Following an evening of socialising with likeminded marketers at the Lumar party held at Patterns, we returned to the Brighton centre for the second and final day of BrightonSEO.
Day two kicked off in the main auditorium, where Araminta Robertson, Fiona Brennan and Anna Morrish presented talks on content strategy.
Content strategy
Araminta Robertson was first to take the stage, with a session titled “Yes, you can acquire customers by writing about your competitors.” The session, as you guessed, was focused on how you can catch people further in the sales funnel by writing comparison posts about your competitors.
People that are comparing different options are much more likely to convert than those who are in the early stages of their research.
Araminta stressed that it wasn’t about putting your competitors down, as your readers can see through that, and that it’s important you don’t say that you offer the best. Have an attitude of “our product is the best for a specific type of customer”.
Fiona Brennan followed, with her talk on “sustainable content: why we need it and why it matters.”
I don’t know what I was expecting from this talk, maybe something on the importance of repurposing existing content, however, that was far from the point.
Fiona discussed the impact that the internet can have on carbon emissions, and how we can use online tools to estimate the digital carbon footprint of our website.
According to Website Carbon, the average web page produces approximately 0.8 grams CO2 equivalent per pageview. For a website with 10,000 monthly page views, that’s 102 kg CO2e per year.
The steps we can take to improve our digital footprint go hand in hand with search engine optimization. A page that matches the intent of the searcher limits the browsing time, which means less energy is consumed. Similarly, the quicker the page loads, the less energy is consumed.
A very interesting and insightful talk that left me with lots of considerations.
Anna Morrish was the final speak to the stage, with a talk on “navigating the labyrinth of micro-moment marketing in an AI powered world.”
The talk shared ideas on how to develop a content strategy in preparation for Google’s impending generative AI search, where we can expect a drop in traffic between 20-60%.
In this context, micro moments refer to the situations where we can influence consumer decisions.
Anna used the film Labyrinth as an example, and showed the questions that appear on Google when you do a search for the film title. Google is anticipating the next step of the user, and by creating content answering these queries, you can capitalize on these micro moments.
Practical SEO
The end of this session saw me head off to Skyline, a room at the top of the Brighton centre that framed far-reaching views across the coastline.
When I could tear myself away from the views, I engaged in a session on practical SEO, hosted by Will Critchlow, Greg Gifford and Emilie Cavillero & ilaria Fabbri.
CEO of SearchPilot, Will Critchlow, was first to the stage, where he presented a talk on SEO testing lessons buried in Googlebot and Search Console data.
The session focused on how CRO A/B testing wouldn’t work with SEO, and how we would need to use controlled and variant pages to test such theories.
He went on to discuss how you’d take two similar pages, using “Seattle flights” and “Boston flights” as an example, keep one the same and make changes to the other.
As the CEO of SearchPilot, he demonstrated one of their rapid SEO A/B testing tools, and how this used Googlebot and Search Console data to conduct a better SEO analysis.
Up next was Greg Gifford, no beginner to the world of public speaking. Greg presented a talk focusing on how a simple audit can change the game.
Touching on previous experience, he discussed how he began completing mini-SEO audits to help close sales, and in doing do, doubled their close rate overnight.
The SEO audit followed a scoring system, with drop downs that automatically populated a score depending on the answer selected. For example, one of the questions may be “does the homepage feature a H1?”, and you’d select the relevant answer from the drop down.
At the end of the audit, you’re left with the necessary steps to follow to improve the SEO performance of your website.
I still have the words “strategy is the direction you’re going in, but tactics are the steps to get you there” in my head, a week later.
Emilie Cavillero and Ilaria Fabbri were last to take the stage, presenting a talk on the changing face on search, which reminded me once again of the impending effects of Google’s Search Generative Experience.
The end of this session called for lunch, served alongside a serious debrief with the Engage Web team about what I’d learnt and how we can implement this in our SEO campaigns moving forward.
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