SEO Tools & Resources For Event Planners

SEO For Event Planners: SEO Tools And Resources For Event Pros

Optimizing your search engine ranking can be daunting, but you’re not alone. There are some excellent SEO tools and resources out there to help.

I’ll discuss some of my favorite SEO tools. I’ll also share some accessible, readable, and beginner-friendly resources if you’re interested in learning more about SEO for your event business.

But before we get to it, this article is part of an SEO for event planners series. I recommend you read the previous three articles first:

Part 1: The Basics of SEO For Event Planners
Part 2: SEO For Event Planners: Writing SEO-Friendly Website Copy
Part 3: SEO For Event Planners: The Basics Of Technical SEO

If you’ve read those articles, you’ll be pretty comfortable understanding and implementing the advice you’ll get from SEO tools. So let’s dive in.

Google Search Console

Google Search Console example

The first place to start in any SEO strategy is Google’s Search Console. It’s Google’s search analytics tool and is both simple to use and quite powerful. Check out my guide to Search Console for event pros.

Here are just a few things you can do in Search Console:

  • Submit your sitemap to Google for efficient indexing (see Technical SEO for more about sitemaps)
  • Request a page to be indexed by Google
  • Generate reports on your search performance
  • Learn which queries you’re ranking for
  • Discover your most popular pages 
  • Get tips and advice straight from Google specific to your website
  • And quite a lot more. 

Google Analytics

What can I say about Google Analytics. I absolutely love it, and I could talk for hours about how powerfully fascinating it is. Every event business should add Google Analytics to their site. 

When it comes to SEO, you can learn about your audience’s behavior, compare engagement (and conversations) between search traffic and other traffic. And lots more. 

If you’re brand new to web analytics, I’d recommend starting with this article on Google Analytics for event planners or exploring Google’s Analytics Academy.

Google Keyword Explorer

I was initially hesitant to include keyword explore because, well, it’s something of a hack to use it for SEO. But here goes. If you sign up for a Google Ads account, enter your credit card and almost create an ad campaign, you can access Keyword Explorer. 

You can explore the best keywords to target in your area, learn about their search volume, and see how competitive the keyword is. Plus, you’ll get a ton of related keywords too. 

There are other tools I’ll share below that offer this info, but you’ll get it first-hand from Keyword Explorer. Just be careful to not launch an ad campaign unless you really want to. 

WooRank

My favorite non-Google tool is WooRank. They basically review your website and then craft a clear, easy-to-follow plan of action to improve your SEO (and online marketing in general).

Their pricing is transparent, starting at $79.99, and they have one of the best YouTube channels out there. I watch most of their live webinars – they’re super responsive in real-time and always answer questions. 

They’re absolutely my first choice SEO tool for small businesses and people who want to rock their SEO but aren’t yet experts.

Yoast

Yoast has millions of users (including us at ThymeBase), and if you have a WordPress site, they’re a must-have plugin. The Yoast plugin gives you a step-by-step guide to SEO optimize every single page on your WordPress site. 

Their free plan is super useful, and their pro plan is an affordable $89 one-time fee. To be honest, I’ve always been super happy with the free plan. 

Ubersuggest

Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest is probably the most affordable SEO research tool out there, starting at $29 per month. It’s an excellent SEO tool to find keywords to rank for and check on your competitors. While their data is quite similar to (if simpler than) sites like SEMRush, the best thing about Ubersuggest is their product walkthroughs. 

When you sign up, you’ll get an uncomfortably large amount of emails, but they’re genuinely practical and helpful. By the end of a week, you’ll know how to use Ubersuggest like a pro.

The biggest downside is that Neil Patel is a marketer’s marketer, so be prepared for some pretty heavy-handed sales tactics.

Moz

Moz is one of the original SEO and keyword research tools. If you’re not an SEO professional (which you’re not), their biggest value is in their blog and resources. Their SEO resources page is one of the best out there. 

Still, I always enjoy exploring their Keyword Explorer and Link Explorer features.

SEMRush

I strongly recommend signing up for SEMRush one day when you’re feeling patient and open-minded. They’re one of the least-usable tools I’ve ever seen but also incredibly powerful. It does everything SEO and digital marketing related as far as analytics and research go, and that gets overwhelming. 

I use SEMRush to track keyword ranking and how competitors do for my main keywords. And they run a regular site audit on ThymeBase and all this for free. With a bit of patience and time spent exploring their site, you’ll eventually get the hang of it, and then it gets valuable. Like, really valuable.

There are several SEMRush competitors, including SpyFu and SimilarWeb, but I just keep coming back to SEMRush.

The Best Sites To Learn More About SEO

I’ve mentioned how WooRank and Moz have excellent educational resources for event planners looking to learn more about SEO. I wanted to list them and other top SEO sites if you’d like to read more on your own.

And I’ve written a lot about SEO just for event professionals. Here are just a few:

But what if you don’t want to do SEO yourself? After all, you’re a busy event pro and don’t have time for SEO tools. 

Hire An Expert SEO

You can always work with an expert search engine optimizer to get help for your event business. But be careful; there are a lot of folks out there who over-promise and under-deliver. 

I recommend checking out UpWork and interviewing people with SEO experience in the event space and local SEO chops. Don’t get swayed by promises of first-page ranking. It’s a meaningless distinction if the keywords are not a good fit or have super low traffic. 

When working with a professional SEO, make sure they have testimonials from past clients. Then, set clear goals and accountability. Lastly, try not to be swayed by vanity metrics like impressions or position if it’s not actually driving new clients. And if you’re ever not sure, reach out to me, and I’ll give you some dispassionate advice.