Event feeds

If you run events and want them picked up reliably by Near Here (and other discovery services), publishing an event feed is the way to go. It's a machine-readable list of your upcoming events that stays up to date automatically — no manual submissions, no outdated listings.

iCal feeds

iCal is the gold standard for event data. It's a standard format that calendar apps, booking systems, and discovery services all understand. An iCal feed is a .ics URL that anyone (or any service) can subscribe to — it updates automatically as you add or change events.

Most calendar and booking systems can generate one. If yours does, the next step is making it discoverable by adding a link tag to your site's HTML <head>:

<link rel="alternate" type="text/calendar" href="/events.ics" />

That link tag is the standard way services find your feed. A Sitemap: reference won't help here — it's the link tag that matters.

For best results, make sure each event in your feed includes:

  • SUMMARY — the event title
  • DTSTART — when it starts
  • DTEND — when it ends
  • LOCATION — the venue name or address

A DESCRIPTION field is a bonus — it gives services more to work with, and gives people a better reason to click.

Here's what a minimal iCal event looks like:

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Your Event Name
DTSTART:20260601T190000Z
DTEND:20260601T210000Z
LOCATION:Your Venue Name, High Street, Example Town
DESCRIPTION:A short description of what to expect.
URL:https://example.com/events/your-event
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR

RSS and Atom feeds

RSS and Atom are already common on WordPress sites and blogs. If you publish an events section, there's a good chance you already have one — many CMS platforms generate these automatically.

To make your RSS or Atom feed discoverable, add a link tag to your site's HTML <head>:

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Events" href="/events/feed/" />

For Atom feeds, use type="application/atom+xml" instead. WordPress, Ghost, and most other platforms will handle this for you if you enable the feed.

Each item in the feed should ideally include a title, a link to the event page, a publication date, and a short description. The more complete the data, the better the listing.

Which format should I use?

Both formats work well — the right choice depends on what your setup already supports.

  • iCal— best for events specifically. It has proper date, time, and location fields built in, so there's no ambiguity about when or where something is happening.
  • RSS or Atom — good if you already have one. Works well for event blogs and listing pages where events are published like posts.
  • Both — even better. Different services prefer different formats, so publishing both gives you the widest reach.

Already got a feed?

If you already publish a feed, the most important thing is making sure it's discoverable. Add the appropriate link tag to your HTML <head> — that's the standard way services find it, and it takes about 30 seconds to add.

For more on how Near Here crawls sites and what else you can do to help us find your events, see our crawler documentation.

Don't have a feed yet?

You might be closer than you think. Here are some common starting points:

  • WordPress with The Events Calendar plugin — generates iCal feeds out of the box. No extra configuration needed.
  • Eventbrite — every public event and organiser page has an iCal export link built in.
  • Ticket Tailor — offers iCal feed URLs for your event listings.
  • Google Calendar — public calendars have an iCal URL you can link to. Share your calendar publicly, then use the iCal address from the calendar settings.

If none of those apply to your setup, get in touch — we're happy to help you figure out the best approach.

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