We’ve compiled the key takeaways from the September 2018 edition of BrightonSEO. We’ve also included slides from most of the speakers, so you can see their presentations here too. Enjoy!
We hope you are enjoying the Google Grump grumpy t-shirts and having lots of fun at BrightonSEO!
Accuranker BrightonSEO 2018
BrightonSEO featured around 80 speakers in 7 sections, covering many important topics related to search marketing:
Link Building and Content Marketing
Ross Tavendale - Data Journalism: A practical guide to gaining great connections
Ross talked about how to use data journalism as spain mobile phone numbers database a tactic to gain links in the world’s biggest publications, and he explained his framework and methodology for coming up with great brand ideas.
Why are we doing this again? Because the data says so!
Ross covered campaign research, Headlines for Angles and Pitch (RAP page), and where to get data to make objective decisions. There are 3 data sources that can be used to tell a story: proprietary data from analytics, public data from government databases, and potential data from surveys.
three data sources for storytellingRoss Tavendale - BrightonSEO, September 2018
In our methodology, content finds the audience.
So, when you know your target audience inside and out, your content will definitely find them.
Stacey MacNaught - Securing Links Before You Even Create Your Content
Stacey spoke about creating content for link acquisition and how best to do it. She focused on explaining how to secure links before you even produce your content.
Before you jump into content production, you need to validate your idea and have a well-researched list of media and journalists who are already interested in your story. This will help you develop your ideas and gain traction.
Understanding your target audience is everything. Misunderstanding your target publication’s audience is a common reason your content doesn’t get published. Since it’s dangerous to make assumptions, review their media kits to learn about their target audience and use the findings in your pitch emails. Make sure you’re pitching to the most relevant department in the publication.
Stacey MacNaught BrightonSEO quoteStacey MacNaught - BrightonSEO, September 2018
Technical SEO
Barry Adams - Technical SEO in the real world
Barry talked about the benefits of good Information Architecture, why it is important, and how it goes beyond site navigation. He gave examples of good IA that have helped websites perform better in search.
Faster website = more pages crawled by Google in the same amount of time. Reduce the volume of internal referrals to preserve link value.
He recommends reading the book The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine
Another lesson Barry shared is that if you want rich snippets in Google, put schema markup in the head section of the page's HTML source.
Barry Adams says put schema markup in the head section of the page's HTML source
Helen Pollitt - Technical SEO Audit Top Tips for Beginners
Helen gave a summary of Technical SEO audit tips. She went over tips on which tools to use, how to crawl your site and what to look for in Google Search Console. She also gave tips on how to optimise page speed and encouraged the use of Google Tag Manager.
Don't forget to:
Check speed for desktop and mobile .
Set up a scanner to scan subdomains.
Check your site for HTTP resources.
Do not block JS and CSS.
Do not use Flash for mobile site.
Dominic Woodman - If You Take One Thing From Technical SEO... Learn How to Debug
Dominic talked about the importance of debugging. Debugging is a special type of problem solving. Take apart, rebuild, and test to solve your problem.
Marketing problems are often difficult because there is a lot of complicated language. Write as if you won’t be back for 2 months. You will appreciate it in the future. A problem you can’t recreate consistently is a problem you can’t test and fix. If you see problems that aren’t consistent, they are best caught in the logs.
Dominic Woodman BrightonSeoDominic Woodman - BrightonSEO, September 2018
Take your problem and break it down into pieces that you can test one by one.
Site Speed
Fili Wiese - Accelerate: Page Speed Optimization Tips
Fili gave tons of page speed optimization tips in his talk. He also hosted a training session on Thursday: Advanced Technical On-Page SEO Training Course.
Fili shared unique insights and many practical hands-on tips, ideas, strategy thoughts, options, and tactics on how to make your website super fast for the mobile-first world, including implementing AMP, optimizing HTML, and more. His talk was as packed with tips as the room itself.
Fili Wiese BrightonSEO - hands-on tips, ideas, strategy-considerations, options and tactics on how to make your website super fast for the mobile-first worldFili Wiese - BrightonSEO, September 2018
SERPs
Rand Fishkin - The Future of SEO is in the SERP
Rand focused on the changing search landscape and how Google has made it more difficult to win on SEO and social channels than in previous years.
Rand discussed ways to get a strong return on investment from search investments:
Focus on your brand
Control your branded SERP reputation management
Impress publishers listed in featured snippets
Invest in ON-SERP SEO
Rand pointed out that Google cares about itself and not others, and said, "Gaining organic traffic has never been more difficult and never been more important."
Before the event, Rand Fishkin asked Twitter if people had noticed that tweets with links got less visibility on the page, because Rand had noticed that simple tweets (without links) performed much better, meaning they got higher engagement, reach, and more impressions.
Rand FishkinTweet
During his keynote in Brighton, he concluded that any post with links on LinkedIn and Twitter (and probably Facebook too) gets less visibility, so it’s better to include a link at the bottom of the post in the first comment to get more visibility.
Rand Fishkin at BrightonSEO 2018Rand Fishkin - BrightonSEO, September 2018
Q&A Session with Rand Fishkin
What are your thoughts on voice search with the rise of smart speakers and what impact do you think it will have on SEO?
I think smart speakers are more of an addition to search than a cannibalization. I don’t think we’re going to see a huge shift in keyword demand from phones to desktops, devices, laptops, and browsers. I suspect that most of the queries we’re going to make across all of these device types are going to be unique. Maybe a few areas where Google already has instant answers, like weather or sports scores. I don’t see a huge risk there. I also suspect that there will be some opportunities for organic or paid sponsorships to get your brands into that space in the long term.
Question and Answer Session with Rand FishkinRand Fishkin- Q&A during BrightonSEO, September 2018
Google AMP - New fad or new feature?
I think a year ago I would have said it was the future, but right now I feel like it could be a fad. It could be more like Google Plus than mobile search. A lot of publishers are rebelling against user experience control. Implementing AMP is almost as hard as making your own very fast mobile website, and I think it could become a fad. I'm hopeful about it because I don't think it's a good thing that Google is controlling the web with AMP.
What is your advice to SEO professionals for the next year and what do you think will happen in 5 years?
Five years is a long time. The pace of change for Google is not as fast as it was in, say, 2001 or 2005, or even 2010. My guess is that we're going to see a continuation of the transformation that we're seeing today. Google is trying to answer more queries, it's moving into more verticals, it's cannibalizing a lot of search opportunities, especially for highly commercial or easy-to-answer informational queries. That means marketers are going to have to be much smarter and more targeted in their keyword targeting and keyword research. They're going to have to pick words and phrases that Google can't instantly answer, cannibalize, and take away from them. I think that's going to mean a lot more SEO is going to focus on content marketing, it's going to focus on creating brand demand. So more people are going to be searching for your brand, and a lot more people are going to be trying to find ways to drive additional types of traffic, not just SEO.
