Above the fold: the five things
Most visitors arrive from a link on a phone, read the first screen, and decide. Everything they need to decide has to be there, without scrolling:
- What it is, as a promise. Not just the name: "A half-day on pricing for B2B founders".
- When: the date, the start and end time, and the time zone. For online events, show it in the visitor's own zone.
- Where: the city and venue, or "Online", with the platform.
- Price: "Free", or the price, or "from".
- One register button, in a colour that stands out, that works on the first tap.
If you only fix one thing on an existing event site, check that a stranger can answer "what, when, where, how much" from the first screen on a phone.
The pages a conference website needs
A single page is right for a meetup or a webinar. A conference with several sessions needs more, but every page should be one click from registering.
| Page | Meetup or webinar | Conference |
|---|---|---|
| Home: the promise, date, place, register | Yes | Yes |
| Speakers, with photos and one-line bios | On the home page | Its own page, a page per speaker helps |
| Agenda or schedule, with times and rooms | A short list | Its own page, filterable by day or track |
| Venue and travel: address, map, transport, access | The address | Its own page |
| Sponsors | Usually not | Its own page |
| FAQ: refunds, recordings, accessibility, dress code | A few lines | Its own page |
| Call for speakers | Rarely | While it's open |
| Code of conduct | A link | A page |
| Past events and recordings | A link | A page |
Registration on the page
- As few fields as you need: email and name, and at most one or two questions you'll actually use.
- An immediate confirmation with a calendar file and an add-to-calendar link. Most people put the event in a calendar there and then, or never.
- A clear next step after registering: the calendar, a link to share, what to expect.
- A way to cancel, so seats free up.
- Embedded or linked, whichever you choose, test it on a phone. Some embedded forms drop the link's source tags, so register once yourself through a tagged link and check the record.
Search and link previews
An event page is shared more than it's searched for, so the link preview matters as much as the search result. Set a page title and description that say what, when and where, and an image at 1200 by 630 pixels that reads at thumbnail size: the title, the date and a face or two, not a logo on a gradient.
For search, add schema.org Event markup. Google's event structured data documentation lists the required properties as the name, the start date and time in ISO 8601 format, and the location with an address. It also says each event must have its own URL with the markup on it, and that event results are for events with a physical location: a fully virtual event isn't supported for that feature. Mark up online events anyway, since other services read it, but don't count on Google's event listing for a webinar.
Speed and accessibility
- Fast on a phone over a weak connection. Compress images, and don't load a video above the fold.
- Text alternatives for images. WCAG's non-text content criterion asks for a text alternative for every meaningful image. Speaker photos need the speaker's name; an image of text needs the text.
- Real text, not images of text, for the date, the time and the agenda, so screen readers, translation and search can read them.
- Contrast and size: the date and time readable outdoors on a phone.
- Venue access information: step-free access, toilets, quiet room, hearing loops, captions for online sessions. People who need it look for it before registering.
Trust signals
People register for events from strangers when the page gives them reasons to. Show who's organizing, with a name and a face. Show past speakers or photos from earlier events if you have them. Show a number if it's honest ("Our fifth meetup", "412 registered"). A contact address and a privacy note near the form help too.
After the event: keep the page working
An event page keeps getting visits after the event: from search, from old posts, from speakers' profiles. Don't let it become a dead end.
- Close registration and say so at the top.
- Add the recording, or let people register to watch it on demand.
- Link to the next date or the series.
- Keep the speakers and agenda up: they're good content for search.
See on-demand webinars for turning the recording into something that keeps bringing people in.
The checklist
- What, when (with time zone), where, price and register on the first phone screen.
- Speakers with photos, names and one-line bios.
- Agenda with times.
- Venue and travel, or how to join online.
- FAQ: refunds, recordings, accessibility.
- Short registration form, immediate confirmation with a calendar file.
- Page title, description and a 1200 by 630 link preview image.
- Event structured data on each event's own URL.
- Text alternatives on images; real text for dates and times.
- A code of conduct and a contact address.
- A plan for after: recording, next date, registration closed.
Doing this in Programmable Talk
Every event has a page with registration, a calendar file, a link preview and schema.org Event markup, including online events. Turn on its site and it gains an Agenda, Speakers, Sponsors, Venue and travel, FAQ and your own pages, with a nav between them; a conference made from the template starts with them on. You can put it on your own domain, or embed registration on your site. People can also register by email, and every way in is counted. After it ends, the page stops taking registrations, points to the next one, and can offer the recording on demand. See event websites, and the call for papers guide for the speakers page.