On the 13th September I attended what I think must be my 5th or 6th BrightonSEO, a one day search marketing conference, which takes place in the Brighton dome complex. As legendary as the day is, BrightonSEO is also known for its epic after parties, where digital marketers from all over the country combine for an incredibly messy night. The event normally gathers around 2,000 people, while the free tickets are sold out within 20 minutes of becoming available, with a massive list of people desperately trying to find a way to get hold of any backup or unused tickets.
Before I kick off with the slides from the conference, I felt a wee bit of entertainment would be good, so hear is Kelvin Newman and the crew singing Spandau Ballet’s ‘Gold’ karaoke style at the afterparty:
Anywho, The conference was great entertainment and there were some really interesting talks, therefore I have done my best to find all the slides, which are below. If you know of any others, please do let me know in the comments at the bottom and I will try to include them on this post.
Lisa Myers made a great speech about on-page content marketing – ‘the ugly duckling of SEO’, while the slides can be viewed below. Lisa points out that a successful SEO strategy is knowing that there is more to organic traffic than ‘hero keywords’, with the longtail terms making up 70% of searches.
Jennifer Sable Lopez, the director of community at Moz (also highlighting DO NOT call it SEOMOZ), talked about the ins and outs of testing social. The slides are below, while she really points out how important it is to test the best times to post, rather than just relying on a hunch or guessing. I am quite a victim to simply posting at the most suitable time for me rather than when is best, so this is definitely something I have to start considering more.
Next is one of my favourites, a talk by Phil Nottingham, from Distilled, on video hacks. If you are interested in learning how to improve your video editing skills, I would check out slide 36, where Phil has listed a number of great resources. Another great point from Phil was that he would rather spend his money on lighting than a good camera, as this makes a ridiculously big difference in regards to the final quality. Check out his slides below:
Bridget Randolph, SEO analyst at Distilled, talked about mobile strategy for small businesses. With ever increasing traffic for mobile, especially for localised based searches, mobile is becoming more and more important for small businesses.
Jan-Willem Bobbink, the international SEO manager at Internet Advantage, held his talk on ‘search engines: Where are we heading’. With the dominance of Google in the UK, it is very important to remember that when operating abroad, it might not always be the case that Google is the be all and end all when it comes to search engine optimisation. However, even in Europe where Google is the dominating force, there are still a number of other search engines, which combined will still make up for a decent amount of traffic.
Danny Ashton had a very different talk to the usual, as he illustrated how seduction techniques can be used to help you become a content outreach expert. His presentation on the ‘rules of the Game’ can be seen below. His tips were very well connected to outreach, while I found them to be useful tips for life as a whole. Danny also offered the book ‘Contagious’ out as a prize, which went out to the lucky winner Matt Daley (@matt_daley_uk).