Whether you are an event organizer seeking to increase attendee numbers at your event, an activist seeking funds for your cause or an educator hoping to attract the brightest minds for your workshop, the ultimate goals of launching your event, donation collection campaign or admission process online is a well-attended event, a well-funded cause or a well-attended workshop.

As an event organizer, an activist or educator, you have already taken painstaking efforts to create an aesthetic website with well-written and convincing content. If despite these efforts and a decent traffic levels, your conversion level is dismal, the issue could be that you are not attracting quality traffic.

'Quality Traffic' refers to individuals already interested and actively searching for information about your event, cause or training program.

Herding maximum number of visitors to your website will make no difference if you are hosting a Medical Conference and they are looking for Food & Beverage Exhibitions. To direct quality traffic to your website, you need to optimize your website.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a Web site by ranking high in the search results of a search engine. The higher a Web site ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that that site will be visited by a user. It is common practice for Internet users to not click through pages and pages of search results, so where a site ranks in a search is essential for directing more traffic toward the site. SEO helps to ensure that a site is accessible to a search engine and improves the chances that the site will be found by the search engine. ~ Webopedia

Why optimize?

By optimizing your website, you can raise your page rank on search engines, increase your chances of being seen and improve the quality of visitors to your website. Always keep in mind that 'Search Engines like Google are the number one method of locating information.'

Here are 5 basic optimizing techniques that can improve your ranking on search engine result pages:

Title Tags: Search engines index your website based on your page title. These page titles become your identity on the search engine. This makes developing keyword rich page titles an essential task. When developing a title, you should maintain the title's readability while removing fillers such as the, and, etc. For example, if you are promoting an English Skills Workshop, you can use the following title tag 'Enhance English Skills'. By adding a descriptive line in addition to your company's name, you can increase your chances of being displayed on the search engine result page as people have the tendency to search by interests rather than by the event, cause or university name.

Meta Tag: A Meta Tag is a one or two liner that describes the content of the page. This description should include the main keywords (university name and main program or event name and when it is happening) appearing on the page. It is important to insert Meta Tags in addition to title tags as search engines include a description below your hyperlinked title on the search results page.

Keywords in Headers (H1, H2 & H3): The 3rd optimizing techniques you should employ are headers or headlines and sub-headers within your content. By including headlines and sub-heads, you help visitors browse through your website, highlight your key points and help search engines index your pages more effectively. Therefore, wherever possible you should include relevant keywords in your headlines and H1, H2, and H3 tags.

Search Engine Friendly Navigation System: JavaScript and Flash navigation menus look great but are not search engine friendly. When search engine robots, go through your website to list pages, pages that are JavaScript and Flash heavy might get missed. To all pages on your website are listed, when designing your website's navigation system make sure to include regular HTML links in addition to your JavaScript and Flash navigation menus.

Site Map: All of us know the benefits of a map. It gives you direction and prevents you from getting lost. A site map performs a similar function on a website i.e. it makes it easier for visitors to locate information on your website. A sitemap is also as a ready reference guide. It contains links to all your pages, which makes it easier for search engines to understand what your website is about.

These are just some of the techniques you can use to optimize your website. Good luck and get started!