Event Websites: A “Secret” Source of Citations for Local Businesses

Citations, along with links, continue to be among the most important ranking factors in local SEO. I’ve read dozens of articles on where you can find citations, and they are almost always full of good suggestions. But there is one easy source of citations I’ve rarely seen mentioned, and I’ve had great success with it–event websites. These are sites that allow you to post an event that you are hosting at your place of business to raise awareness with the public. It’s more than a little questionable how effective these sites are in actually raising awareness for the average local event. However, they are an extremely easy way to also get a citations for your business, and usually a link as well, both of which will have a positive influence on your search rankings.

What Kind of Events?

While some events sites restrict to only certain kinds of events, most will let you publicize any event you are holding that is open to the public, and some don’t even need to be that public. While a wedding reception wouldn’t be a good event to post, a party you are throwing for the residents of an apartment complex you own would be.

Think about the kinds of events your business (and your competitors) have hosted in the past. Have you opened your business to host events for any community groups such as the boy scouts, neighborhood societies, or volunteer groups? Have you hosted an open house to raise awareness of your company or brand? Have you participated in a larger community gathering such as a city wide festival by allowing your parking lot to be used as part of the festivities in the evening? Do any clubs or organizations ever meet at your place of business? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, you should be using event sites to gain citations.

Citations Sites for All

There are quite a few event sites out there. If you are looking for high Page Rank event sites that have the greatest capability to increase search rankings as well as pass the word along about your event, here are the “Big Four” event sites that I like:

Zvents
Eventful
Eventbrite
Yahoo Upcoming (closed April 30, 2013)

Once you’ve gone through a free registration process, all of these sites allow you to post an event in a couple of minutes, gaining both a link and a citation.

Local and Niche Event Sites

In addition to the national event sites, a little bit of searching on Google will allow you to find many local and niche event sites as well. I’m based in Peoria, IL, and our local paper has a great event calendar that’s easy to post to, something you’ll find in many cities. Over the summer, I did some SEO work for a local church, and in addition to 4 or 5 Peoria based calendar/event sites, I was able to find many church specific event sites as well. From a single concert the church hosted, we were able to get a dozen very niche and location specific citations and links.

And Don’t Forget Social

In addition to event sites, don’t forget to post your event on social sites as well. Facebook is the most obvious place to post your event, but on any social network, there’s the ability to publicize your event with various degrees of specificity. If you actually want to get people to your event, Facebook and other social sites are a more effective tool than any of the above event sites. It’s easy to share it with the people that are already following you, and just as importantly, it’s easy for those people to share with their friends who live nearby.

What about you? Where do you post your events to gain citations, and of course, visitors to your event?

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