Great news for event organizers: Google just made it easier for people to find your events.
On May 10th, Google announced a new Google event search update that makes events more discoverable in search results to mobile web or Google app users on-the-go.
Now, rather than seeing a typical search results page, you’ll see this:
Each event search produces a group of related listings that is automatically optimized to your location. And each listing has a direct link to the landing page.
Even better news? Google just made it easier for mobile users to find your local events, even when they don’t know what they’re looking for.
Looking for a yoga event in New York today? A dance class is Philly next week? Not totally sure what you’re looking for but you’re up for anything in the Los Angeles area? Google is rewarding spontaneity: searchers can search “events near me” or “events in Los Angeles this weekend” (variations of these have a high number of searches a month). This gives your brand a higher chance to get your events in front of people who have never previously interacted with your events.
If you regularly host events on your own site, you’ll want to make sure your landing pages are recognized by Google as “events.” On top of that, you can go even more specific with the type of event, location, start date, price, etc.
So how do you implement it? Using schema or structured data markup, which is organizational code that helps Google identify the page type (could be events, recipes, movie showtimes, etc). Google provides a guide for developers on how to markup event pages properly (and lots of rules).
Remember: the more information you provide, the happier Google will be, and the more likely you are to be the first and most clicked event in the events box.
Depending on where your events are hosted, you may not need to lift a developer’s finger. No need for any special SEO or content marketing skills -- Splash already has the markup and discoverability included with all events that meet the necessary criteria (events have to be public, have a date and venue, and opt-in to be indexed). Learn more here.
Splash continues to be powerful technology that makes the creation and promotion of events incredibly simple and beautiful for our community. Now that any event created through Splash will also show up on Google's local events calendar, we are even more excited about being able to access a wider audience who may be curious about a conscious lifestyle.
Mel Nahas, Conscious City Guide
Google improves the mobile experience for event searchers. Which means, more eyeballs from event searchers on-the-go. And more eyeballs, means more opportunities for potential RSVPs. And more opps, means higher conversion rates.
And let’s be honest: that’s music to all event marketers’ ears.
Want to ensure your events show up in Google search? Learn how Splash makes it easy, without flexing any developer skills or resources.
