Potential customers often search for event venues on mobile devices, especially in the initial phases of looking at options. Optimizing the venue’s site for mobile searches ensures that they come away with a good first impression of the venue to come back to later. Some of the most important things to consider are quick load times and easy navigation: oftentimes the navigation menu can be hidden on a mobile interface, and since wedding venue websites tend to have large galleries on their pages, it can take a few seconds longer to load. Photos are the primary feature potential customers are looking for on a venue page, but the galleries should be carefully selected. Websites should also consider the best calls to action to give visitors the information they need to be converted to customers.
For an example, I used Heights House, a popular small wedding venue close to where I live. I looked at their website on a laptop first and then on my phone. They had it formatted well for mobile devices. I would replace the calls to action with more informational pages such as the galleries, which are tucked away on the site beneath the “Weddings” page accessible through the menu. The current call to action buttons don’t make the most sense, because the venue’s booking system is unique (it requires guests to book out the entire venue for at least two nights, which means planning for a multi-day wedding event).
The home page also cycles through seven or so photos on a rotating gallery: the first picture is the one in the screenshot. A cool feature that is designed for mobile users are the light and dark mode toggles styled as sun and moon symbols in the upper hand corners, which change the interface visibility depending on the viewer’s preference.
Currently, the site features a half dozen different mini galleries of photos from different events. I would compile a single gallery from all of these and feature it on the home page, where it’s easiest to find.
Making a couple simple changes to format a web page for mobile users can drastically help with SEO depending on the context. Again, user intentions are the most important thing to consider when designing a page and planning its content.
4 Responses
Hello, I agree with everything you have to say. I’m shocked to hear that people are searching for wedding venues on mobile first. I would have thought that people would be doing this type of research on a computer.
I’ve never thought about the application of SEO to wedding venue research, but I’m sure there is a lot to learn in that niche! I liked the real-world example of the venue and how it can be difficult to load such large photo galleries on a mobile device. I thought you had a good suggestion to choose a few photos from each of the main categories so the user can do less scrolling on a mobile device.
I really loved reading your suggestions for how Heights House could optimize their website for mobile search. I do think that if I were planning a venue I would probably do a lot of search from social media, likely opening venue sites on my phone and seeking to get a feel for the venue from their galleries. It raises an interesting question of how different do you make the mobile experience from the desktop experience. Obviously you want to be consistent and it does take a lot of time and energy to rework a website, but it might be advantageous to do so in some cases.
I find it really strange that so many people do wedding research on a mobile device. I know for big things like that, I usually like to use a desktop computer. I can’t quite explain it, it just feels much more secure than using my phone. It is very good that wedding companies and venues are able to realize this and capitalize on it, though. If more small companies thought about this, perhaps they would find themselves having more success.