Put Your Website to Work!

The Sprocket Report

This article has been updated on 12/14/2021 with the article entitled “Prep Your Website to be a First-Class Event Ambassador.”

Once summer is in full swing, there are dozens of festivals, fairs and events for folks to attend. Marketing committees work hard at promotion, but often forget that a website is much more than just a pretty brochure. Why not put your site to work and make everyone else’s job easier?

Every year we hear a radio ad or see a newspaper article about a festival that looks like it would be fun to attend. But when the weekend rolls around, we can’t remember all the details so we Google it. And every year we are flabbergasted by how many festivals are still not using their websites to do the heavy lifting.

Whether scheduling out the month, making weekend plans on Thursday or consulting their phone as they’re driving to an event, people today expect answers to their questions – NOW! Is your website up to the task?

Do you use search terms correctly?
The local Midsommer Festival holds a Swedish breakfast that features fried herring and pancakes with lingonberries. Up until this year, you could Google all you want and never figure out where to go for breakfast because the website only had an image of their paper flyer which was not searchable. This year, “All-You-Can-Eat Breakfast” was an H1 title tag and the text on the page included the words “fried herring” and “Swedish pancakes,” making it a snap to search.

Are you registering your guests?
For three days every winter, mystery authors convene in Chicago to network and attend seminars on writing who-done-its. Keeping track of things like who is teaching which classes and who requires vegetarian meals can be murder! So the committee made the effort to create an online registration system that keeps a data base of all those details. Lists of specific information are constantly updated and available whenever the organizers need it.

Can visitors find all the details for enjoying your fair?
Even though it’s the seventh annual independent film festival, the venues change every year. Fortunately, map tools can quickly give visitors door-to-door directions. Film buffs can also check out the schedule of shows, read synopses, buy tickets and comment on social media platforms. Film makers can even submit their movies online for consideration. And soon, the whole shebang will work even better on mobile devices.

When we complimented a festival committee on their website recently, they replied “Oh, you found us on the web?” But thinking of a website as just an advertisement to be stumbled upon is so last millennium. Today’s website can still be good-looking, but it should also be a hardworking member of your team. If your site isn’t carrying its weight, let us help you put it to work. Tell us what you want it to do for you, and we’ll be happy to make it happen.

Kate GingoldKate Gingold

I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.

Other posts by Kate Gingold

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Full biography

I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.

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