Search
the domain decision, what the site can realistically rank for, and the markup that supports it
Venue search is local and competitive. A new domain with no history won't outrank the established Portland venues on "portland wedding venue" in its first year.
What it can do is rank for the searches with less competition, and be the site that converts once a directory or a map result sends someone to it.
The domain decision
It's made before anything gets built.
| Option | What it means for search |
|---|---|
| A section of mowp.org (option 3) | Inherits everything mowp.org has built. Strongest for search, weakest for a separate venue identity |
| Its own domain (options 1 and 2, or a vanity address on either) | Starts from zero and builds slowly. The directories and the Google profile carry the first year |
This depends on the option and the naming decision. See the Estimate and Positioning.
What to write for
| Page | The search behind it |
|---|---|
| Weddings | "portland wedding venue", "wedding venue southeast portland" |
| Meetings & Events | "meeting space portland", "nonprofit event space portland", "corporate event venue portland" |
| Celebrations & Memorials | "quinceañera venue portland", "celebration of life venue portland", "birthday party venue portland" |
| The Space | "event space rental portland", "venue capacity portland" |
| Rates | "event space rental cost portland" |
A rates page is one of the few venue pages that can rank quickly, because so few venues publish one. See Rates & Availability.
Weddings and corporate are crowded. The family-celebration searches are less contested and better matched to the space's location and price.
What a result looks like
Portland Wedding Venue with Rooftop Deck | [Venue Name]
A second-floor event space and roof deck on SE 82nd Avenue. Seats [n] for dinner, in-house catering, on-site parking. Every booking funds meals for ...
Structured data
Two things get conflated here and the distinction decides what can honestly be claimed. schema.org defines what markup is valid. Google defines the much smaller set that earns a visible search feature. They disagree, and the gap is where venue markup sits.
| Markup | What it carries | What Google does with it |
|---|---|---|
| Place and address | The building, its coordinates and its hours | Feeds local and map results |
| Event venue | Capacity, amenity features, the spaces available | Valid schema.org, no rich result today |
| Offers | The rate range, once it's published | No rich result for a venue rental |
| FAQ | The questions on Check Availability | Rich results restricted to a narrow set of sites since 2023 |
| Breadcrumbs | Where each page sits in the site | Shown in results |
It's correct, complete and machine-readable, and other tools read it. It doesn't put the room's capacity into a Google result.
This layer is part of the main site build now in development, so the venue site inherits it rather than building it. The markup is ours to shape as the venue's needs change.
The venue's public phone number, email and hours, exactly as they should appear. These have to match the Google Business Profile and every directory listing character for character, or the mismatch weakens all of them.
The basics that carry the rest
- The address as text in the footer of every page. Not an image, not only on a contact page.
- One page per event type, which is why the site has three of them.
- Real captions and alt text on photographs. Venue image search sends real traffic.
- Fast pages on a phone, since most of this audience is browsing on one.
For where the traffic comes from, see Directories & Listings.