Earlier this month, our team of Digital Marketing Specialists hopped on a train and headed for Brighton SEO 2019, one of the UK’s biggest search marketing conferences and training events.
In the last few years, we have loved taking a trip along the coast to Brighton to expand our specialist knowledge in all aspects of SEO even further through brightonSEO’s talks on everything from eCommerce marketing to content marketing to paid search marketing (PPC) .
Here are our Specialists’ key takeaways from the April 2019 edition of brightonSEO:
Ellie Ferguson – SEO Content and Outreach Specialist
I was so pleased to hear that I could attend brightonSEO 2019 after my first visit last year! There are so many great and inspiring speakers there and the team always comes back with some great information to help our clients further improve their search engine rankings and traffic.
One talk I was eager to attend was by Greg Gifford on local SEO and Google My Business optimisation – a huge talking point within SEO right now. From 2017-18, Google My Business (GMB) signals increased by a whopping 31.14%. GMB listings now also have a lot more features but, surprisingly, not many businesses are using them.
Not only can you can add your address, images, opening hours, upcoming events, a product carousel and contact details to your GMB listing – you can also add attention-grabbing, optimised posts which are great for interaction, driving pre-site conversions and – seeing as not many businesses are taking advantage of this feature – standing out from your competitors!
Google users are now able to follow you too, meaning that your posts, events and business will show on their suggested feed. There is also an interactive Q&A section now available – this shows high in the panel so it’s important to monitor these and keep them in your control, as anyone is able to ask, answer and upvote answers.
Providing help and answering questions leaves a great first impression and can even result in leads – Greg gave an example of one of his clients where, after analysing the Q&A section on their GMB listing, it turned out 40% of the questions were leads! That’s the kind of high-intent traffic you do not want to miss out on.
Of course, these are just some of the features that show that Google My Business is becoming much more than just a listings directory. As Greg suggested, your GMB listing practically your ‘new home page’.
Jessica Sellers – SEO Project Lead
The reason I enjoy going to brightonSEO is because it brings together like-minded individuals in the digital marketing industry who all want to consolidate their knowledge and learn more.
I personally love a challenge – that is why tasks that require effort to get results such as winning featured snippets have always intrigued me, and why I set out to learn more about this during my second visit to brightonSEO.
As someone who shares the same drive and passion as I have for digital marketing, Emily Potter from Distilled was perhaps the one speaker that really stood out to me. Her topic was around featured snippets and the achievable SERP feature, with Emily taking us through her story of being challenged to win a featured snippet for one of her clients.
The talk took us on a journey where she educated herself and improved content to win the featured snippet, only for Google to later remove the featured snippet on the search term before she was able to see results. Her journey taught me that patience and hard work can help you to achieve anything as long as you also possess the right knowledge.
A seminar later in the day demonstrated to the listeners that good communication and honesty were the best ingredients to a long lasting client relationship. This is information which I will take on board for the rest of my career.
brightonSEO is a great experience for anyone passionate in the digital marketing industry who is wanting to learn more for the future. I am super excited to put the valuable lessons I learnt into my work processes for the future!
Antony Potts – PPC Strategist
I’ve been attending brightonSEO for around five years now, and it’s been amazing to see it grow into something of an SEO phenomenon. The latest event was absolutely no exception – it was a fantastic day that boasted a good range of speakers and exhibitors, covering all aspects of search engine marketing.
The key takeaways from this year’s event actually came from the Client Success portion of the day, particularly from Briony Gunson in her talk on efficiency in the workplace. Briony taught me the invaluable lesson that stress inhibits creativity – something I think a lot of us need to learn more about – and gave me some excellent tips on reducing stress in the workplace through her methods of mindset mastery and meditation.
The next brightonSEO takes place from September 12th-13th, 2019 at Brighton Centre. Click here to find out more.
Photo credit: Clive Andrews
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