Local SEO for Your Event Planning Business: How to Get More Leads from Local Organic Searches

Event planning is a busy operation. If your business is going well, you’re likely far too busy with events to even consider your marketing strategy or how your local SEO looks. However, whether you’re booked with 10 jobs or zero, you need to stop and give your local optimization the time and attention that it deserves. No matter how good you are at everything else, local SEO can make or break companies today—don’t let it be your downfall. 

In this guide, we’ll discuss everything that you need to know about local SEO, including tips and tricks for success, different ways that you can improve your reputation (which counts for more than you realize), and more. For starters, let’s pretend like you know little to nothing about SEO in the first place. 

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of optimizing a website so that it appears in relevant search results. Thus, it would follow that local SEO has the same end goal, but the strategy involved is going to be a bit different. 

Check Your Reputation 

It’s easy to get focused on keywords—and we’ll get there—but there is a lot more to local SEO than just getting the right words and locations in your content. Google and other search engine indexers are much smarter than that these days. The powerful AI bots expect to be able to identify which businesses are reputable for all customers so that they can find the best answers to their searches. 

This means checking reviews, probably as a priority. After all, this is the one area where you have much less control over the content. If you do good business and treat people well, you’ll likely get good reviews, and this won’t be an issue. If, however, there are any negative reviews out there (authenticated or not), you need to respond to and address them accordingly. Otherwise, no matter what you do with your reputation, it’s not going to make much of a difference. 

Get engaged

No, we’re not talking about marriage—that is, unless you want to marry your marketing strategy because you’re so proud of it. We’re talking about that all-important customer engagement. You need to make sure that your website is solid, of course, but your off-page SEO and engagement also need to hit it out of the park. Today’s clients and customers will accept nothing less. One of the biggest things people mention when they feel a company falls short is that they don’t engage on their social media accounts or in their professional forums as much as some brands. Don’t be that company. 

Create a dynamic social media strategy that allows you to share content, communicate with your audience, exchange ideas and information, and make a lasting impression in the minds of your followers while also appealing to the local search indexers. Don’t discount any social media platform until you consider it and perhaps even create a campaign or two of your own. 

Your audience wants it more than you know. Give it a try and your event planning business just might take off. 

Check your listings

As a local business, being able to be discovered physically is also critical to your success. Local SEO may take points away if you’ve got a different business listing on every site. For example, if you’re listing your company as:

ABC Company 

123 Main St. 

New York, NY 10001 

800-555-5555

https://www.abccompany.com

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That’s how it needs to look everywhere. Don’t spell out “New York” as a state in some places. Don’t put your direct line instead of the 800 number (ideally, list both). Don’t change the URL or make it a hyperlink. In the SEO world, this is known as your NAP (name, address, phone), and it needs to be 100% consistent across every single listing that you have online. 

That includes:

• Your website
• Social media profiles
• Business directories
• Forums
• Review sites 
• And so forth

Get local and get noticed 

In addition to your online SEO efforts, there’s another great way that you can increase your local following, even online. Attend local trade shows, wedding expos, and other relevant events in your area. Use those to market your brand by redirecting people to your online presence AND inviting them to visit you in person. 

Once you’ve got your online efforts optimized, you’ll feel much more confident in using this method to draw in new customers both locally and online. But, you have to get your online presence optimized first. 

And yes, local keywords will also come into play. You’ll need to do the same keyword research you did for your original SEO, but for the location where you do business. Then, you’ll have the right words to go with all the right moves you’re making to build a better reputation for your company online. Whether you’re a solo event planner or you’ve got a full-scale operation, that reputation means everything. 

Speaking of scale, are you scaling up your intake, too? 

So, you’ve got a solid plan for local SEO—but are you ready to field all those new leads? You need to put systems in place like the 24/7 answering service that comes from Smith.ai so that you never miss a single opportunity. Of course, we do more than just answer phones. We can also help with lead screening and intake, appointment scheduling, and so on. Not quite hitting the mark on your outreach yet? Ask about how our team can help with outreach campaigns and outbound sales, too. 

To learn more, schedule a consultation or reach out to us at hello@smith.ai to see how the 24/7 virtual receptionists at Smith.ai can help your event planning business with a custom strategy for success.  

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