Marketing / 07.24.18

6 Expert SEO Tips for Ticket-Selling Success

Teddy Durgin

Search engine optimization (SEO) is incredibly important for ticketing professionals. After all, ticket sales are very rarely an impulse buy. They are a considered purchase, taking time, thought and coordination on the part of the purchaser.

For ticketing, search is typically one of the last touch points in the customer journey. A purchase decision may start with seeing a billboard, hearing a radio ad or seeing a friend announce they just bought tickets for an event on social media. However the journey may start, it almost always ultimately ends with them going to Google to research event dates, schedules, ticket prices and seating.

To help ticketing professionals navigate the changing world of SEO, we talked to Alex Meshot, senior digital media specialist at Paciolan, who calculates that 75 percent of consumer clicks, on average, go to the top five positions on the Google search results page. "With up to four paid search placements on the results page, it is vital that your organic rankings are prevalent," Meshot said.

Meshot went on to detail six strategies ticketing professionals should keep in mind when looking to improve SEO:

1. Understand how Google determines your result page ranking.
   
   A potential customer types a search term into the search bar, and Google scrubs the World Wide Web to index the most useful and relevant information. Among the most important factors that determine search rankings are keyword usage, site structure and speed.
   
   "The first place to focus is keyword research," said Meshot. "Make sure you're targeting and developing webpages focused on the right keyword. Ensure your keyword is present in your URL, Page Title, Meta Description, Body Text, and Image Tags.”
    
2. Analyze site speed — especially on mobile devices.
   
   Up to 70 percent of all site traffic is from mobile devices. "Create a responsive site that automatically resizes to fit mobile phones and tablets," Meshot said. "Use appropriate font sizes, easy-to-navigate site hierarchy and high-quality images with small file sizes." Together, all of these items will help make your site easier to load and navigate when people are searching on mobile devices. Additionally, Google takes note of this ease of functionality and will be more likely to rank your site higher from an SEO perspective for mobile browsers.
    
3. Create a site hierarchy and sequences that are simple and easy to navigate.
   
   Each page should contain text links that can send users to multiple pages on your site. "This is also an effective way to create sub-menu content," said Meshot, "which expands your keyword reach and opens more opportunities for your website rankings."
   
   Meshot noted that TicketsWest does a great job of this on their new website, which has only two menu options: “Events by Date” and “Events by Category.” The latter option opens opportunity for the site to rank for a variety of genres. In addition, there is an info page for each event with a keyword-focused, synchronized Page Title, URL, Meta Description and Image, creating the opportunity to rank highly in Google searches related to that specific event.
    
4. Even though SEO is a long-term game, it is not a 'set it and forget it' strategy.
   
   It is important to continuously update your website with new and relevant content and remove any outdated or duplicate content. A slow page load time can prevent all of your pages from being indexed by Google and decrease your SEO rankings. Make sure your sites are mobile optimized and contain small file sizes. Optimize your code, removing any outdated HTML and reducing the number of site redirects. Google has a great Page Speed Insights tool to measure your site responsiveness.
   
   "Avoid cannibalizing your keyword and site rankings,” Meshot said. “Blogs and News sections can be important sections of your website, but ensure there is intent behind this content and that there are immediate text links to actionable pages on your site.
    
5. Have web analytics in place early on.
   
   Web analytics are incredibly important for a performance-driven website. "By collecting visitor data, you can track visitor engagement on your site and unveil opportunities to redirect site traffic," Meshot said. "In line with the SEO discussion, web analytics can also reveal the keywords people use to arrive at your site." In addition, web analytics can highlight the direction of your site traffic and any underperforming pages that may be moving traffic away from your site.
    
6. Don't discount the importance of images in SEO.
   
   Images are not only aesthetically important to a website, they can also play a major role in your SEO ranking. "Image tags allow your content to rank in Google Image searches and contribute to the overall SEO strategy," Meshot said. "Title your images with phrasing relevant to the content in the image and on the page. In addition, use original, responsive images to improve site load time."

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Tags: Social Media , Mobile , Digital Marketing