The Complete Guide to Link Building with Local Events
The author's views are entirely their own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.
Whether you’re a small local business or an international company, hosting local events is a great way to build your brand, both offline and online.
Why You Should Be Building Links By Hosting Events:
Here are the primary reasons that this is such a great strategy:
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Lots of Easily Obtainable Links: These are easy links that fit Danny's Sullivan's recent description of hard links. They're hard because you have to develop a good presentation, find a venue, and get people to attend. But, they're links made for real people, and they add value to your business regardless of their SEO value by getting people interested in your event and your brand.
Why are they easy? So long as you have an interesting event that is put on by a legitimate organization, you’re very likely to get accepted by most event listing sites. Many of the event sites require a simple form consisting of an event title, description, when and where the event takes place, and of course, a URL for more information. And as long as your event is valuable to the people that will attend, the outreach portion can be much easier than other link outreach methods.
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Links On Otherwise Difficult Domains: It can be pretty hard to get a link from a major newspaper, TV station, or other prominent local website. Getting an event into their events section is like the secret entrance into getting a link from that domain.
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“Geo-Relevant” Links: Let me ask you two questions:
First, do you think that search engines think a website like the Seattle Times is relevant to the city of Seattle?
If so, do you think that getting a followed link from a website like the Seattle Times would in turn make you appear more relevant for the city of Seattle - or people searching from the city of Seattle for that matter?
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Local Citations: Whether or not you’re hosting the event at your place of business, event listings are an easy way to sneak in your Name / Address / Phone Number to get a local search citation, too. Since many of you will be using these strategy on a local business, this is just some extra value (quantity of citations are a big local SEO ranking factor).
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Diverse Links: Julie Joyce wrote a great article a few months ago discussing why it's important to have a diverse link profile. I personally place a lot of emphasis on Linking Root Domains as a link metric because I think it’s fairly critical to a strong link profile.
Getting listed on these event websites is a quick and easy way to get lots of new linking root domains for your backlink profile, and many of them are domains you can only get links from by hosting events. It's also great for getting links to internal event pages on your site, with easy long-tail anchor text such as the title of your event.
Types of Events This Guide Will Apply To:
- local concerts
- business workshops
- art shows
- knitting clubs
- academic lectures
- international conferences
You’ll definitely want to go above and beyond these tips for a large conference, but when combined with sponsorships and similar conference partnerships, this guide can form a large part of your strategy).
Outline of This Guide:
I’ve tried to make this a pretty comprehensive guide. Here’s what we’re going to cover:
- How to Structure Your Event Pages
- Search Queries You Can Use to Find Event Listing Opportunities
- 9 Examples of Event Websites To Get You Started
- Competitive Analysis - No Need to Reinvent the Wheel
- Outreach - How to Move Beyond Link Submissions
- Advanced Tactics to Consider
- Making the Most of the Event & Wrap Up
How to Structure Your Event Pages
Events Page(s) on Your Website:
Choosing a Ticket Sales Provider for Paid Events:
Search Queries You Can Use to Find Event Listing Opportunities:
Example of Sites Found for Seattle Business Events:
- Seattle Times Newspaper (followed links): http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/SubmitEvent.pl
- King5 TV Station (nofollow links): http://events.king5.com/
- KOMO TV Station (followed links): http://westseattle.komonews.com/h/events/edp?p=createevent
- ILoveSeattle.org (followed links): http://www.iloveseattle.org/networking-guide/group-tools-resources/event-submit.asp
- Seattle Business Mag (followed links): http://www.seattlebusinessmag.com/node/add/event
- EventSetter (nofollow links): http://www.eventsetter.com/post-event/
- Patch.com (multiple followed links): http://mercerisland.patch.com/events/category/classes-lectures
Pro Tip: Keep Your Eye Out For Curated Lists of Event Websites:
10 Examples of Event Websites to Get You Started:
- Eventful.com - Eventful listings often get used as a data source by newspapers and other large websites, so it’s highly recommended that you create a listing there.
- Meetup.com - You don’t want to spam Meetup.com groups, so it’s a good idea to ask the group leader if it’s OK to post your event, but Meetup.com is an excellent link source and an excellent place to get real exposure for your event.
- Patch.com - Patch is a network of neighborhood websites and provide a great followed link if there’s a Patch
- Upcoming.Yahoo.com - Nothing like a free link from a Yahoo! subdomain - get one while you still can...
- Events.org - The name says it all. Here’s their “Add An Event” page.
- Lanyrd.com - Focused on conferences and larger events, there’s plenty of other conference-specific sites like this to look for.
- Seattle.gov - Yup, that’s right, you too can get a .gov link from a hugely valuable city website. Here’s their submit events page. In addition to your local city, check out your local visitor’s bureau and travel guide websites for your area.
- Earth911.com - This website is a good example of thinking outside of your primary keywords. Let’s say you’re a sustainable landscaping company, and you’re hosting a class talking about ways to integrate native plants into the lawn. While you might be looking for gardening event sites at first, there’s a wider audience interested in that topic that you could reach through a site like Earth911, which simply lists “eco-friendly events.”
- ConnecticutBloggers.com - This is another good example of thinking outside normal keywords. They list events for just about anything happening in Connecticut. Easy as pie to find these for your own state. Find similar sites for your neighborhood or even county.
- CultureMob.com - CultureMob applies to a small set of cities, but their “Add Your Event” page is a good example of the types of pages we want to find while doing search queries.
Pro Tip: Look Out For Link Building Footprints
Competitive Analysis (aka Don’t Reinvent the Wheel)
Outreach - How to Move Beyond Link Submissions:
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Identify the type of websites that would care about the event. If you’re hosting a Knitting 101 Workshop, then you’ll want to find local knitting blogs, local knitting groups, local mommy blogs, local DIY blog, local craft blogs, etc.
- Get the contact information and simply email the blogger or website owner with a nice, polite request to see if your event is something their readers would be interested in.
- Outreach Letters for Link Building [Real Examples] by Peter Attia
- Throw Away Your Form Letters (or Five Principles to Better Outreach Link Building) by Michael King
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A Linkbuilder's Gmail Productivity Setup (with Outreach Emails from 4 Industry Linkbuilders) by John F Doherty
Advanced Tactics to Consider:
Once you've got the basics down, here are some other specialized tactics to help you get more value from your process:
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2nd Tier Link Building - Second tier link building is the practice of building backlinks to your backlinks. The purpose is to give the backlink pointing to your site higher page authority, making it a more valuable link.
Initially you should be using the overall events strategy to build links to your own domain. But let’s say you host quite a few events, and you’ve got a process in place with a developed list of websites where you post your events.
Next, time, rather than linking to the primary event page on your website when you relist the event on the list of sites, consider creating the primary event page on another domain (e.g. http://biznik.com/events/seo-search-engine-meetup--24). Make sure this 3rd party site has a followed link to your own domain, like this example:
Then, when you’re filling out all of your event listing submissions, use the 3rd party URL instead of your own site. By doing so, you’re creating a higher Page Authority on that 3rd party URL, which means a more valuable link back to your site.
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Citation Building - If the event is being held at your business, then your business’s name, address, and phone (NAP) should be listed on there. But, even if the event isn’t being held at your business’s address, you can still stick your NAP at the end of the listing like this:
For more information, please contact Hood Web Management at (206) 905-4053, by email at [email protected], or find us at 10007 35th Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98146.
It’s quick and easy and it helps to build trust and legitimacy for your local business, and helps your business in local search rankings. If you’re not a local business trying to rank for local search results, then this tactic won’t be very relevant to you.
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Double-Dipping on Links - Most event websites will have a place for at least one link, which you’ll want to use for the primary event page on your website. But, there are many event listing sites that will allow a second link to a “ticket purchase” page. Use this as an opportunity to grab a second link to another page on your site if applicable, or to another event listing of yours on a third party site.
You can also use it as an opportunity to link to a purchase page on another domain. The example at the beginning of this article about using Eventbrite is a good example, since adding links to that ticket page will in turn build its page authority, which then passes to our own domain.
If the listing site allows links in the description of the event, well then that’s just icing on the cake. Resist the urge to stick 25 links in there and limit yourself to a handful of highly relevant pages on your site. Overdo it in a tacky way and you’ll risk getting flagged as spam or they may not approve your event listing. There's no set number I can recommend, but if it feels like you're overdoing it, you're probably overdoing it. On top of my own links I'll freely link to other presenters, the venue, or any organization sponsoring my event. Giver's gain, so be sure to promote your event partners, too.
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Implement Schema.org for Events on Your Website - In a nutshell, implementing schema.org formatting for events will help your website show up with rich snippets with event dates and titles. Take a look at http://schema.org/Event to get started and this rich snippets implementation for Eventful.com:
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Host An Event With Someone Else Speaking - Not all of us are great public speakers. That doesn’t have to stop you from utilizing this technique. Invite a guest speaker that is relevant to your business to present at an event you host. For example, a nutritionist might team up with a restaurant chef, or an accountant might team up with a lawyer. There’s plenty of ways to spin this and add even more value to your event and potential attendees.
- Speak at Someone Else’s Event - Not only can you invite someone else to your event, you can use this strategy for other people’s events that you speak at. If you want, you can even get them involved in some of this marketing and link building process, and they can build links to their website and yours in the process. Pulling them in as a sponsor is also a great way to engage their entire audience, who will likely be interested in your event.
Making the Most of the Event & Wrap Up:
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Build Your List: Have a clipboard and signup sheet for your mailing list handy. If there are slides for your presentation, offer to email a PDF or Powerpoint file of the presentation to anyone who adds their email to your mailing list signup. Usually that’s enough to get most attendees to add their email - just in case they want to refer back to the slides. If you're not building an email list, ask them to follow you on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn or whatever other presence you maintain, and give them a way to stay connected with you. Here's a photo of the mailing list form that I pass around at my speaking events:
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Event Wrapup Page: Often it’s good to have a wrapup page for the event. Here's an example from a recent link building presentation I gave: Why Links Matter to Small Businesses and How to Get Them. This is a dedicated page on your website that has references from the event (such as a Slideshare embed of presentations or perhaps links to other resources you mentioned) and other pertinent information. It’s also a great place for event attendees to link after the event.
When I send out the copy of my slides to event attendees, I email them the link to this page and encourage them to share it freely and link to it.
Speaking of links after the event...
- Ask for the Link: You know how in sales they tell you to “Ask for the Sale?” Well link building is no different, and just like sales, many times your audience will be happy to do it - if you just ask them. Ask your audience (nicely) that if they liked the event and found it useful, to link or Tweet or Facebook share or LinkedIn share the event wrapup page. Many will do it, and you’ll get some good social traction and maybe some real links, too.
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Market your Slideshare.net presence and individual slide decks the same way you would your event page or blog posts. Obtain Likes, Tweets, +1s, links, etc. based on the power and usefulness of your content. Slide decks that gain enough velocity in views and social activity on Slideshare become featured on their homepage, which is a great way to get links, coverage, and build more relationships.
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Also promote the presentations of other people who spoke at or attended your event. You look your best when you make other people look good.
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Market your events and event artifacts (slides, photos, blog coverage, etc.) on Lanyrd.com. Also list all of your events so that you build up a history and a positive, professional, speaking profile.
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Search Google, Twitter, Quora, and StackExchange for people asking questions about the specific topics that your slide deck or event addresses and engage them with answers. Never bomb them with a link unless they ask for one.
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