The VG Blog: BrightonSEO Day 2 (Oct 22) ??

If we thought we’d be spared the BrightonSEO ‘Mr Brightside’ parody on day two of the conference, we were absolutely wrong. The opening notes rang out to laughs and groans from the audience, most of us clutching our morning coffees and nursing hangovers from the night before.?

As always, the Viaduct Generation team was ready to split up and take notes on as many sessions as possible throughout the day. However, today things would go a little differently for one exciting reason: our CEO and co-founder Fabio Embaló was speaking in the 10am Diversity session. We decided to all head to the session to show our support for Fabio and the other speakers.?

This means that today’s summary is a little shorter than usual. Our team still tried to cover as much as possible but if you can’t find the talk you’re looking for, BrightonSEO does an online recap.?

Meeting Room 1:

Diversity

The atmosphere in the Diversity room was buzzing; friends greeted each other warmly with hugs and fist bumps while familiar faces grinned from the crowd. Our team had arrived early to secure the best seats in the house, ready to enjoy what promised to be one of BrightonSEO's most impactful sessions.?

Rejoice Ojiaku & Wilhemina Gilbertson-Davis: What building a community can teach you about tackling diversity and inclusion issues

Rise at Seven stars Rejoice Ojiaku and Wilhemina Gilbertson-Davis took the stage first to immense applause. Together, they shared the story of building B-Digital UK, an online platform for Black Digital Marketers which they created two years ago and has gone from strength to strength ever since. Aiming to uplift Black Women in the world of digital marketing, the pair have worked tirelessly to build a strong and supportive community that spans three continents and has had immense success.

Throughout their talk, Rejoice and Wilhemina shared insights and lessons about diversity and inclusion and how organisations can better make a difference without performativity or tokenism.

1. First, be authentic. Diversity and inclusion isn't a one-time campaign, an occasional acknowledgement of Black History Month, or a way to drive clicks to your site. Diversity inclusion needs to be consistent and authentic, embedded in your business objectives and strategies. It needs to be an ongoing process. In short, 'diversity and inclusion is not a marketing campaign!'
2. Secondly, seek feedback about the success of your efforts. Even the most well-intentioned efforts can sometimes get it wrong and fail to benefit the community you're trying to serve. The only way to get it right is to seek out feedback and adapt your strategy in line with what the community actually needs, not simply what you think it needs.
3. Thirdly, allyship is important. But -- and this is a big but -- don't centre yourself as an ally. Instead, amplify the voices of the community you're trying to support. 'You're not part of the community; you're supporting the community … listen to what the community is saying, amplify their voices; that's a good way to be an ally.'
4. Fourthly, continued efforts are important – your diversity and inclusion efforts must have space to develop and grow over time.
5. Finally, a point that we really liked: celebrate the achievements. Even small achievements are worth celebrating because small things roll into bigger things.

In just two years, B-Digital has grown astoundingly, with now 15k reach across social channels. They have an active and supportive Discord channel which acts as a safe space for their members to be themselves, ask questions and learn from each other. Last year they became a partner at BrightonSEO. They're leading the way in centring Black voices and creating real change in digital marketing. We can't wait to see what they do next.

Mo Kanjilal: The power of being different and why inclusion matters to everyone

Another speaker the Viaduct Generation team was excited to see was Mo Kanjilal, the co-creator of the award-winning diversity and inclusion consultancy, Watch This Sp_ce. She opened with the idea that to solve the biggest problems that humanity currently faces, we need people who think differently. And yet, difference is so often ignored, looked down upon, or excluded.

People who are different have to change themselves to survive in the workplace: adapting, code-switching, and suppressing their true selves. This is not only damaging to their mental health and career success but also damages a business' performance and staff retention.

Mo shared some disappointing stats: in the digital sector, 88% of workers are white, and less than 40% of roles are held by women. All-male teams make 38% of the decisions in a typical large company, continuing to replicate the structures that have been created to value the dominant 'sameness' (read: whiteness and maleness). Moreover, advertising continues to feed our unconscious biases and assumptions – a concerning statistic was that 90% of advertisements do not include anyone of a lower socio-economic background.

So, what can we do to remedy this? Mo proposed some solutions. Genuine allyship can go a long way – people in places where allyship is encouraged are twice as likely to feel that they belong. However, the current state of allyship needs to be improved; more than 80% of white employees see themselves as allies and yet the stats show that many women of colour don’t feel they have true allies in the workplace. For real, effective allyship, Mo said white people need to:

'fight injustices, stand alongside people, if you see things you need to call it out.'

To improve inclusion, she gave pointers:

• Make a habit of thinking 'who isn't here? Who is being left out of this conversation?'
• Ask for feedback on your communications (internal and external) to make them more inclusive
• Rethink how you work in order to give different people a voice

'There is true power in being different. We just have to unlock it.'

?Another huge round of applause followed Mo as she gave over the stage to the next speaker, our very own Fabio Embaló.?

Take a look at Mo’s slides here.?

Fabio Embaló: Where are all the Black owned companies in the SERPs?

Speaking at Brighton SEO on his birthday, Viaduct Generation's co-founder and CEO took the stage to massive cheers and applause. Okay, maybe we're a bit biased, but we're so proud of Fabio who has worked tirelessly to create our agency with a powerful mission to amplify Black-owned businesses.

Fabio's topic was one close to all of our hearts and our agency's mission – where are the Black owned companies in the search engine results pages? He quickly answered the question: they're nowhere to be found. He pulled up the data: in 2020, the year that he founded Viaduct Generation in response to the brutal murder of George Floyd, only two of the 1,000 top ranking businesses were Black-owned. By 2021, the number had grown marginally to 6.?

Is this surprising? Not if you're Black, Fabio argued. Black people are used to being discriminated against in the digital sphere. One famous example is that searching the term 'professional hair' shows you pictures of white people, while searching 'unprofessional hair' yields images of Black people.

'As SEO professionals, we have a common responsibility and a duty to ensure that we're not creating a racist digital world,' Fabio said.

So, what factors are contributing to the lack of Black-owned businesses in the SERPS? It's not that they don't exist: there are hundreds of thousands of Black-owned companies. But these companies face financial difficulties from the very beginnings of their lives, with a bank loan approval rate of only 46.5% compared to the rate of 75.3% for white-owned businesses. Often forced to bootstrap their businesses, Black-owned organisations tend to lack the funding to prioritise SEO, a digital marketing practice which, as we know, can take many months to yield results.

What action can we take to remedy this as SEOs? Fabio had some key points. Continuing in the spirit of community and mutual support that had filled the room for the entire session, Fabio mentioned how we can all collaborate with B-Digital. He pointed us towards the Freelance Coalition for Developing Countries (FCDC), an initiative created by the incredible Chima Mmeje to provide mentorship and teaching to BIPOC freelancers.?

And finally, Fabio suggested that as SEOs we can work with underrepresented businesses, sharing knowledge and skills as well as offering our services to uplift those companies that are missing from the SERPS.

'We have a lot of power in our hands,' Fabio said. We can create a more level playing field in the digital world.

?Ending the talk, Fabio directed the audience towards Viaduct Generation's Diversity in SEO Report, which you can access here.

?After three amazing talks from four exceptional speakers, everyone had a lot to think about. But, we weren't finished yet. To thunderous applause and the entire audience singing 'happy birthday', VG's head of marketing Noémie presented Fabio with a birthday cake.?

Brighton SEO always has some amazing moments, but this is going to be up there in our best memories of the event for years to come!?

Sustainability

Sustainability was another of the sessions that the team at Viaduct Generation was looking forward to, and the three speakers Rebekah Conway, Stuart Davies, and Khyara Ranaweera did not disappoint with their thought-provoking presentations.?

Rebekah Conway: How to put together a corporate social responsibility strategy and why it matters

Boom Online Marketing Content Strategist Rebekah Conway spoke first, illustrating her presentation about how and why to create a corporate social responsibility strategy with a surprising example: Jurassic Park.

But before she could get started with her corporate social responsibility strategy (CSR) for everyone's favourite dinosaur movie franchise, Rebekah wanted to ask two important questions:?

Is making a CSR a digital marketer's responsibility? And how can we create one?

?To answer the first question, Rebekah shared some facts. First of all, consumers are already searching for information about sustainability issues, which means that SEO is definitely relevant to CSR. Moreover, 56% of Gen Z are willing to pay more to support businesses that are having a good impact on the world. As Gen Z grows older and has more purchasing power, being a socially and environmentally responsible business isn't just morally good – it's beneficial for profits, too!

Then, Rebekah shared her step-by-step plan for creating your Corporate social responsibility strategy (and gave a Jurassic Park-themed example for each step).

1. Research: this stage includes considering the organisation's mission statement and values, asking for input from employees, and even analysing competitors' missions and impact.
2. Set goals: what do you want to achieve? Make sure to set both short and long term goals, just like with any digital marketing campaign.
3. Look at metrics and benchmarks: this will allow you to measure success. How is your organisation currently doing and how far is there to go? You can also benchmark against competitors.
4. It's SEO time: now, it's time to create the campaigns and put it all into action!

Overall, Rebekah's talk was an actionable guide to creating your CSR, which we found valuable and interesting. Rebekah’s Jurassic Park theme led to her ending the speech on possibly one of the most terrible, eye-rolling puns of the entire conference: 'I hope you all have a RAWR-some day!'

Okay, we'll admit, that one actually made us laugh a little.?

If you’re interested in learning more about creating your own corporate social responsibility strategy (or just want to look at some pictures of dinosaurs), you can view Rebekah’s slides here.?

Stuart Davies: The environmental impact of the internet, and what we can do about it

Bursting with energy, Creative Bloom agency head Stuart Davies next took the stage. He launched into a fast-paced and funny presentation that was full of interesting insights and useful tips amid a near-constant stream of swearing.?

We tend not to think much about the environmental impact of our jobs as SEOs, but we should. Stuart shared some shocking facts to convince us of this:

1. Because of the immense power use of data centres, the internet leads to 4% of all global greenhouse gases.
2. If the internet was a country, it would be the 7th biggest greenhouse gas emitter on the planet.
3. With the current rate of expansion, by 2024 the internet will become the 2nd biggest emitter (after China) if it was a country.?

But what does this mean for digital marketing??

As digital marketers, we often create online content that makes our websites energy inefficient, with images, videos, attractive fonts, and features like plugins or image carousels requiring lots of unnecessary processing power. ‘F*ck, we’re the bad guys!’ Stuart yelled, resulting in some anxious laughter around the room.

Let's put it in perspective: one search is equivalent to half of a kettle boiling. 10 emails have the same carbon footprint as a plastic bag. Just three online advertising campaigns are equivalent to the annual carbon footprint of the average American consumer. Yikes.?

So what can we do as SEOs to reduce the ecological impact of our work?

?This is where Stuart’s talk got even more interesting. He shared his idea for a ‘Green SEO’ strategy, providing us with a wide range of actionable tips to adapt SEO strategy to be more environmentally friendly. Some of our takeaways included:

• Reduce the use of images and videos: these require a lot of processing power so opting for smaller and fewer images and videos is a good idea. Say goodbye to carousels; say hello to vector images.
• Switch to a host that is powered by renewable energy: Stuart suggested using The Green Web Foundation’s directory to find a new one.
• Improve UX and reduce dwell time: people spending unnecessary time on your website is another energy sink.
• Improve load speed and core web vitals: this is basic SEO 101, but this also benefits the planet by reducing the energy used.?

After demonstrating that SEO, UX, and eco-consciousness can all be successfully aligned with a few case studies, Stuart finished the talk with some final tiny changes that we can make to help the planet: stop sending unnecessary ‘thank you’ emails and turn down the brightness on your screen.?

Here at Viaduct Generation, we love a presentation full of actionable tips delivered in a fun and engaging way. Stuart’s was one of our favourites from this Brighton SEO and we’ll certainly be implementing some of his advice!?

Take a look at Stuart Davies’ slides here to learn more about Green SEO.?

Khyara Ranaweera: Marketing in the impact and change-driven space

The final speaker in the Sustainability session was Khyara Ranaweera, founder and managing director of the Conscious Consultancy, an impact-driven comms group in the Middle East and the UK. Khyara spoke about purpose and authenticity in your brand.

‘Purpose is like a foundation to a house; a conductor to an orchestra,’ Khyara said.?

Purpose is essential to your organisation and if you want to make a real impact on the world finding your purpose will be key.?

So, how can you marry a brand’s purpose with strategy?

For Kyhara, working in a school for refugees in Greece taught her that everyone can marry their passion for a cause with their career. Finding people who are passionate and motivated by their own causes – be that climate change, animal rights, anti-racism, or any other cause – is key to creating an impact-led business.?

‘You don’t need to have a corporate social responsibility specialist, you just need people who are passionate about what they do,’ she explained.?

Khyara then shared some examples of brands that she considers to be putting purpose first, providing some great inspiration for everyone in the room. LEGO, for example, has brought purpose to the forefront of its operations with its commitment to producing the toys using recycled materials. Patagonia is another brand that has been in the news recently after billionaire founder Yvon Chouinard gave the company away to a charitable trust which would invest profits in fighting climate change.?

Overall, Kyhara’s speech argued that any of us can marry our passion and commitment to causes with our work. As team members at our own mission-led agency, the team at Viaduct Generation left the Sustainability session feeling inspired and renewed in our commitment to our purpose.?

Careers and Work

Jasmine Granton - How to find your ‘perfect’ job in digital?

Opening the Careers and Work session, Jasmine Granton of Evolved Search and co-founder of Chalkboard Creative gave a presentation about how to find your ‘perfect’ job in digital. Despite the huge demand for SEO and PR talent at the moment, finding the role that is best for you can be challenging. Jasmine’s talk provided tips and tricks for ensuring that your next role is the perfect fit.?

But first of all, Jasmine began with a ‘fun’ fact:?

With the average 35 hour a week job, a person works roughly 3,515 days in a lifetime. That’s 9.6 years or 84,365 hours! And yet, many of us are unhappy in our jobs.?

Recently, things have been changing, she explained, with the ‘Great Resignation’ and many resignations being linked to employers’ flexible or hybrid working policies (or lack thereof).?

So, changing jobs doesn’t seem to have the same stigma that it used to. Jasmine has her own experience of changing jobs, so she decided to share some ways to decide if it’s time for us to move on to new roles. For example, she suggested creating a list of everything wrong with your current job (and categorising it). If these things feel that they cannot be managed or changed, it might be time to leave.?

Deciding on the things you want from a new job that you will not budge on and the things that are nice but not necessary is the next step. This allows you to better understand what you’re looking for.?

Her next tip was about interviews. Although many people assume that the interview is all about impressing the employer, in reality an interview goes both ways. You can ensure that the employer is a good fit by asking key questions such as:??

• How many people have left the company in the past year?
• What is the style of management like??
• What is/how frequent is the pay review or promotion process?
• What’s the best or worst thing about working here??
• How would my success or failure be monitored or judged??
• What are you doing to create a more diverse workforce?
• What’s your parenting policy?

… and many other great questions which you can view in Jasmine’s slides.?

Jasmine then discussed some of the red flags to look out for when choosing a new position:

• Lack of diversity in leadership roles
• Lots of people leaving recently
• Companies bragging about the basics
• Rushed hiring processes
• ‘We’re like a family’?
• Vanity perks

Jasmine’s entire talk was full of useful tips and tricks and we highly recommend checking out her presentation, regardless of whether you’re looking for a new role or not. Ending the talk on a positive and reassuring note, she explained that there’s nothing wrong with changing roles and that we all need to prioritise our mental health while working. Thank you Jasmine for an empowering and valuable presentation!?

Take a look at Jasmine’s slides here for more tips and tricks.?

Jo Juliana Turnbull - How to build relationships when remote working?

Remote work can be amazing. It can also be challenging. Jo Juliana Turnbull, Freelance SEO and Marketing Consultant and Search LDN Organiser knows this all too well. With over a decade of remote working under her belt, Jo took to the stage to talk to us about the difficult task of building relationships while remote working.

So, what’s the secret to building relationships remotely? Jo gave a few pointers:

1. Emotional intelligence: Being able to understand, regulate, and express your emotions, including empathy and social skills
2. Communication: Jo cited the 7 Cs of communication: Clear, Correct, Complete, Concrete, Concise, Consideration, and Courteous?
3. Empathy: A vital leadership skill, empathy helps teams and individuals relate to each other
4. Active Listening: Listening attentively, understanding, retaining, and responding thoughtfully to speakers
5. Confidence: Not being held back by self-doubt

Emotional intelligence is essential, Jo argued, citing studies that found that leaders with high emotional intelligence cause their teams to feel 50% more inspired, and that EI can lead to a 40% higher productivity and 400% higher retention rate. Emotional intelligence is so important that 59% would not hire someone if they had a low EI but high IQ.?

At the end of the presentation, Jo shared tips for improving our soft skills. We highly recommend checking out her deck, which has a long list of useful sources at the end.?

Craig Dewart - The dark side of SEO: how to lead a team when you need help the most

To finish off the success session, Craig Dewart, CEO of The Charlie Delta Group, spoke candidly about the lessons he has learned from running three businesses. In his first ever talk, he explained that he was not a good public speaker, but he did amazingly anyway.?

Sharing the lessons he learned the hard way while running a business, Craig’s presentation was full of honesty and valuable insights. Transparency and candid conversations are so important in our industry, and we really respected Craig’s decision to share stories about the difficulties and lessons he has learned. We can’t wait to watch his next talk!??

You can view Craig’s slides here.?

Auditorium 1:

Data Analysis

Matt Greenwood - Spreadsheet sorcery: a Google Sheets guide for the aspiring wizard

First up in the Data Analysis session we had Matt Greenwood, Audience Operations Executive at Future, whose engaging and funny talk promised to teach us about how to ‘excel’ at spreadsheets. (Sorry, Matt’s presentation was filled with spreadsheet jokes and we couldn’t resist including that one!)

Matt started by sharing some of his ground rules:

1. Keep your data clean
2. Format your formulas
3. Write out cells and ranges
4. Give things good names
5. Break it down by brackets

Then, he helped us get to grips with some of the most important formulas, explaining array formula which enables you to see ranges instead of cells, and import range which helps you import live from another sheet.?

Overall, Matt’s presentation was a valuable start to the session which made even the most spreadsheet-averse among us feel a little bit like wizards.?

To learn from his easy-to-use spreadsheet tips, check out Matt’s presentation here.?

Andrew Charlton - The power of probabilistic thinking in SEO

Andrew Charlton, Managing Director of Crawl, next took the stage to talk about the power of probabilistic thinking in SEO. He opened the talk with the results of a poll from his Twitter: when asked how often your SEO recommendations have the impact you expected, 54% of SEOs responded only half of the time.?

SEOs are no better than a coin toss at predicting SEO performance!?

Thinking probabilistically might be the answer. As Andrew argued, by thinking probabilistically, SEOs can:

• Make more of the right decisions
• Create strategies that better balance risk and reward
• Estimate the impact that a change will have on performance
• Better communicate uncertainty?

So, how can we think probabilistically? Andrew shared some strategies and pointers, explaining logical ways to better predict the impact of a decision.?

Tip ??: smaller bets early on can do a good job of proving impact to the client and make them trust you more, leading up to those bigger changes later on.?

Overall, we liked Andrew’s emphasis on transparent communication around uncertainty.?

Take a look at Andrew’s slides here.?

Martijn Scheybeler - SEO testing: what you can do when you really want to find out what works for SEO

The final talk in the fascinating data analysis session was by Martijn Scheybeler, VP of Marketing at RVshare. Martijn discussed SEO testing and experimentation, laying out his template for testing what works for your site.?

Martjin shared a useful framework for your SEO testing:

1. Idea: identifying a problem or opportunity
2. Hypothesis: suggesting a way that you think will change this
3. Solution: carry out the process
4. Learning: looking at the results

One insight we particularly liked was Martijn’s point that a negative result to your experiment is not a failure but instead a learning, a topic that Will Critchlow also elaborated on later in the afternoon with his talk ‘What we can learn from losing tests - the importance of paying attention to negative outcomes’.?

Interested in learning more? Martijn’s slides are available here.?

Ideation and Content Planning

Jo Walters - How to think differently, get out of a rut and generate new ideas

Jo Walters, founder of 25 Dots, opened the Ideation and Content Planning session with a presentation teaching us some key tips and tricks for coming up with new and exciting ideas.?

Coming up with great ideas is a challenge, especially if we find ourselves in a rut, are too busy to come up with good ideas, or don’t consider ourselves to be an ‘ideas person’ in the first place. However, Jo argued, creativity is for everyone. You don’t need a creative job to be creative – this can be applied to all sorts of roles.?

Jo shared some techniques for thinking differently and coming up with ideas. Our favourite was the ‘what if it isn’t?’ technique, which forces you to challenge assumptions and come up with unusual and creative ideas. She gave the example of the assumptions we have about toothpaste – it’s usually mint flavoured, white, and available in a tube. Well, what if it isn’t? Maybe it could be fruity, maybe it could be a different colour, or maybe it could even come in capsule form.?

In the rest of the talk, Jo discussed some other creativity techniques such as asking what other brands (inside and outside your sector) would do or asking ‘why’ to everything.?

This was the perfect talk to get our creative juices flowing and left us with some great tips for our next strategy session or campaign. Thanks Jo!?

Take a look at Jo’s slides here.

Steph Naylor - How to come up with content ideas without relying on search volume?

For clients in niche industries wanting to rank for things with very little search volume, creating a content strategy is intimidating. Steph Naylor, Content Strategist at Journey Further, used her slot to share advice for coming up with ideas when we can’t rely on search volume data for long tail keywords.?

Here are some of Steph’s strategies we liked:

• Find the subreddit for your niche or go to Quora and look at the questions people are asking
• Chat to the sales and customer service teams to find our what customers are asking about
• Look at your own socials because your audience is already engaged there – look at the DMs you receive and check how people are engaging with your competitors’ socials
• Check out TikTok for inspiration

Finally, Steph pointed out that we need to always be refreshing and updating our content for the times, using the language and topics that are relevant to people today.?

Overall, Steph’s tips were very useful and creative. Plus, we liked that all of them were free – no specialist tools or paid subscriptions necessary!?

See Steph’s slides here.?

Steve Paine - Visibility leaders: performance content blueprints

To finish up the session, SISTRIX’s Steve Paine gave a talk about visibility leaders in search and what we can learn from examples of high-performing content.?

But first, Steve opened with a scary statistic:

Only 3% of content campaigns work.?

Content is getting harder, and while it’s easy to churn out content it’s hard to produce the stuff that hits the first page of Google consistently.?

Looking at some examples of sites with the best visibility in the SERPs, Steve discussed the features that defined their content, noting their use of genuinely helpful content that shows an understanding of what potential customers are searching for and a great internal linking structure that helps them find it.?

A great overview of what contributes to a site’s visibility, Steve’s talk was a productive end to the Ideation and Content session.?

Check out Steve’s slides here.

Onsite SEO

Chima Mmeje - On-page optimization lessons from analysing over 400 blog posts

We love a BrightonSEO talk that has us frantically scribbling notes in our notebooks, and this presentation by the wonderful SEO strategist and copywriter Chima Mmeje was one of them. In this, Chima shared the insights gleaned from analysing over 400 blog posts.?

Some of our favourite tips included:

• Don’t try to be like HubSpot – you’ll never be like HubSpot
• Treat every H3 like the title of a mini article and discuss it thoroughly
• Aim not just to rank but to enter Google’s circle of trust
• Put the offer in your headline to rank for multiple keywords (eg. add ‘[Free Template]’ to your headline)

As Chima concluded, ‘the old sh*t still works.’ Some of the tips she shared may seem obvious, but we all overlook them from time to time because of their simplicity. Overall, Chima’s engaging and fun speech was a great reminder of all the on-page optimisation techniques we shouldn’t forget about.?

Take a look at Chima’s slides here.

Auditorium 2:

Accessibility and UX

Miracle Inameti-Archibong - Creating an inclusive web - quick and actionable fixes with a little cheat sheet?

To start off the Accessibility and UX session, Miracle Inameti-Archibong of John Lewis Finance gave an interesting talk on the different ways we can be building websites differently to make them more accessible. She started with some statistics that helped to explain the significance of accessibility:

• 1 in 5 people in the UK have a disability
• ￡17.1 billion of potential revenue is lost because of inaccessible websites.?

Miracle then went on to explain the principles of accessibility and how we can meet them by including features such as audio control, descriptive alt text, adaptable formatting, and a responsive design. She then discussed how we can perform accessibility audits on our websites.?

After initially mentioning automated tools such as WAVE and Lighthouse, Miracle then continued to highlight the importance of human judgement, using a personal experience as an example. She spoke about her child being diagnosed with a learning disability and how she initially approached teachers and doctors to create a plan of action, but forgot to actually speak with her child to see what they needed.?

Miracle used this example to illustrate that in order to understand how someone with disabilities navigates the internet, we have to try and navigate it the way they do. This could mean downloading screenreaders and accessing your website with it as a first step.

Miracle’s talk was a great introduction to the session. It gave us the solid statistics that showed everyone how important accessibility is while also sprinkling in human touches throughout her presentation that made it engaging and easy to understand. Overall, this was an excellent primer on the importance of accessibility in UX.

You can take a look at Miracle’s slides here.?

Jessica Mackereth - The intersection between SEO and accessibility?

Despite the importance of accessibility in the digital world, there are still SEOs who worry that an accessible website might come at the cost of SEO performance. In this talk, Jessica Mackereth, SEO Analyst at Torchbox, debunked that assumption once and for all.??

Jessica argued that there is already a strong relationship between SEO and accessibility best practices, including headings, alt text, anchor text, and more.?

After exploring this crucial intersection between accessibility and SEO best practices, Jessica summed up her talk by explaining that we don’t need to completely change our SEO strategy to make sites more accessible, if anything we should think of SEO as making websites accessible for search engines!

Beth Barnham - Accessibility, strategy and schema - do they go hand in hand?

Concluding the Accessibility and User Experience session, Beth Barnham of Liberty Marketing spoke about accessibility, strategy, and schema.?

Beth shared steps on how we can make sites more accessible, re-emphasising some points such as sequential headings and descriptive alt text on images while also including new tips such as adding ‘skip links’ to declutter pages for screenreaders and using document landmarks.

She also included some more interesting statistics to highlight how important digital accessibility is:

• 21% of working adults have a disability?
• It costs an average disabled adult ￡500 more to live than their counterparts

Beth then went on to discuss how different types of businesses can make their sites more accessible. For example, local brick and mortar businesses can include specific opening hours during which they use Sensory Hour and other types of physical access information. eCommerce platforms should include more detailed product information, especially if product variations are present (eg. colour, size, category etc).

In short, this was a great talk that not only reinforced how important digital accessibility is but how we can use specific tools such as schema to reach our accessibility goals. It was also refreshing to hear Beth mention that although schema might not be the one thing that solves all your accessibility issues, it’s a useful tool to implement into your wider accessibility strategy.

Take a look at Beth’s slides here.

Syndicate 1 & 2

Social Media

Eleni Cashell - Swipe left: Why your social content is getting ghosted

With a clever title like this, you know you’re in for an interesting presentation. Eleni Cashell, a freelance content specialist, was here to help us create the most engaging content possible because let's face it, getting ghosted by potential consumers can sometimes be just as painful as being ghosted by your Hinge matches.?

One of the first issues she pointed out with low-engagement content was that this often isn’t accessible to people with disabilities.?

Disabled users account for ￡16.8 billion of revenue, they’re not a small segment that can just be swept under the rug.?

Some ways to make our content more accessible include adding closed captions for videos, using alt-text, and making sure any written content is screenreader-friendly.?

The talk got even more interesting when she started discussing the importance of building and engaging with communities with your content. Communities are always going to be creating content of their own, just look at the emergence of memes! We can use this to create a new relationship between commerce and community, which can help you create content that is authentic and will truly connect with your audience.?

However, Eleni pointed out, make sure you’re not using any inauthentic template because the internet can sniff out fake engagement in a heartbeat. Instead, make sure your responses and content are personalised to help gain your audience’s trust.?

To learn more, check out Eleni’s slides here.

eCommerce SEO

Margo Howie - Commerce platforms content strategy: Amazon and beyond

Margo Howie’s presentation provided an excellent introduction and insight into content strategy for e-commerce focused SEO. She started off with some pretty interesting stats which showed that more people are starting their purchasing journey directly on e-commerce platforms such as Amazon rather than from Google. The way people are manoeuvring online shopping has changed, and SEO’s need to keep up in order to rank highly and grow their conversion rates across all these platforms.

Margo also highlights that when using these commerce platforms, we have no technical input - this can be tricky as some of these websites aren’t as ‘robust’ as Google. This is why strong content strategy is especially important for increasing visibility. She then advised us to optimise Product Details Pages (PDP) as a way to significantly increase organic conversions by as much as 300%!

PDP optimisation at first looks quite similar to optimising other types of pages for Google, and Margo underlined three key questions we need to ask ourselves when creating them:?

Is it discoverable? Is it accessible? Will it convert??

She then went on to break down the basic anatomy of a PDP and how we can optimise each element (eg. product title and product description).

Margo concluded her talk by reminding us that even after we’ve created the perfect PDP, we’ll need to conduct regular audits to make sure they don’t have any broken images or that we’re not ranking for out of stock items. This was a great reminder for us SEOs who often get caught up in tidal waves of content. Overall, Margo gave an interesting talk on the value of ranking directly on commerce platforms and how we can adjust our content strategies accordingly.

Check out Margo’s slides here.?

Levi Williams-Clucas - Review generation and management: how to do it and why it matters

?Customer reviews can either be a brand’s saving grace or their worst nightmare, depending on how you approach review management. Levi Williams-Clucas’ presentation on review generation and management gave us a thorough look at why it’s important for any brand and the best strategies to implement.?

The SEO Specialist at StratiQ started off by explaining why we should be implementing review management, and her reasoning was pretty convincing. According to research:

• 77% of consumers regularly read reviews when scouring through commerce websites?
• 83% of consumers trust the reviews they read?
• Customer reviews have also become the second biggest local ranking factor and are able to boost CTR by up to an impressive 35%

All of these stats are a really good indicator that reviews can make or break your brand’s reputation.

Now on to how we can refine our review management strategies. Levi laid out a 6 step plan that really helped us understand the best ways to go about it, the first step being to carry out an audit of your brand’s current reviews. Reputation management tools are a great way to streamline this process, and we’ll need to make sure we’re canvassing a rich variety of review platforms. It’s also important for you to actively ask your customers for reviews in ways that are friendly, polite, and suggest benefits for them.?

Once you have these reviews, it’s important to monitor and analyse them regularly while also actively managing them – this means responding in a timely and personalised way while flagging any false reviews.

Once you have your review management system in place, Levi reminded us to not forget to show them off! Be proud of how loved your brand is and spread the good word, whether it’s on your own site or through different social channels. You’ll have to regularly repeat this process every so often but the benefits you’ll reap from this are truly worth it, she argued.

Take a look at Levi’s deck here.?

Dan Taylor - Generating better indexing signals for eCommerce websites

During this presentation about indexing for eCommerce platforms, Dan Taylor – Head of Technical SEO at SALT.agency – talked about how indexing has started changing and how 20% of most websites aren’t even indexed. That’s a pretty shocking statistic, and for the most part it boils down to whether a page has a ‘beneficial purpose’, if it doesn’t then it will always be given a Lowest Page Quality rating. Additionally, pages created with intent to harm or deceive users will always be given a low PQ rating.

If you’re starting to feel worried, don’t fret! Dan came to this talk carrying some solutions with him too. The first is to maintain a high quality throughout your page components such as your main and supplementary content. They’re the parts that directly help the page achieve its purpose and can really affect your PQ rating. He also repeated the importance of high quality PDP’s that offer unique value propositions and include more dynamic elements in title tags, headers, and body copy.

Dan also spoke about optimising category pages, explaining that we should be integrating content throughout the rest of the page rather than just stuffing it at the bottom. We should also be making sure all functional images have alt text and that there are captions and tight, visible descriptions.?

Overall, this talk may have seemed a bit intimidating at the start with all the technical jargon, but it proved to be useful for both technical and content SEOs looking to improve indexing for their eCommerce businesses.

View Dan’s slides here.?

Innovation

Nadya Birca - Why short-form video rules: the difference between Reels, Shorts and TikTok?

Nadya Birca, co-founder of STEPP Digital, kicked off the Innovation session with a talk about short-form video. A far cry from those early days of the ice bucket challenge, short-form video including TikToks, Instagram Reels, and Youtube Shorts have become a dominant force and are having a real impact on search.?

We particularly liked the emphasis Nadya put on authenticity – the drivers of short-form content are Gen Z who like unpolished and authentic videos. They don’t want things to be shiny and perfect, they want them to be real.?

Nicolas Basoalto - Staying in tune: Know your industry and conquer SEO

One of the biggest problems that Nicolas Basoalto – digital marketing manager at TicketSwap – sees within SEO is that people tend to reuse their general SEO tactics while working with different industries. He saw little differentiation of tactics, even though it doesn’t make sense to approach optimising a B2C beauty and skincare brand the same way you’d work with a B2B HR software brand. Once he saw this problem, Nicolas explained in his talk, he started developing a two-stage solution to make sure we’re all unlocking the best SEO strategies for different industries.

The first stage was to create a mapping model that helped you identify your direct competitors, indirect competitors, and the specific industry space. Using TicketSwap as an example, he identified secondary ticketing platforms as direct competitors, primary ticketing platforms as indirect competitors, and the music industry as its specific industry space.?

He then noticed that artist-related inquiries had incredible levels of search volume and traffic potential, which meant that to help boost his brands rankings he’d need to increase visibility for artist-related searches. Through increasing TicketSwaps artist coverage and fixing any soft 404’s, he was able to increase the number of indexed pages from 2% to 32% and increase traffic to artist pages by 70%.?

This case study was remarkable, especially considering how competitive the music industry is. With these impressive results, it’s hard to argue against the benefits of industry specific SEO.?

In the end, the main takeaways were that combining industry knowledge with SEO is bound to bring strong results, and that collaboration within all your different teams will only make this process easier and more fruitful. All in all, this was a great talk that left us with plenty of food for thought.

Check out Nicolas’ slides here.

Thomas Johnson - How you can map intent with conversion rate to plan future content with a high ROI

It’s every SEO’s dream to create content that consistently has high ROIs. Well, Thomas Johnson, SEO Manager at webuyanycar.com, walked in looking to help turn that dream into a reality.?

He started off by talking about the importance of keyword mapping, then went on to discuss the importance of understanding search intent while identifying the different types of intent – informational content usually has low conversion rates while transactional and navigational content has the highest conversion rates. Intent also had a significant impact on which SERP features are available (eg. searching ‘where is McDonalds’ on Google would bring up its Maps feature).?

Once you’ve mapped out your search intent and CVR, it’s time to create top quality, high ROI content! But what if you’re working with a client that doesn’t understand SEO? We’ve all been there, and it can be tricky getting buy-in when people don’t have a straightforward understanding of its business value.?

Thomas explained that an effective way of doing this is to create a marketing funnel built on search intent and later layer in that intent into your keyword map, thereby helping them understand the value of intent and how it can affect CVR.?

After mapping all this out for your existing content, we can use this same approach to map out future content and predict conversions and monthly from traffic. By the end of the presentation, we came away with a few key principles: we need to prove the value of our content, predict high ROI content, and prioritise high ROI content. With this framework, not only will we be boosting conversion rates but we’ll also be able to further prove SEO’s value to the more uninformed business owners. That’s truly a win/win for everybody.

You can view Thomas’ slides here.

Syndicate 3 & 4

International

Laura McInley - How to produce great multilingual content, even when you can’t read it?

The International session was kicked off by Laura McInley, Senior Content Analyst at Oban International. Laura spoke about the importance of localising content as 17% of the world's population speaks English and 40% of consumers will not make a purchase in another language. Localised content helps to build trust with customers, allows customers to fully understand the information presented and makes a consumer more likely to buy from you.?

So, what is localised content? Laura explained that localised content isn’t just the same content put through a translator tool, it instead includes market-specific topics and phrasing, cultural nuance, and even edits to site structure and user experience. To create great localised content, you can’t work alone: local in-market experts (LIMES) are essential, and having multiple people create, edit, and quality check the content is also key.?

Laura also shared some great tips for working with LIMES on localised content:

• Create extremely detailed briefs with every detail and no assumptions – this can otherwise lead to mismatched expectations
• Look for freelancers with industry-specific experience
• Make sure that you interview more people than you’ll need to ensure the necessary availability going forward

Overall, Laura’s talk was an entertaining and informative discussion of localising content with some great case studies and examples.?

Take a look at Laura’s slides here.

Hinde Lamrani - Bridging the content divide: Removing the language barrier for international success?

Next up, Hinde Lamrani of Acolad Group spoke about dealing with a language barrier to achieve success internationally. Hinde discussed how the most successful companies have global mindsets meaning that they focus on markets outside the home market, while also aligning globalisation and marketing efforts. She spoke a lot about the barriers to this, including examples of siloed teams, different departments with different KPIs, and poor communication between different teams.?

Hinde shared some great tips for content across borders:

• Use taglines and messaging that makes sense to people in other parts of the world
• Be careful with the language you use – for example, ‘car rental’ versus ‘car hire’
• Take spelling into account – eg. ‘accommodation’ is 10x more likely to convert than ‘accomodation’ in Australia
• Connect the various globalisation, localisation, and marketing teams together for success
• Create clear and detailed briefs for content

Overall, Hinde’s talk provided some useful insights and tips that we found very valuable.?

Check out Hinde’s slides here.?

Sarah Presch - Cultural sociology & SEO: How culture impacts buyer behaviour and can help improve rankings

Director of International SEO at Argos Multilingual Sarah Presch concluded the session. Sarah’s intriguing talk looked closer at culture from a sociological perspective and explored how cultural identifies can impact SEO and buyer behaviour. By better understanding other cultures, we can see a significant growth in rankings, she argued.?

After looking at some theoretical ideas about culture, Sarah discussed some aspects of what this means in practice:?

• International communication – understanding that what might be seen as polite in one country, could be seen as rude in another.?
• International negotiations – how you negotiate depending on where you come from.
• International management – it’s important to be sensitive to cultural differences between teams.?
• International marketing – understanding how people think to market your product to them effectively

In terms of SEO we need to understand our international target audience by learning about their needs and motivations from a cultural perspective. For example, Sarah explained how Just Eat’s new orange branding was rejected in Belfast because of the association with the political and religious group The Orange Order.?

After more fascinating examples and tips, Sarah’s presentation brought the International session to a close.??

Take a look at Sarah’s slides.?

Collaboration

Becky Simms - Your customer doesn’t care what channel you use: How to integrate SEO and Paid

First up in the collaboration session was Becky Simms, CEO and Founder at Reflect Digital. Becky’s talk was a fascinating look into integrating SEO with your paid marketing strategies. If you’re interested in human behaviour and psychology, this talk was definitely for you. Becky’s presentation was based on a whitepaper from Reflect Digital that tracked a customer’s purchasing journey when looking to buy a couch. This report was a fascinating look into a customers’ purchasing habits and how we can use that information to increase conversion.?

Using this case study, Becky talked through the ‘customer journey recipe’ she and her team developed. This recipe takes into consideration customer motivations, journey paths, and different forms of brand opportunities. The essential takeaway from this presentation was that in order to hit high conversion rates and retain customers, there needs to be strong collaboration between SEO and paid marketing strategies. Without this, any efforts would be wasted.

Becky’s talk was super informative while being accessible even to SEO beginners. By using a detailed case study, she was able to ground her information and make a strong case for her psychology-based approach. Overall, it was an engaging presentation that truly captured the importance of collaboration.

Check out Becky's slides here.

Himani Kankaria - Remarketing SEO: a no-paid targeting technique to multiply organic traffic?

This presentation by Himana Kankaria, founder of Missive Digital, was all about how we can use remarketing to maximise ROI in our organic channels. Remarketing SEO, she explained, is all about being visible every time your audience searches for you, building brand loyalty and contributing to search. She looked at some key aspects of the process:

• People: identifying prospects (decision makers) and influencers (people who will influence decision makers), creating an ideal customer profile, and mapping search intent using the AAIDA model (awareness, attention, interest, desire, action)
• Platform’s compatibility to support search: identifying the platforms and how they contribute to search, for example email and social media?
• Presence on SERPs: building your brand’s presence on SERPs and optimising for different features such as featured snippets, shopping, news packs, etc.?

Then, Himani shared some tips for checking if your remarketing is working by tracking new and returning visitors separately in reporting.?

Our favourite takeaway from Himani’s talk? That in 2022, it’s not about holding the top spot in the SERPs. It’s about being on top of the SERPs and taking up the most pixels.?

All round, a great talk from Himani.?

View Himani's slides here.

Prachi Keshavani - Conquering Imposter Syndrome as a Beginner

Do any of these things sound familiar?

• Feeling like a fraud
• Struggling to accept compliments
• Convincing yourself that all your successes are because you were in the right place at the right time
• Feeling the need to be superhuman

These are all signs of impostor syndrome, FCDC Technical SEO Trainee Prachi Keshavani explained in her talk. Everyone experiences it at some point: CEOs, newbies, and everyone in between. You’re not alone, she said.

Throughout her valuable and insightful talk, Prachi shared tips for identifying and overcoming impostor syndrome, with some great tips for beating it. Some of our favourite techniques she suggested included:

• Keeping a log of your past achievements
• Accepting compliments?
• Recognising that your opinions and contributions are valuable
• If you’re a manager, checking in with teams
• Asking for feedback

Our biggest takeaways from Prachi’s talk were that we should learn to value ourselves more, accept the compliments we receive, and take the time to check in on your team.

The Restaurant

Showcase: SERP Analysis

Rachel Ellen - Livin' la vida local: the changing landscape of local search

The SERP Analysis showcase was kicked off by Croud’s Rachel Ellen who got into the SEO industry 6 years ago after being hired as a project manager for an SEO team – a decision that ultimately changed the course of her career. With a little help from the beautiful Ricky Martin, Rachel Ellen used her talk to share the lessons she’s learnt working in Local SEO. She introduced us to The A Game: Assess, Adapt and Act.

1. ‘Assess: Always be aware of the bigger picture.’

What’s influencing search habits? What global event might be affecting search behaviour?

This year we’ve seen a growing demand for visual content which we can trace to the boom of TikTok. It’s no coincidence that Google has announced Google I/O 2022 which Rachel dubbed ‘a visual revolution’ and amidst all this change, the local landscape has changed too.?

‘Searches for “open near me: have grown globally by over 400% YOY.’

- Bill Ready, Google (March 2022)

More and more Gen Z users are turning to social platforms for their search needs and everyone is fighting for a piece of the pie. Instagram has introduced an immersive map; TikTok has an ever growing local search appeal and ‘Nearby’ feature; and Apple Maps is soon set to introduce local search ads. All in all, it looks like Google’s dominance is under threat.

• ‘40% of Gen Z users are now reportedly turning to search within social platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.’
• ‘63% of US product searches now begin on Amazon.’

2. ‘Adapt: To protect its dominance, Google has to be proactive to change and so must we.’

What are the implications for change? What’s the future advantageous positions? What are the strategic objectives?

Rachel broke down the Framework for Change into 3 steps starting with Research & Analysis. Users are no longer looking to Google for answers due to the rise in AI generated content which has created a landscape of low quality and unhelpful content in the Google SERPs.

Next is Theorising & Prediction: Google has determined that they need to improve the way they determine quality and regulate content.

And finally, action. In order to combat the scourge of bland content, Google will be focusing on boosting different types of content to help engagement (Multitask Unified Model). They’ve also identified a need for E-A-T focused content and we’ve already begun to see the effects of that underway with the recent Helpful Content Update.

‘Understanding where Google is heading helps us plan effectively and stay ahead of the curve.’

3. ‘Act: Be found. Be chosen. Be proactive. Be effective.’

What are the actions we can now take?

Rachel (and Ricky Martin) walked us through the evolution of users’ search behaviour, how Google is reacting to this change, and then finally, how SEOs can keep up. Rachel (and we can’t forget Ricky Martin) gifted us a neat list of actionable points we can all apply to our businesses/our client’s businesses:

• Prioritise GBP levers
• Get the basics right for visibility (reviews, categories, NAP, images)
• Explore citation management options
• Provide ‘local’ helpful answers
• Visually showcase your business

So it seems, as long as we remember The A Game, Local Search is nothing to be afraid of. It’s all about meeting demand for what’s needed now and nearby, and providing those rich research opportunities online which lead to transactions offline. All in all, Rachel delivered an insightful and informative talk on Local Search which I’m sure left most (if not all) attendees feeling like they too can be livin’ la vida local!

Take a look at Rachel’s slides here.

Jon Earnshaw - The Zero Click SERP - Taking you closer to the money

Two years ago when the Zero Click report was released the search community panicked – but not Jon. Jon Earnshaw, co-founder of Pi Datametrics, came to BrightonSEO with the goal of making us all fall in love with the Zero Click SERP, and, judging by the atmosphere in the room after his talk, it looks like he succeeded.

“Search is no longer about question and answer.”

– Prabhakar Raghavan, Head of Search at Google

So why aren’t we clicking anymore? Simply put: people are refining their search. We can see this when we look at just how much the Google SERPs have evolved over the years. Related Searches, People Also Ask, Refine This Search – Google has been continuously demonstrating that refining search intent is key to the user journey. And as Jon quite poetically put it, “Search is a voyage of exploration and discovery.”

This means that when you’re thinking of the keywords you want to rank for, always start with the SERP. Jon could not emphasise enough the importance of using the SERP data to understand what your audience is actually looking for.

• What are users looking for? - Related Searches & Refine This Search
• What questions are users asking? - People Also Ask

He continued by asking the all important question, “Do I belong?”. As SEOs, we need to be able to recognise whether or not we belong in a search landscape otherwise our content will get skipped over as users refine their search by clicking yet another Related Search term.

Luckily, Jon reassured us all that we can target multiple doorways. Google has gone above and beyond to provide as many SERP features as it can fit onto one page, and we need to optimise for every single one of these features. In fact, Jon provided us with an example of a business that had successfully done just that and had completely dominated the SERP features.

Finally, after a long day of talks, Jon sent us home with a message of love: “Fall in love with the zero click SERP!” And honestly, we think he might have us convinced…

Take a look at Jon’s slides here.

Showcase: Onsite SEO

Pierre-Olivier Danhaive: Automating a Scalable Long Tail Keyword Strategy for E-Commerce

This talk by Pierre-Olivier Danhavie, CEO and Founder of Verbolia, was a great one for new SEO strategists looking to strengthen how they work with long tail keywords.?

He started off by introducing long tail keywords, which are essentially more specific keywords that help to accurately categorise your products (eg. ‘jeans for women’ can lead to ‘slim fit mom jeans’). He then shows us that by utilising long tail keywords effectively, we can increase non-branded SEO traffic by 15-30%.

His strategy for maximising long tail keywords involves using the most relevant keywords and content for your products, which you can find through automated systems like Semrush as well as your own product catalogue. You should then dynamically link your Product Listing Pages (PLP) based on semantic proximity and real time long analysis (which shows pages least crawled by Google Bot). With these tips you’ll be able to use long tail keywords to your advantage and boost your brands traffic and conversion rates.?

This was a great talk from Pierre-Olivier that was perfect for new SEO strategists and anyone interested in learning more about automation in SEO.

Take a look at Pierre-Olivier's slides here.

Pierre Couzy: Automation + Organic Search: How to Use AI-Driven Insights to Inform and Action Your SEO Priorities

Pierre Couzy’s talk was a great way for any in-house SEOs to figure out more effective ways to work with developers on their website’s backend. Nobody wants to deal with bad bots and behaviour, the Botify CTO explained, especially with how they can negatively impact our sites.?

During this presentation, Pierre highlighted the benefits of using automated systems and CDN’s such as monitoring sites, indexability, and predicting traffic/conversions. This was an interesting presentation for SEOs looking to strengthen their backend.

Michael Boosalis: Start By Looking At Your ‘Head’: Jamstack SEO?

Next up, we had Michael Boosalis, Product Marketing Manager at Storyblok. His talk about headless CMS’ was a great presentation for content-focused SEOs who want to delve a bit deeper into the more technical aspects of SEO web development. He specifically talked about Jamstack, a type of software architecture with headless capabilities.?

Some of the struggles we SEOs experience include missing the mark on multiple channels (eg. mobile or metaverse), integrating UX/UI with technical SEO, and ensuring your content is performing well on all channels and platforms. Michael highlighted how Jamstack can help to create a more flexible way of developing websites that helps to streamline your processes while increasing site speed, performance, and security. You also get the added benefit of a more user-friendly process of adding content for your content team, he argued.

This was another interesting presentation for those looking to find new tools to streamline their SEO and development practices.

View Michael Boosalis' deck here.

Showcase: Search Skills

Louis Venter and Sam Pennington - Redefining SEO = People + Technology’?

The third session of the day can be a challenging one at Brighton SEO, with everyone feeling the effects of the post-lunch lull mixing with the mild hangover from karaoke the night before. In this part of the afternoon, a dark auditorium or an overly comfy chair can be risky business, so the speakers need to be especially engaging to re-invigorate the audience. With an exciting line-up of speakers in the Search Skills session, we weren’t disappointed.?

Finally a talk for fashion-loving SEOs (there are a fair few of us on the VG team). New Look’s Senior SEO Manager Sam Pennington and MediaVision CEO Louis Venter tag-teamed a presentation about their approach to eCommerce SEO.?

In their talk, they highlighted some of the different features of the SEO platform Metis and how they use it to manage SEO for New Look’s massive, 25,000 product strong eCommerce store. From product visibility to demand tracking, they shared some of the key considerations when dealing with eCommerce SEO at a large scale.?

As an agency working with multiple major eCommerce clients, this talk was very interesting to the VG team. We especially liked the end of Louis and Sam’s presentation where they discussed the importance of transparency in SEO. With many eCommerce businesses having been over-promised or misled by SEO agencies in the past, which causes them to lose trust in SEO in general. Together, we all need to take steps to make SEO more transparent and regain that trust. Here at VG, we couldn’t agree more.?

Ashley Berman-Hale - The evolution of SEO: how our roles are expanding?

Next up was Ashley Berman-Hale, VP of Professional Services at Lumar (formerly Deepcrawl). She gave an expansive presentation that looked at the past, present, and future of SEO.?

First, Ashley looked to the past. The first known use of the term ‘search engine optimisation’ was on a forum in 1995, after the manager of the rock band Jefferson Starship realised that their website was on the fourth page of the search results. In 2007, someone tried to trademark the term but two amazing women, Sarah Bird and Rhea Drysdale managed to get the case reversed with the patent office. Ashley spoke about a range of interesting developments in the history of SEO up until the current day, dropping fascinating facts and lots of jokes.?

Then, she looked at the current state of SEO. Discussing the way that Lumar is starting to change how they talk about the SEO industry, Ashley introduced the term ‘digital operations’ which she argued:

1. Sounds cooler (admittedly, it’s true)
2. Communicates that our jobs are about so much more than just SEO

‘Our field is like this cauldron of magic right now,’ Ashley said. There are so many exciting things happening in SEO and demand for SEOs is growing and growing.?

Finally, Ashley looked to the future of SEO and shared tips for us all to future-proof our careers and achieve success. She shared a great acronym to explain the areas where SEOs can show off their skills: CAUSe.?

Compliance

Accessibility

User experience

Security

Overall, we loved Ashley’s discussion of the SEO industry in all its quirks. Always funny, and engaging, this presentation taught us a lot we never knew about the world of SEO. We can’t wait for Ashley’s next talk!

Tom Brennan: I am a donut: how to avoid international SEO mistakes

‘Ich bin ein Berliner.’

Those were the words US President John F Kennedy spoke in 1963 to express solidarity with divided Berlin during the cold war. According to urban legend, a ‘Berliner’ in Germany was a word for a jam donut, leading to the audience wondering why JFK had announced ‘I am a donut.’

Tom Brennan, SEO Account Director at Adapt Worldwide, took inspiration from this for his discussion of international SEO gaffes and how to avoid them. In his fast-paced presentation, Tom looked at three main areas where many businesses doing international SEO slip up: localisation, hreflang, and competitor research.?

1. Localisation: When moving into a foreign market, you can’t just translate each keyword and hope for the best. Successful international SEO requires you to do deep localisation research to understand the culture and how people search in different countries. This is even relevant in countries with a common language: people searching for ‘pants’ mean something different in the UK to what they mean in the USA.
2. Hreflang: It’s important to make sure that hreflang is set up correctly on your site, with the different versions of the site linking correctly to each other, the right country and ISO codes being used, and self-referential annotation implemented. Tom suggested using a spreadsheet to keep track of all global URLs and understand the relationship between them.
3. Competitor research: Moving into a foreign market without researching the local market’s competitors is a big mistake. International SEOs need to do a SWOT analysis to find out how the competitor landscape differs, including backlink analysis and content analysis.?

While international SEO can be extremely challenging, Tom’s talk broke it down into manageable and memorable chunks.?

Perhaps the best part of the talk was the end, where Tom admitted that he had been challenged at karaoke the night before to incorporate singing into his presentation. Referencing Wham!’s ‘I’m Your Man’, he belted out his international SEO themed parody:?

‘If you localise, do it right, right!’?

After a memorable ending, Tom left the stage to great applause, marking the end of the insightful Search Skills session.?

Want to learn more? You can take a look at Tom’s slides here.?

Showcase: Search Performance

Gareth Simpson - Stating the business case for links?

Our next stop was the Search Performance session, a series of talks that promised actionable tips and insights. By this point in the afternoon, the sun had broken through the clouds to shine through the windows of the Restaurant stage, an airy upstairs room with beautiful views over the sea and Brighton Pier. We took our seats and got ready to take notes on the upcoming presentations.??

The session kicked off with Gareth Simpson, Founder and CEO of Seeker Digital, who took us through the process of building a business case for backlinks. As he explained, this can be challenging; link building is challenging, non-SEOs find it confusing, and the stakes are high because the wrong links can cause a lot of damage to your site.?

It’s also hard to predict and control in comparison to other digital marketing practices such as PPC. Despite the value of link building, there’s a lot of misinformation about the practice and many people are sceptical.?

So, with this in mind, building a strong justification for investment in link building is important and challenging. Gareth shared his process for this, starting with gap analyses (domain-level gaps and page-level gaps), as well as a range of case studies and examples.?

While many of us understand that link building is extremely valuable – ‘link building ROI is the hill I’m willing to die on,’ Gareth’s slides announced – it can be hard to communicate this with non-SEOs. Gareth’s presentation provided some great tips for making a business case for link building which we learned a lot from.?

Will Critchlow - What we can learn from losing tests - the importance of paying attention to negative outcomes?

Another tip-filled talk followed from SearchPilot founder and CEO Will Critchlow, who entertained us with basketball analogies throughout his presentation.?

SEO can be somewhat chaotic and confusing, he argued. We don’t always know what works and what doesn’t work. In Will’s words, ‘a lot of SEO is like asking, “will you come on an adventure with me?”’

Is there a way that we can bring the scientific method to SEO and achieve better results? Will thinks so. He discussed SEO testing, where you run controlled experiments where a group of pages remain the same (the control group) while another group of statistically similar pages are changed slightly (the independent variable) to see what happens. From changing title tags to culling content and many other SEO changes, this type of testing can help you figure out what works for your site.?

But Will’s presentation then went further – he focused on the value of failed tests, the ones that present negative results. We tend not to see the value in these exercises that lead to a decline in search performance, but Will argued that these are just as useful as positive results. Why? Because these help you figure out what not to do and allow you to better focus your SEO efforts.?

An interesting presentation with a unique angle and some great basketball analogies, we really enjoyed Will’s session.?

You can enjoy his basketball-filled slides too by clicking here.?

Matt Alfrey & Carl Sadecki Delivering total performance in B2B through content-led SEO?

Delivered jointly by Breathe HR’s Carl Sadecki and RocketMill’s Head of SEO Matt Alfrey, the final presentation in the Search Performance session was a great insight into the collaboration between a business and their digital marketing agency. The pair explained how RocketMill has helped Breathe transform its SEO with a content-led strategy.?

This talk was particularly interesting to us due to the emphasis on the close collaboration between agency and client, with the agency acting as a helpful extension to Breathe’s own marketing team. Carl and Matt shared their content audit strategy and their ‘keep, revise, delete’ process which made it easy to transform Breathe’s existing content to help it perform better.?

Matt and Carl’s presentation marked the end of the Search Performance session, another interesting session that we enjoyed.

Keynote

Search Off The Record Live: John Mueller, Lizzi Sassman, Myriam Jessier

The second day of Brighton SEO was coming to an end with only the keynote left. We packed into the buzzing Auditorium 1 for the keynote, a live podcast recording with Google’s John Mueller and Lizzi Sassman, and PRAGM’s Myriam Jessier.?

Styled as a Q&A with pre-submitted questions, they chatted about a range of topics, cracking jokes and sharing insights about the future of SEO. All three were interesting and funny – we’d love to have them on our podcast!?

However, we couldn’t help wondering whether a live podcast recording was the correct choice for the keynote speech. After a long day of listening to talks, it felt like the podcast format wasn’t engaging enough to reinvigorate the audience and close Brighton SEO with a bang. (The gold standard of Brighton SEO keynotes, in our opinion, was the one in April 2022 by Andi Jarvis, whose brilliant presentation on Strategy vs. Tactics in marketing encompassed both Sun Tzu and Lethal Bizzle. Absolutely iconic.)?

The let-down of the keynote left us thinking back to the Diversity session that morning. The talks covered some of the most important issues in SEO and the world more widely: representation, accessibility, community, and celebrating our differences. Yet, the Diversity session had been confined to one of the venue’s smallest rooms and as Areej Abuali accurately pointed out on Twitter, ‘the people attending the Diversity track today at #BrightonSEO weren't the people who needed to be listening to the Diversity track.’?

What if next time the organisers ensured that bigger stages were given to the topics that really matter, with our friends at B-Digital, Watch This Sp_ce, and the FCDC getting the wider recognition they deserve? What if next time diversity and inclusion was made a real priority with a keynote speech dedicated to the topic, or at least a session in Auditorium One??

Just a thought for next time – BrightonSEO it’s your move!?