When you promote events and sell tickets on third party platforms, you play by their rules. You pay fees to them, use their limited feature sets, and your data lives on their platform. In extreme cases, the event platform could suddenly go under and leave you without an account, access to your customer data, or hard earned sales revenue.
As an event organizer, if you want real peace of mind and full control over event marketing, ticket sales, and customer data, then building your own website with a suite of professional event management tools is the only way to go.
We believe WordPress is the ideal platform for building event websites, and in this post, we’ll explain why. We’ll also guide you in selecting the ideal WordPress toolkit, creating the right type of website for your specific event or events, and share event website best practices. Let’s get into it!
Why WordPress is the ideal event website platform
92% of marketers say having the right event management software is crucial for reaching their business goals. The easiest way to build an independent event website, where you can have full creative and operational control, is with WordPress.
Platforms like Eventee.co, Eventzilla, Inevent.com, Cvent, and Eventcreate offer quick setups with drag-and-drop tools, but they often limit what you can achieve. Many event organizers start with these specialized platforms, only to discover restrictions that hold them back, such as:
- Limited design options beyond basic templates.
- Fixed ticket fees and payment systems.
- Difficulty connecting with existing business tools.
- Rigid features that don’t grow with your needs.
This is why successful event organizers are breaking away from the pack. Leaving behind cookie-cutter event pages that look identical to their competitors, industry leaders are creating unique, branded experiences that capture attention and drive registrations.
How are they doing this? By combining WordPress’s flexibility with specialized event tools.
WordPress, which powers over 40% of the top ten million websites worldwide, gives you several advantages. You can:
- Build distinctive branded experiences instead of using the same templates as everyone else.
- Control every aspect of the registration process, from custom forms to personalized confirmation emails.
- Integrate powerful marketing tools that turn your event websites into registration machines.
- Create unique features that competitors can’t match, like interactive venue maps and custom ticket types.
- Own your data and make informed decisions about future events.
- Have complete control over your event pages and full ownership of your website.
- Access thousands of plugins for unlimited customization.
- Have the freedom to scale and adapt as your events grow.
WordPress has several feature-packed event management plugins that let you build exactly what you need, whether it’s a simple event page or a complex system with custom seating maps, automated emails, and advanced registration forms.
Not a design expert? No problem. You can find professional templates to give you a head start while still giving you all the power to customize and grow.
While the customizations are endless, there is a core set of capabilities that your event website requires. Let’s explore these a bit more.
Essential WordPress tools for event websites
A professional WordPress event website consists of three key components working together:
- Solid hosting enabling top tier performance
- WordPress’s unparalleled design and content capabilities
- Specialized event management tools
Here’s how to build the perfect combination:
1. The foundation (managed WordPress hosting)
Every successful WordPress website starts with reliable hosting. For event websites, where performance, reliability, and scalability are critical, selecting the right hosting provider, like Nexcess, can make all the difference.
There are several types of website hosting, but managed hosting stands out as the best choice for event websites because it’s designed to handle the unique demands of high-traffic periods like ticket sales and promotions, ensuring your site remains fast, secure, and stable.
With optimized performance features like caching and CDN integration, robust security to protect sensitive attendee data, 24/7 expert support to resolve issues quickly, and scalability to accommodate traffic surges as your event grows, managed hosting provides the reliability and efficiency that event websites need to succeed.
Nexcess takes managed WordPress hosting to the next level, providing features and tools specifically designed to help WordPress event websites perform at their best. Here’s what makes Nexcess stand out:
- Blazing fast performance: Nexcess includes free Object Cache Pro, premium image compression, and a global Cloudflare CDN to deliver lightning-fast page loads.
- Unique WordPress management tools: Features like the Plugin Performance Monitor detect and address potential slowdowns caused by plugin updates, while WooCommerce Automated Testing ensures checkout and payment functionalities are always operational.
- Unmatched flexibility and uptime: With 99.998% uptime and PHP autoscaling (24 hours per month free), Nexcess keeps your site running smoothly even during traffic surges.
- Proactive support: Their 24/7/365 WordPress experts monitor servers and provide fast, reliable support to handle any challenge.
- No hidden fees: Nexcess offers unlimited traffic with no overage fees, traffic limits, or metered pageviews — perfect for event sites that need to handle unpredictable spikes.
Moreover, Nexcess integrates with various trusted WordPress plugins to improve website functioning. For instance, it offers search optimization through Yoast SEO, supports site marketing tools through Hubspot, enables multi-site management through Solid Central, and uses Solid Security to ensure end-to-end website security.
2. Design (cutting-edge WordPress theme)
The next important part is setting up a flexible WordPress theme like the Kadence Theme, which includes an AI-powered design assistant that can design an initial draft of your website in minutes instead of hours or days. Its performance-optimized framework ensures your site loads quickly, while also giving you the ability to customize every aspect of your design. It also creates an SEO-friendly structure for your site, which helps your event gain visibility in search results.
3. Event management tools (The Events Calendar Suite)
While WordPress excels at content management, The Events Calendar suite transforms it into a complete event management platform. It effectively connects WordPress’s familiar interface with everything you need to run successful events.
The free versions of our flagship products, The Events Calendar and Event Tickets, have everything you need to run a successful event website. You can:
- Display your events on a beautiful calendar (month, list, or day views available).
- Organize events using WordPress’s familiar category and tag system.
- Turn any WordPress page into an event listing.
- Create and sell tickets (via PayPal or Stripe).
- Collect RSVPs.
However, the real magic happens when you level up to The Events Calendar Pro, Event Tickets Plus, or any of our full suite of premium plugins and services. With these tools, you’re equipped with advanced features that will supercharge your ability to manage events.
- Events Calendar Pro allows you to create recurring events, automate tedious tasks, search events by location, display events in additional views (like a photo grid or map), host hybrid or virtual events with Zoom/Teams/Google Meet integrations, and much more.
- Import events to your calendar automatically from Meetup, Eventbrite, iCal, Google Calendar, and more with Event Aggregator.
- Help attendees find events on your calendar with advanced search filters using Filter Bar.
- Accept user event submissions with Community. When paired with Event Tickets Plus, community members can also sell tickets and split revenue with you.
- Use Eventbrite Tickets to connect your calendar to Eventbrite, creating Eventbrite tickets and events from within the WordPress dashboard.
- Event Tickets Plus allows you to integrate with WooCommerce, create custom registration forms, use QR code check-in, accept Apple Pay and Google Pay, and more.
- With Promoter you can automate attendee communication from initial promotion to event follow-up messages.
- Create and display event schedules for conventions, conferences, trade shows, festivals, and more with Event Schedule Manager.
- Use Seating to create interactive seating maps so attendees can choose their own seats.
The Events Calendar suite creates a bridge between WordPress’s powerful content tools and specialized event features. Everything lives within your familiar WordPress dashboard, from content creation to ticket sales and email marketing to attendee management. This integration means you can focus on creating great events while the platform handles the technical details.
Other important tools
1. Form creator plugin for building contact forms (WPForms)
For event websites, reliable form functionality is crucial. In addition to registrations (which Event Tickets covers) you’ll likely need to collect speaker submissions, process sponsorships and vendor fees with secure payments, and integrate everything with your favorite email marketing service.
2. Legal pages plugin (Termaggedon)
Legal compliance is a necessity for any website, but for event websites that collect attendee information, process payments, and handle sensitive data, having proper legal pages is even more critical.
Pages like Privacy Policies, Terms and Conditions, and Disclaimers protect your business by outlining how you handle user data and ensuring compliance with regulations like GDPR, CCPA, and more.
Creating and maintaining these pages can be complex, but legal page plugins simplify the process, saving time and ensuring accuracy. We recommend using Termageddon.
Termageddon offers robust tools to manage and update your legal pages dynamically. Key features include:
- Automated updates: Policies are automatically updated when laws change, saving you time and ensuring compliance.
- Compliance across jurisdictions: Supports major privacy laws like GDPR, CCPA, PIPEDA, and more.
- Customizable forms: Tailor policies to your event website’s specific needs with built-in customization tools.
- Attorney-drafted policies: Termageddon’s legal pages are written and reviewed by legal professionals.
- Website scanning: Identifies what data your site collects to generate the most accurate policies.
For event website owners managing sensitive attendee data or catering to international audiences, Termageddon’s automated updates and advanced compliance tools provide a worry-free solution.
3. Lead generation and lead capture plugin (Kadence Conversions)
For event websites, capturing and managing leads is crucial to maximizing attendance, growing your audience, and ensuring successful event promotions. Effective lead generation and capture tools allow you to gather essential information, such as attendee details and preferences, while providing opportunities to nurture potential participants through targeted communications.
Kadence Conversions is designed with flexibility and ease of use in mind, to drive engagement, increase conversions, and grow your event website’s success. Here’s why it’s an ideal choice for WordPress event websites:
- Sales and revenue growth: Use popups that create urgency, scarcity, or exclusivity to boost ticket sales or eCommerce revenue. Prevent missed opportunities with cart abandonment reminders.
- Lead collection: Grow your email list by displaying attention-grabbing offers or exclusive bonuses at the right moment, ensuring higher conversions.
- Behavior-based engagement: Connect with visitors using targeted announcements, sale notifications, or personalized recommendations based on their behavior, such as page visits or scrolling actions.
- Built-in analytics: Track your campaign performance with detailed analytics to identify what works and continuously optimize your strategies.
- Unlimited flexibility: Built with the native WordPress editor, Kadence Conversions allows you to use any block from any plugin, enabling you to create dynamic, highly engaging offers without limitations.
How to build an event website
Now that we know our platform and have assembled our toolkit, it’s time to build. But what kind of event website do you need? Event websites typically fall into two categories, each requiring a different approach.
Single-event websites
Single-event websitesIf you’re organizing an annual conference, festival, or one-time event, you need a powerful landing page that drives registrations. For these websites, focus on:
- A high converting landing page.
- Ticket sales and smooth registration.
- Strong marketing and information pages to support your main page.
- Event schedule.
- Integration with marketing tools like your CRM and email service.
You likely won’t need a full calendar system. Instead, concentrate on creating an engaging experience that guides visitors toward registration.
Multi-event websites
Multi-event websitesVenues, communities, and organizations hosting regular events need a different setup. These websites benefit from:
- An events calendar that shows all upcoming (and past) events.
- An automated way of aggregating events from all platforms you may be promoting on.
- Easy event discovery through calendar search and filtering.
- Event RSVP and ticket sale options for various events–some free, some paid.
- Automated email communication with event attendees.
- Ability for your community members to create and host their own events.
This combination creates a dynamic hub where visitors can easily browse and register for multiple events. Or get in on the action and create/host their own–with your moderation of course!
Getting started
Regardless of the type of event website you’re building, start with a solid design foundation. Kadence Theme and Kadence Blocks make this process surprisingly simple.
Want the fastest route? Kadence AI can create a starter website in minutes. Just describe your event, and it generates a customized template you can edit.
Prefer more control? Here’s how to build from scratch:
- Install and activate the Kadence Theme.
- Choose a starter template that matches your event style.
- Customize your colors and typography.
- Add your logo and branding elements.
- Create essential pages (Home, About, Contact, Registration).
Kadence Blocks then helps you customize each page with:
- Professional layouts that work on all devices.
- Eye-catching buttons and call-to-action sections.
- Custom columns for schedules and speaker profiles.
- Image galleries for venue or past event photos.
Your goal is to always create a clear path to registration. Whether you’re hosting one event or many, focus on making it easy for visitors to find information and sign up. Beyond that, make sure you’re including the right design elements for the type of event website you’re creating.
Essential elements of single-event websites
There are no hard and fast rules about the number of pages a single-event website needs. However, it’s essential to make the most important event information clear and easily accessible to your potential attendees.
Whether it’s just one page or a dozen, your website should reflect your event’s personality while maintaining professional functionality. Every element, from the color scheme to the registration button placement, should work together to create excitement and make the registration process irresistible.
High-converting landing page
Your event page needs to tell a compelling story while providing crucial information. Start with a strong hero section on your main landing page that immediately communicates your event’s value, dates, and a clear call to action.
Event description
The event details section or page should answer every key question a potential attendee might have. Instead of just listing a date and time, create context. For example, “Join us on Saturday, September 15th, 2024, for a full day of inspiration and networking. Doors open at 8:00 AM with a welcome breakfast, and the excitement continues until our closing reception at 6:00 PM.”
Venue information
Location information deserves special attention. Beyond providing an address, help attendees plan their visit. Include parking details, public transportation options, and nearby accommodations.
For a conference at a large venue, consider adding an interactive map showing different session rooms. For a wedding, you might include directions from common arrival points like nearby hotels or airports.
Speakers, performers, or other attractions
Your speakers or performers section should bring star power to your page. Create engaging profiles that go beyond basic bios. For a business conference, highlight specific insights attendees will gain from each speaker. For a music festival, include video clips of past performances and links to artists’ popular tracks.
Schedule
The schedule section needs to be both informative and scannable. Break down your event timeline into clear segments. A product launch might flow as “Morning Keynote: The Future of Tech” > “Hands-on Demo Sessions” > “Expert Panel: Industry Impact.” Include brief descriptions that spark interest and help attendees plan their day.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
While all essential information someone will need to make their purchasing decision should be displayed elsewhere, there are always extra details or special circumstances that many people will want to know. That’s where an FAQ section or page can really shine.
Tickets or registration page
Last but certainly not least, you’ll need a tickets page that functions as the destination for all of your “buy tickets” call-to-actions across your website. This page, like your landing page, is all about conversions. It should not be crowded with lots of videos, graphics, or extraneous information. This page is about one thing and one thing only–buying tickets. Make it simple, easy, and painless.
Multi-event websites: Create your event hub
Running a venue, managing a community center, or organizing events for an educational institution? Your website will likely need much of what we’ve already mentioned. However, the heart of any multi-event website is its calendar. Imagine a performing arts venue’s calendar showing upcoming shows, a university’s schedule of guest lectures, or a sports facility’s lineup of tournaments, all displayed in an engaging, easy-to-navigate format.
Event listing page for a multi-event website using The Events Calendar | Source: Evergreen Chamber Orchestra
With The Events Calendar, your calendar becomes more than just dates on a page. Visitors can switch between monthly overviews, weekly schedules, or list views, finding the format that works best for them. The calendar has a fully responsive design, which is clearly viewable on multiple devices because, as Skiddle tells us, 69.3% of ticket transactions are completed on mobile these days.
While the free version handles basic needs beautifully, Events Calendar Pro adds powerful tools for busy venues and organizations. You can:
- Create automatically recurring events.
- Include custom fields that let you add specific event details like “Recommended Age” for children’s events or “Experience Level” for workshops.
- Make any event virtual or hybrid.
- Easily display your whole calendar or specific events throughout your website, not just on your events page.
- And more
Other event website best practices
Regardless of whether you’re creating a single event or multi-event website, these are some best practices that will help make sure you’re getting the most out of it.
Create clear call-to-actions
The primary objective of your events website is to register people for your event(s). That means making sure there is no confusion about where visitors need to go to sign up and/or buy tickets. The best way to do that is through clear call-to-actions that are impossible to miss.
Build trust through social proof
Social proof transforms your event from an unknown quantity into a must-attend gathering. For established events, showcase testimonials from previous attendees. Include specific details about what they gained: “The connections I made at last year’s summit led directly to three new client relationships” carries more weight than generic praise.
If this is your first event, focus on your organizers’ credentials and partners’ reputations. Feature logos of sponsoring companies, endorsements from industry leaders, or media coverage.
Take it further by displaying social feeds directly on your event pages. Show Instagram galleries of past events, highlight attendee posts using your event hashtag, or showcase testimonials from previous participants. This social proof creates excitement and shows visitors what they can expect.
Make it easy to get in touch
It’s nearly impossible to think of everything your potential attendees, volunteers, vendors, sponsors, press. etc. will want to know about your event. That’s why it’s important to make it easy for people to get in touch with you. A simple contact form solves this problem.
Showcase past events
Evergreen Chamber Orchestra has a dedicated section with YouTube links to their previous recitals, which is a great way to both show new attendees how great the concerts are and encourage past attendees to share these performances with their friends.
Optimize for search engines
Getting found online requires more than just listing your event details. The Events Calendar automatically generates event schema markup, which helps search engines understand and showcase your events in search results. This means when someone searches for “conferences near me” or “local music events,” your gathering is more likely to appear.
Mobile optimization is also a must-have for event websites. Your pages need to load quickly and look great on every device. These days, most people discover events while browsing on their phones, so a smooth mobile experience can make the difference between a ticket sale and a missed opportunity.
For local events, focus on local SEO features. Include detailed venue information, embed Google Maps, and use location-specific keywords. This helps your event appear in local searches and makes it easier for attendees to plan their visit.
Build your event website with WordPress and The Events Calendar today
The journey to creating your perfect event website starts with WordPress and The Events Calendar. Over 800,000 event creators worldwide are already using these tools to power 1bn+ events.
Consider Readington Recreation‘s transformation. Like many event management companies, their challenge was familiar: they needed a professional platform to showcase community events and streamline registration. Using The Events Calendar suite, they created an engaging calendar that makes activities pop off the page. Now, community members can discover and register for events in just a few clicks, leading to increased participation and smoother operations. You could be next.
Planning a one-time spectacular or managing a venue’s busy schedule? The foundation for your event website is ready and waiting. Get The Events Calendar suite today and join the thousands of organizers revolutionizing how they connect with attendees!
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