When people are searching locally, and getting information specific to an area, quite often they are actually searching for local events. This could be anything from classes and seminars to the latest gig for their friends band.
A Valuable Event
There is a niche type of website that caters to supplying this event information to online sources, and one component of your local search optimization should include the use of these resources. One reason for this is the “Citation” that they can provide your business, because when you list your business as a venue you enter your business name and address and also have an opportunity to get an inbound link to your site. You also have the opportunity of creating your own profile on that website and get another link on that profile. This is in addition to the even listing itself, so all in all you can get 3 quality inbound links all in one go, on top of the exposure to their users!
The Top Event Sites
Doux vintage Eventful profile
Doux Vintage Grand Opening Event
Upcoming Event: Doux Vintage Grand Opening
Zvents- Doux Grand Opening Celebration
Bonus Event Value!
It turns out that Zvents.com exports to several different platforms! So when you add your business as a venue, it actually gets syndicated to several different authority sites!It exports to Things To Do by MSN and also to the Press Enterprise Events page, and may have other partners, but these two showed up in a Google search very quickly as they are authority domains! Update: It looks like another exported page is on a High Desert News website, once again through Zvents.
What about your events?
Be sure to take advantage of Event Marketing because it has many valuable rewards to give you. Don’t think you have an event worthy of listing? Here’s some quick thoughts for you where you could list yourself. Host a seminar on your industy, create a “coffee group” to discuss your expertise, list your grand opening ( like I did for Doux Vintage…be sure to offer refreshments like cupcakes and wine and you’ve got a win!). You could also host a band, which could also yeild extra links if the band has a blog, since they’ll want to let their groupies and followers know where they’re playing(thanks Alex Guillen for that tip)! Any way you slice it, there’s tons of value in event marketing so get to it!
Update: Thanks to everyone that attended the Grand Opening of Doux Vintage! Your support was very much appreciated!
2 responses so far ↓
Gry Dla Dzieci // May 27, 2009 at 1:31 pm |
Hmm, this is something I haven’t thought about before. But from another angle: do you think that creating a website specifically for the event and then positioning it would be a good move ? Could one make any profit out of it ?
jeremypenguin // May 27, 2009 at 2:13 pm |
Well, yes you could create a website specific for the event, but you do have to think of the end goal of that process, i.e. does it fit into a larger business plan. Let’s say that you have a gummy bear eating competition, and the more people who attend, you get a large amount of money from being able to attract vendors who give you a percentage. If that were the case, then you could definately make a business case that spending your time buying a domain, hosting a site, building a site, building an online presence, building links for the site, creating text/photo/video content, creating buzz would be worth the additional foot traffic you could get to the event. Even so, I would say that these websites would STILL be your friends and you should still go get a profile, just list the specific event website instead of your related site. Does that make sense Gry?