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13 event websites that can get you listed in Google and extend your reach to the conference-going community
In person live events are a preferred medium. When a passionate user is committed to a topic, they want to go to the source; the author, guru expert that really knows the content. They want an interactive presentation. They want to be able to ask questions, see facial expressions, body language. They want to connect with the expert about what they know.
Of course, this can vary, in terms of the actual experience to include everything from a one-to-one conversation, that we might call consulting or mentoring, to something that is one to many that's still interactive; a small workshop or a conference, like the live events we present at Mequoda Group.
There's a remarkable willingness to go to concerts, even though for little or nothing the music can be downloaded. They want the live experience. The music industry in China, for instance, has abandoned charging for music in any format, other than live events, because they are experiences people really remember.
While press releases are still recommended for your events, we're finding that dedicated event websites are showing up more prominently in Google. When we spend the time to add the Mequoda Summit to event listing websites, we generally see more than half of the listings pointing to event sites and the others to PR sites like prlog. When we search for the event using targeted keywords (for example, "internet marketing conference for publishers"), the results are the same.
This isn't to say that press releases are not effective for events—they are. Some event websites want to be the resource for all events and will list your event on their own, once they've found your press release online. For example, due to our Summit press release, our event was listed on myeventguru, which is actually a paid events site. Our event showed up in dozens of locations on the site and even landed on their front page. And thanks to our press release, we didn't pay a dime.
Here's a list of other popular (and free) event listing websites, of what we've found to be the most effective (along with stats from compete and quantcast).
zvents
On some event sites, you can submit your event information and it will be listed on the site as well as anywhere else that syndicates content from the site. The best example of this type of website is Zvents. When you list your site on Zvents, popular sites that use Zvents as their event listing engine pick it up. When we submitted the Mequoda Summit to Zvents, sites like boston among tons of local newspaper sites picked it up.
About zvents (updated 12/2012):
- 1.5 million visitors per month
- More than twice as many female users than male users (70%)
- Age demographics vary, but people ages 35-44 use this site more than other age demographics (20%)
- Most users make between $0-50K per year (51%)
- More users have attended college or graduate school than those who have not (62%)
allconferences
This site got us listed #1 in Google when you search for the term "internet marketing conference for publishers." The site is very bare-bones in terms of design, but the site is strongly optimized for search. Since we last researched these event sites, AllConferences has dropped in traffic, possibly indicating the use of other event listing sites like Facebook, but may also indicate an adverse effect from Google's Panda Update.
About allconferences (updated 12/2012):
- 9.5K visitors per month
- Slightly more female audience (51%)
- Large audience in the 25-44 age range (51%)
- Mostly in households with no children (59%)
- Largest group of users make $50-100K per year (30%)
- Well-educated users, having attended college or graduate school (68%)
yelp
This venue and restaurant review community has an event section that lists local events that get listed in the community calendar. Members can also say whether or not they're attending the event and review the event when it's ended. As a (free) member of Yelp, you can list events in the closest big city to the event. This option may work better for B2C publishers, as their audience is more consumer than business.
About yelp (updated 12/2012):
- 19.8 million visitors per month
- Slightly more female audience (55%)
- Largest age group is 25-44 (51%)
- Wealthy users with largest group making over $100K per year (64%)
- Most users have college or grad school education levels (65%)
yahoo
Yahoo! members can list events on this popular local event website. Like Yelp, this may work better for a B2C audience. going is another site like this with similar traffic.
About yahoo (updated 12/2012):
- 422K visitors per month
- Slightly more female audience (56%)
- Most users are aged 18-54 (75%)
- The majority of users make between $50-150K (56%)
- Fewer users have attended college than other sites (46%)
eventful
Very popular for music, community and educational events. This site has an email newsletter that reminds users of upcoming events in their area. This is definitely a consumer-based website and would be recommended for charity, free promotional events or even a booth promotion at large events.
About eventful (updated 12/2012):
- 3.4 million visitors per month
- Slightly more male audience (57%)
- Biggest age group is <18 (28%)
- The majority of users make $0-50K per year (62%)
- 43% have not attended college, but 47% have
Eventbrite
About eventful (update 12/2012):
- 2.5 million visitors per month
- Slightly more female audience (57%)
- Most users are aged 18-54 (68%)
- Somewhat wealthy userbase with many users making $100K+ (63%)
- The majority of users are college educated (69%)
Eventbrite is more of a ticketing website than a listing website, but one does follow the other. They allow you to register users and collect money for your tickets using their system. If the event is free, they don't charge you a dime. Additionally, they have an app that allows you to check people in at the door. Once your event is in the system you're automatically listed in their directory.
Facebook Events
Facebook might not be a dedicated event website, but it allows you to tap into your own network, rather than asking people to find it on their own. When you post an event, it goes to everyone who "likes" your page and allows you to track RSVPs and send messages to anyone who is attending. For those with a large Facebook following, this is a great addition to all of the other event websites out there.
LinkedIn Events
If you are in the B2B space don't forget to include your events in the LinkedIn events directory. These events show up in the sidebar of your network contacts and can also be found when someone is looking for related events. LinkedIn also has a paid feature that allows you to promote your event if you need the extra boost.
confabb
This conference community encourages social networking and even implements Google, Yahoo and Mapquest maps into the event description. It will let you list sessions (with full descriptions, times, etc.) and speakers, and will even let attendees (and prospectives) discuss the event in a dedicated forum and write reviews. In addition, Confabb will track where your conference has been listed in Technorati, Google, Yahoo, Feedster, Flickr, YouTube, icio, and slideshare. And as event attendees you can use the site to rate other conferences and otherwise contribute to the conference community. This site is lower on the totem pole in terms of website traffic, but very high in terms of features. As of September 2012, Compete reports website traffic dropping significantly, to well below 1,000 per month.
About confabb (updated 12/2012):
- Equal male/female audience (50%)
- The main audience demographic is 25-54 (67%)
- Largest group of users make $60-100K per year (30%) but 24% make $0-50K and 27% make $50-100K
- Large percentage of users have no children (72%)
- Highly educated with user having attended college or graduate school (69%)
One other bit of advice is to look for local enthusiasts in your niche. In Boston, we have BostonTweetup, hosted by Joselin Mane, who curates an ongoing listing of Tweetups in the Boston and New England area. He keeps an ongoing calendar listing of upcoming events and sends event shout-outs and updates to his list of over 8K followers. Try to find people like this in your area.
Other sites you might find helpful:
DevTownStation – A tech conference and webinar listing site. Low traffic but lots of opportunity.
Gary's Guide – A tech events calendar that gets about 1.8K visitors per month and has a homepage for 15 major cities.
techvenue – A worldwide promoter of technology events.
eventsetter – Another location to publicize your events.
You may also find opportunities to list events in your local newspaper websites. Many business and community newspapers like Crain's Detroit Business or Ohio's Journal News accept event listings online.
Try using the search term "submit your event" to find even more links.
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Amanda MacArthur contributed to this article.
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Originally updated on 6/27/2011
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