SEO - National Wedding Show

Google.co.uk ‘Wedding’ came up as the third link
Google.co.uk ‘National Wedding’ came up as the first link

Google.com ‘Wedding’ came up as fifth link
Google.com ‘National Wedding’ came up as first link

Yahoo.com ‘Wedding’ did not have a link present on any of the first five pages
Yahoo.com ‘National Wedding’ came up as the first link.

These statistics show that the National Wedding Show have very effective and good quality search engine optimization. On both google.com and google.co.uk the link to the national wedding show when typing in simply ‘wedding’ were within the top 5 links. As Over 80% of search engine users will not look past the first page of results. Females are less likely to go past the first page. This is excellent for the National Wedding Show as their link was on the top half of the first page and their target audience are females.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

Search engine optimization is the ‘process of choosing targeted keyword phrases related to a site, and ensuring that the site places well when those keyword phrases are part of a Web search’.

Optimization involves manufacturing pages legible to search engines and stressing crucial topics related to your content. Simple optimization may imply nothing further than a guarantee that a site does not gratuitously become part of the portion that is not accessible through search engines. Advanced optimization may involve significant investigations into every component of page design, site configuration, and off-the-page criteria.

Search engine optimization can be fundamental to a corporation because 90% of all online traffic is accomplished through the assorted search engines. Consequently, recognizing how to correctly market your company via search engine optimization is practically the only way to be found on the extensive Internet.

Both the National Wedding Show and Oxford Fashion Week have individually deficient and redeeming features on their websites. The National Wedding Shows website has very limited information for a potential customer, there are no maps, directions or information on the venue, there is also limited information on the event itself such as the exhibitors, other amenities that will be available and the running order of the day. The site itself is very pretty, attractive and easy to navigate with the different pages clearly set out. The website for Oxford Fashion Week has a lot of information on it, however, this is set out in blocks of text making it very unappealing to read and slightly boring. The layout of the website, is again, very simple and easy to use, the theme of the website is attractive and appeals to a fashionista, with many photos from the event and a simple but stylish layout and design. I believe that more information for customers should be added to the National Wedding Shows website and some of the information on the Oxford Fashion Week website ought to be cut down, condensed and simplified in order to make both websites useful and to attract customers.

WEBSITES - Oxford Fashion Week

The likely objectives for the website presence for Oxford Fashion Week may be to;
Establish the event within the fashion and arts industry
To sell tickets to the public ensuring each show is a sell out and the venues are full to capacity
To educate the public about Oxford Fashion Week.

Oxford Fashion Weeks website seems very efficient and relatively easy to navigate. Visually, the home page is very attractive, it is modern and simple with large photographs displayed as backgrounds. The theme of the website is in keeping with the event itself, being very fashion forward and high end. The logo for Oxford Fashion Week is displayed on each page, it is again in very simple, a black box with Oxford Fashion Week and the dates written in white.

The homepage consists of a beautiful photo as the background and then very simply on the left hand side is the navigation box to the other pages. These tabs consist of; Latest, 2011, Events, Gallery, Social and Contact. Clicking on ‘latest’ takes you directly to the official blog, this is very clever as at first you don’t notice and it appears you are reading information about the event, this is a good way to feed information to the reader. The blog is very well constructed and is kept up to date. Clicking on ‘2011’ gives you the options of sub categories; these consist of About, The Team, Partners, Designers, Models & Press. The About page states Oxford Fashion Weeks Mission. This is important for a new company as it enables readers to understand what the event is about. There is also information on past OFW participants and a history of the event. This information is displayed in a very simple way with the layout consisting just of text and a lot of it. This is likely to put some people of reading down the page and may repulse them from the website. The Team is literally list the categories of the event with the people would worked within each category listed underneath. This is again very plain but it is simple and so easy to read. On The Partners page, the logo of each sponsor or partner is listed, there is no other information on this page. Both The Designers and The Models pages are very similar to the previous pages, with the categories listed and the names of the designers or of the models listed underneath the relevant category. Aesthetically this is not the most pleasing visual imagery, it is very bland and after looking at several pages of lists I feel this could detract from the high-end value the website it aiming to portray. The next tab The Press is so plain, it consists of one heading like ‘Calling all Press’ and then ‘For more information please email Charlotte Bushnell, OFW Press Director
Charlotte.Bushnell@oxfordfashionweek.com’. This content is not worthy of a whole web page, it may be better if this was somehow integrated into another section.

The next link is the Events tab. On clicking this you are given several options, the first being Tickets & Schedule. Here you can purchase tickets, this is very simple and the event and price are displayed quite clearly. You are then presented with a 4 page virtual catalogue, this has a front cover with a large photo on, the second and third pages list the schedule and the last has the logos of the sponsorship. To the right of the catalogue is an archive of related virtual brochures, from London Fashion Week schedule to the Prada selection catalogue. This interactive part of the website is key in keeping a readers attention and works very well.

Under this tab are all the separate events. By licking on any one of these you will be shown, in rather a large ammount of text, the information for that event. What it is called, where and when it is, what it consists of and who the participants are.

There is also a Gallery page, here there is the option to view the 2009 and 2010 show aswell as a designers collection. This is a good way on showing the public what Oxford Fashion Week is as they are able to see for themselves what it is about, rather than just being told. The photographs are of the highest quality and represent Oxford Fashion Week in the highest of lights.

The social page gives you the option to follow Oxford Fashion Week on Facebook, twitter, Flickr and to follow the official blog. All of these social marketing tools are a great way to communicate and involve the public in an event. The level of customer interaction here is very high quality and well devised.

The final page is the contact page, this is a short page with several of the main producers email addresses. It is again very simple and not much description or visuals are present.
The quality of the information on the Oxford Fashion Week website is great, there is plenty of it, however it is not displayed in an appealing way. Great chunks of text are not easy or appealing to read and this should be altered to make it more user and reader friendly.

WEBSITES - National Wedding Show

The likely objectives for the website presence for the National Wedding Show may be to;
Get the events name known by more people and establish it further.
To sell tickets to public and so increase footfall on the day and
To sell exhibitor space to companies, ensuring there are maximum exhibits for the guests.

The National Wedding Show’s website seems very efficient and relatively easy to navigate. It is very pretty; they have used pastel colours in the images that are very feminine and soft, the bride in the flowing wedding dress in the main image and the National Wedding Show symbol is visible at the top of the page.

I timed how long it takes for the page to load from Google and the result was 00.01.8 seconds, this is very fast, however the video that is also on the home page has music behind it that lags and jumps, this is not as appealing. Between Jan 26th and Feb 3rd the website would not load. This was very negative for the company as I am sure around this time the possibility of people wanting to purchase tickets would have been very high.

The homepage consists of articles about; Latest news updates on Celebrity weddings such as Kate Middleton and Prince Williams wedding. Where the show has been featured and a few examples of what takes place at the show such as ‘the how to look good’ stand and catwalk shows. There is also a short video from previous shows present with music behind it.

There are advert links down the rights hand side of the page, some flash and change. They advertise wedding magazines, online banners, invitation making companies and suit hires. There are also the links to National Wedding Shows twitter and facebook pages aswell as a link to the official blog and the box to sign up for newsletters.

There are 5 main tabs at the top of the screen; Home, Buy Tickets, Competitions, Exhibitors Area and Press. Under buy tickets the ticket prices and ticket options are laid out in clear tables that are very easy to read and understand. On this page there is also a direct phone number for ticket enquiries.

Under the competition section there are details of all the competitions and offers that will be available on the days of the exhibition, these are the individual exhibitors deals and competitions and so the details of the companies locations at the show are given. There are a lot of these deals and competitions making the page look messy and unorganized, this was slightly de-motivating and did not compel me to read down the page to the bottom.


Under the exhibitor tab there are 6 sub categories. In the main exhibitor area there are statistics about the National Wedding Show and the target audience. There is also a TV coverage section with examples of where the National Wedding Show has been a feature alongside video clips.
There is an exhibitor area that requires a log in password available to companies exhibiting at the show.
There is access to a marketing guide, access forms and downloadable banners and buttons. In the exhibitors section there is persuasion as to why the companies should exhibit at the event. There is a tab that has testimonials from past exhibitors, stating how it benefited them and showing the event in the best possible light, again trying to entice exhibitors to purchase show space.
There are examples of press coverage, such as newspaper and magazine articles about or mentioning the National Wedding Show.
The final Press tab is directed towards press outside of the event, giving information of how they can get involved.

The website is visually pleasing, the pretty bridaly background and very recognisable picture make you feel comfortable. The whole website stands out with the iconic image and is typically stereotypical of brides and weddings but is still very attractive.

There was plenty of information for the exhibitors and press of the event, however, the information is slightly lacking for customers, there is not much information on who will be exhibiting and what to expect from the full day. Nor on the location itself such as directions, a map or even an address. However the information that is available, particularly for the exhibitors and press is very useful and has a good quality.

The customer interaction options are great – there is a blog, twitter and facebook, all of which are very easy to access. The blog is not kept very up to date; there were only 4 posts in 2011, the last one being on the 24 Feb. 2011. There are good and quirky tips for brides on their wedding day and the lead up to it, it is all very feminine and aimed at the bride to be so it has the potential to be very successful but it is not kept up to date sufficiently.

WEBSITES

There are approximately 970 millions Internet users, 15% of the world's population for this reason it is a most efficient way to get potential customers through internet marketing.
An Internet presence has now become essential, a modern, well presented website is now expected for most businesses and organisations. A website should explain the products and services offered. It should also provide background and general contact information.
Website development has been made easier, but the marketing challenge has become greater as more organisations have recognised the importance of web marketing. Consequently, business and organisations, whether large or small, need to monitor their website performance to ensure that the opportunities that become available are utilised.
If you have a SEO friendly website, prospective clients are disposed to recognize more about you, you can then justify to why your service is fantastic or how brilliant and consistent your service is.
Having a website means your business is open and reachable round the clock and throughout the year. Your website is your online shop and it is open for 24 hours a day.

Because Oxford Fashion Week is a very new event its objective differ from that of the National Wedding Shows objectives, Oxford Fashion Week are still trying to establish themselves within the fashion event industry, therefore its objectives lie around that but the National Wedding Show is already the UK’s largest wedding exhibition, for this reason their objectives will be different from the fashion week as its objective lie solely around the consumer and revenue from the event, instead of the establishing of the event like Oxford Fashion Week. I believe that both events have aimed their objectives in the best possible way and have established objectives that are both reasonable and achievable.