How to use Google to showcase Your Events
- December 20, 2021
- Scott Keever SEO
Promote Your Event By Using Google
When you are planning an event, you want as many people as possible to know about your event. Suppose you are hosting a seminar. People will usually turn to Google to do their search by entering terms like “seminars near me.” To get your event information into the search engine, you can use the event schema markup. You can also help people find your event if they just conduct a search for venues. The location’s Knowledge Panel will include a list of events. People will see your event when they look at the venue’s information.
This new event experience feature from Google is currently available in nine geographic regions in the world after the launch in Germany and Spain.
How Does The Event Experience Work?
Google designed this feature to help web users find events easier when they use a search engine or a location tool like Google Maps. The event experience offers the site owner two key benefits:
– It can increase interaction with the user: In Google’s event experience, your event will be displayed with your logo, a description of the event, date and time, and much more.
– It can increase the chances of people finding the event and converting them into attendees: When people find your event, they can click a link to your website. This increases their engagement with your event and your site. For example, Google Search drove an increasing amount of traffic to Eventbrite, which doubled their average traffic growth from a year ago.
What Must You Do To Have Your Event Show Up In Google?
Google gives you three ways to showcase your event in their search engine.
If you are promoting your event on social media, ticket distributors, or other third-party websites, it is likely that these third-party sites might have integrated with the event search experience already. Test it out by searching for a well-known event listed with them and see if the event is displayed. If they are currently participating, you can just keep on posting your events with the third-party site.
If you built your website on a platform like WordPress or another content management system (CMS), and you cannot get into your site’s HTML, you can see if your CMS provides a plugin that will enable you to add structured data to the website. WordPress provides many plugins like that such as Schema App, SNIP – Structured Data, and WP Rich Snippets. WordPress has more plugins than other CMS platforms. If your CMS does not provide a plugin that you can use, you can still get your event under Google’s radar without modifying your website’s HTML. You can accomplish this by using the Data Highlighter.
You can update your site’s HTML so it will use structured data that can incorporate with Google. You can do that yourself if you have the skills. If not, you can hire a web designer or an SEO company to help you do this. Our service will take care of everything to bring attention to your event. We will create a schema that will pass validation.
Event Properties of Structured Data
According to Schema.org, an event has a specific location and occurs at a specific date and time. Examples are a concert, a conference or a festival. By using the offers property, you can also include ticket information. If it is a recurring event, you can create them as separate events.
The following are properties that you can include during your event creation:
About: what the content is about, or the subject matter of the event
Actor: an individual acting in the event. They can be connected to a clip, an episode, or a series.
Aggregate Rating: The general rating overall is obtained from gathering all the reviews or ratings of the event.
Attendee: People who are attending the event
Audience: the people for whom the event was created
Composer: A individual or group who composed a piece of work that was part of the event’s performance
Contributor: An individual or group who contributed secondary support or created something for the event
Director: The individual who is in charge of directing the event
DoorTime: The scheduled time when the audience is admitted
Duration: How long the event lasts
EndDate: The date and time of when the event is scheduled to end
EventSchedule: The date and time of when the event is scheduled to occur
EventStatus: The current status of the event, such as when the event has to be rescheduled or canceled
Funder: An individual or group who contributed financially to the event
inLanguage: The language used in the event
IsAccessibleForFree: An indicator saying that the event or venue is freely accessible
Location: The venue of the event, or the address where the event is held
MaximumAttendeeCapacity: The attendance capacity of the event, or the maximum number of attendees that the event can accommodate
Offers: An offer made in the event, like dispersing tickets
Organizer: The individual or group who organized the event
Performer: someone who performs at the event, like a musician or a musical group, an actor, or a presenter
PreviousStartDate: If the event was rescheduled or canceled, this is used along with the event status
RecordedIn: The CreativeWork which recorded the event
RemainingAttendeeCapacity: The number of spots still available. For example, the number of tickets that remain unsold.
Review: A review of the event
Sponsor: An individual or group that promised support or contributed funding to the event
StartDate: The date and time when the event is scheduled to begin
SuperEvent: A bigger event of which this event is a part
SubEvent: An event that is part of this larger event
Translator: An organization that does translation in the event. It can be for another language or to accommodate the target audience’s needs in technology requirements or regional difference
TypicalAgeRange: What the usual age range is expected to be
Work performed: A work that was performed in the event, like a play in a TheaterEvent.
Other properties include the URL, ALT name, image, description, and more.
Always Stick To Best Practices
If you are already incorporating event structured data, look over your setup to confirm that it is up to Google’s standards. Keep this in mind:
– Always include the required as well as the recommended properties that Google described in the developer’s guidebook
– Always provide value-added information. For example, you can enter helpful details about the event in the description field. Don’t just reiterate the title, date, and location.
– Test your structured data by using the Rich Results Test. Confirm that the results are what they are supposed to be.
Track The Performance Of the Search
You can monitor how web users are engaging with your event posts by using Google’s Search Console.
The Search Console contains the Performance Report which provides you important information about how your event post is doing in the search results. You can use the Search Console API to get this automatically. The status report of Rich Results from the Search Console can tell you what Google sees on your website. If you come across something that Google cannot read, you can identify the cause of the error and fix it.
