On Friday 13th September search marketers from all over the world flocked to the sunny British coast to experience Brighton SEO. The conference started life as a conversation in a pub and has grown into a twice-yearly event where search marketers can go to get industry expertise, fresh ideas and keep up-to-date with trends in SEO.
Complete with the usual quirkiness delegates have come to expect from the conference (Star Wars characters, giant deckchairs and of course a healthy number of cat gifs) there was a whole host of informative talks to catch throughout the day. Here’s a rundown of my top 3 takeaways from the event.
1. Focus less on the keywords and more on the user
Greg Gifford kicked off the day with a frightfully good session titled ‘Beetlejuice’s Guide to Entities and the Future of SEO’, complete with a horror movie still in every slide.
He explained brilliantly how Google has progressed from simple keyword matching patterns towards a better understanding of user’s intent and real-world signals. We’ve known for a while that SEO is less about writing content targeting exactly the right keywords and more about having the best answer based on the intent of the searcher. Greg gave some fantastic points to think about when it comes to writing content including:
- Write content that answers questions in a unique way
- Make sure content sounds conversational
- Stop focusing on matching specific keywords
2. See what your competitors are doing… and then do it better
I’m a big fan of seeing what Google is already favouring when it comes to your competitors and working it into your own SEO plans, so Lukasz Zelezny’s session ‘How to Turn Your SEO from Zero to Hero with GAP’ was easily my favourite takeaway from the conference. It was full of useful advice on using SEMrush’s GAP analysis tool to discover the common keywords your top competitors all rank for and drilling down into the data to source a list of keyword and content ideas for your own company or client.
Safe to say I tested out his method on my first day back in the office after Brighton SEO and it was fantastic technique that I plan to work into our research for clients here at the Ideal Marketing Company.
3. Personas can perfect your reporting
Rumble Romagnoli guided the audience through the idea that reporting should be unique to different stakeholders. This allows you to share what’s important to them specifically with the goal that they really read and digest what you are presenting. For example, if your client contact is a marketer at a large global company, they are far more likely to be interested in marketing-specific KPIs and terminology than a small business owner. I build most of the reports here at the Ideal Marketing Company, so his advice was well received and I’ll be using it to perfect our own client reporting.
SEO services and advice for your business
Whether you are an SEO pro or simply want to know how it can help your business I highly recommend trying to attend Brighton SEO!
If you’re interested in hiring an SEO agency to improve your brand’s online presence get in touch today to discuss how The Ideal Marketing Company can support your business.
