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Optimise your Race Presence on Listing Sites

Maintaining a consistent, accurate and appealing presence online for your race is crucial in attracting new participants.

 

Optimise your Race Presence on Listing Sites

Maintaining a consistent, accurate and appealing presence online for your race is crucial in attracting new participants and growing your event not just in numbers but as its own brand.

Many organisers struggle to get their race onto the right websites and even when they do, information can be out of date, wrong or not displayed in an attractive way, all of which harms the reputation of your event.

There are many things you can do to make sure your race is optimised in all areas online and we are here to walk you through those steps so that you can start increasing your entries.

 

 ‘Everyone wants a bit of the action’

When you launch your race you will soon learn that there are a host of event listing, promotion and entry sites. Some will get in touch with you and others are worth finding yourself to proactively list your race on. Remember the following:

  • Race Listing sites are websites with high volumes of web traffic, usually with the types of people that would potentially enter your event, that can refer you potential new entrants by providing a link on their website
  • Race Promotion sites are websites that activity promote your race to their database and on other online channels, usually in return for a commission cut of your entry fee
  • Event Entry sites are event management platforms that take entries and accept payments, something we do at eventrac, it is best to stick to one entry form and send all your traffic here from the Race listing and promotion sites

Some race listing sites can offer to take your content and upload it to their site for you, others, you will have to create an account and add this yourself. Make sure you have your preferred race information, images and maps ready to use.

 

‘Now’s your chance’

  • Give your race a search online and see what comes up, you should see your own website and any other sites where your race information has been published. It is worth spending some time checking these to make sure the correct information is being displayed, if it isn’t, you should contact them to correct it or make an account to login and do it yourself.
  • Spend some time or ask us what the best websites are to get your race onto, most of these websites will ask you to make an account and submit your race information. It is important that you upload the most accurate event information and best quality pictures and fill in as many details as you can so that you have the best chance of someone clicking through to your site when they land on your race listing.
  • You should then use the same information and images on any other race listing or promotion site you use to give your event professionalism and make sure that no matter where your participants come from they have all seen the correct information.

 

‘Keep on top of it’

  • It really helps to know which listing and promotion sites are performing best for your race and you can use your web platform or ask your website providers to tell you who is sending you the most web traffic. From this information you will be able to see which websites are converting best and you can prioritise optimising the information on these ones.
  • Looking ahead to future races it is worth revisiting and updating your online race listings every year with your new race dates, times and images. The last thing you want is someone finding last years race online and not entering because they can’t find your new one!
  • Make a note to search your race at least once a month to check which links are appearing top, you will see the best performing listing sites, any competitor ads that may be taking entries from you and any broken links to your own website that need fixing or redirecting.

 

The majority of your race entries will come through your online entry platform so the more of your market that see this, the better. Use what other sports enthusiasts have built to drive yourself new entrants and take the time to regularly check and improve this with new content so that you can be ahead of your competition!

 

We’re here to help

If you have any questions or would like some help and advice around using race listing websites you can contact aaron@eventrac.co.uk