What a good event website includes

An event website answers questions before they are asked

Every host knows the messages that arrive in the weeks before an event: what time does it start, is there parking, can I bring the children, what should I wear. Each is reasonable, and each takes a few minutes to answer. Multiply by a hundred guests and the questions become a part-time job.

A good event website exists to answer those questions once, clearly, in a place guests can return to. It is not a brochure about the hosts. It is a practical guide to attending, designed to be read on a phone in a taxi on the way there.

The pages guests actually use

Most event websites need only a handful of pages, and the front page should carry the most important facts without anyone having to scroll: what the event is, when, and where.

• Home: the event name, date, time and venue, with a clear way to reply
• Schedule: every part of the event the guest is invited to, with times and places
• Venue and travel: address, map link, parking, drop-off and the step-free entrance
• Accommodation: recommended places to stay and any reserved rooms
• What to expect: dress code, whether children are welcome, food and timings
• Questions and answers: the practical things guests ask most
• Reply: the RSVP or registration, with the deadline

Show each guest what applies to them

Many events have parts that not every guest attends: a family ceremony before the main celebration, a speakers’ dinner the night before a conference, a VIP preview at an exhibition. Listing everything on a public page leads to awkward questions from guests who were not invited to some parts.

The cleaner approach is a personal view. A guest opening their own invitation link sees the parts of the schedule they are invited to, their own reply and their own details, while the public page shows only what is common to everyone. This is one of the strongest reasons to give each household a personal link rather than one shared address.

Write for phones and weak connections

Most guests will open the site on a phone, often on mobile data, sometimes in places with a weak signal. Keep pages light: a small number of well-compressed photos rather than a gallery of hundreds, text that loads before the images, and nothing that needs a large download to show the address.

Put addresses and times in text, not inside images, so guests can copy them into a map or a calendar and so screen readers can announce them. Make buttons large enough to tap, and make the reply button easy to find from every page.

Make it readable for everyone

An accessible event website is mostly good writing and sensible design. Use clear headings, plain language and enough contrast between text and background. Describe images that carry information, such as a map of the venue, in words as well. Avoid putting essential details only in decorative fonts.

Say what access arrangements exist and how to ask for others: step-free routes, accessible restrooms, seating, captions or interpretation for speeches, quiet spaces. Guests who need these arrangements look for them first, and finding them stated plainly is reassuring in itself.

Languages and local formats

If your guests speak different languages, consider offering the essential pages in each, written by someone fluent rather than machine translated. At the very least, keep the key facts, such as date, time, address and dress code, simple enough to survive translation by a guest’s own phone.

Write dates in an unambiguous form, such as "Saturday 14 March", because 03/04 means different days in different countries. If guests are travelling across time zones, or the event is partly online, state the time zone and, where you can, show times in each guest’s own.

What should never be public

An event website is easy to share and easy to find, so assume anything on a public page can be seen by anyone. Some details belong only in a guest’s personal view, or nowhere at all.

• The guest list, or any other guest’s name, reply or contact details
• Seating assignments, except a guest’s own seat in their personal view
• Dietary, health or access information about anyone
• Children’s names or ages
• Payment details, or anything that would let someone register as another guest
• Home addresses of hosts or family members

For private events, keep the site out of search engines and protect it with personal links or a password. A beautiful public page with the full guest list on it is a privacy problem.

Questions and answers that help

The questions page earns its place when it answers what guests actually wonder, in specific terms. "Is there parking?" is answered best with where, how much, and what to do if it is full. "Can I bring my children?" is answered best with the actual policy and, if children are welcome, what is arranged for them.

Keep a running list of the questions you are asked as replies come in, and add them to the page. If three people ask the same thing, everyone else is wondering it too.

Photos, stories and the right amount of personality

A little personality makes an event website feel like the event: a photo of the hosts, a short note on why this gathering matters, a line about the venue’s history. Keep it short and put it after the practical information, not before it. Guests who want the story will scroll; guests who want the parking details should not have to.

Be thoughtful about photos of other people. A picture of the whole family or last year’s attendees is lovely, but ask before publishing images of guests, and never publish photos of children without their parents’ agreement. For professional events, check that speakers and sponsors are happy with how their names, logos and images are shown.

If you plan to collect photos from guests after the event, say so in advance and explain who will see them, so that nobody is surprised to find themselves in a shared album.

Keep it current

An event website is only useful if it is right. When something changes, such as a start time, a venue entrance or a shuttle schedule, update the site first and then tell the guests affected, pointing them back to it. A site that disagrees with the latest message makes guests doubt both.

After the event, the site can become a home for photos, thank-you messages and a guestbook. Decide in advance how long it stays up and whether guests can download what they shared.

Bringing it together

The best event websites are connected to the rest of the planning, so that the schedule a guest sees is the same schedule the caterer and the door staff work from, and a reply on the site immediately updates the plan. In Attergo, the event website, personal invitation links and replies share one source, so changes appear everywhere at once. The principles here apply regardless: answer the practical questions, show each guest what is theirs, and keep private details private.