you customize title,
image, description
• Gives you control over
display
Be Pretty.
Pretty Social
Shares.

104
Be Pretty.
Facebook
without
Markup.

105
Be Pretty.
Facebook
with Markup.

106
Be Pretty.
180%
increase in
Interactions.
http://www.socialbakers.com/blog/2149-photos-are-still-king-on-facebook

107
Be Pretty.
Open Graph
works in
LinkedIn.

108
Be Pretty.
Open Graph
works in
Google+.

109
Be Pretty.
Open Graph
works in
Pinterest.

110
!-- Open Graph data --!
meta property=og:title content=Title Here /!
meta property=og:type content=article /!
meta property=og:url content=http://www.example.com/ /!
meta property=og:image content=http://example.com/image.jpg /!
meta property=og:description content=Description Here / !
meta property=og:site_name content=Site Name /!
meta property=fb:admins content=Facebook numeric ID /!
Open Graph markz
up.

111
Markup helper – wz
ebcodetools.com

Be Pretty.
Check your work!
• cards-dev.twitter.com/
validator
• developers.facebook.com/
tools/debug
• google.com/webmasters/
tools/richsnippets
• developers.pinterest.com/
rich_pins/validator/
(bit.ly/bpt-seo)

Event
Promotion
SEO
5 Steps for Event
Promotion SEO:
1. Be online.
2. Be useful.
3. Be relevant.
4. Be popular.
5. Be pretty.

Event
Promotion
SEO
5 Steps for Event
Promotion SEO:
1. Have a dedicated page
2. Display useful information
3. Use relevant language
4. Share and be sharable
5. Use markup for better display

Step 6:
Celebrate!

George Freitag
SEO Strategist
portent.com
@number1george
bit.ly/bpt-seo
Thank
You

Event Promotion and SEO

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