Five takeaways from BrightonSEO 2019

BrightonSEO is THE destination event for all SEO marketers out there. Twice a year, thousands of digital geeks head to the seaside town for one – or two – days of learning. This year, Coralie went along to discover the latest trends in SEO, local SEO and PPC, focusing on structured data, link buildings and competitor research.

Here are her top five takeaways from the spring conference.

#1: Featured Snippets are not bulls***t

Emily Potter thought featured snippets were bullshit and went on a mission to prove it… Only to be proven wrong. In her very honest talk, Potter showed us her process, why she thought featured snippets were overrated – some very valid points were made – but it also proved that Featured Snippets do improve CTRs and explained how to optimise content to get the valued “Position 0”. The method? Find keywords you rank for with featured snippets, look for low hanging fruits, add on-page content and reformat it where necessary. Simple enough right? Time to get to work! To read the whole presentation, head to her SlideShare.

#2: Optimise for Rich Snippets

Featured Snippets are important, but they aren’t the only form of rich snippet out there… Think about structured data* and go further than the simple on-page optimisation, especially in a world where no-click searches are becoming more and more common. Add relevant snippets to your pages and help drive meaningful clicks to your page. Worst comes to worst, your rankings will stay the same. Best-case scenario, you’ll provide a much better experience for users and improve your CTR. If you don’t believe me, check out Kenichi Suzuki’s talk.

#3: Put Search Intent at the heart of your strategy

Search Intent is a recurring theme in SEO and keyword research, for a good reason. It can help you make sure you rank for every stage of your user’s journey. But rather than talking about the different types of intent, we’ll look at how different intents trigger different rich snippets in SERPs. Commercial intent might trigger shopping carousels (paid) or images. Informational intent might trigger video results (always optimise your YouTube videos!), images or featured snippets whilst local search might trigger local knowledge panels, map packs… So, have a look at the keywords you want to target and what type of results pop up. Then optimise your pages accordingly, but remember not all pages will require the same structure data. Check out Izzi Smith’s talk.

#4: Don’t forget about internal linking

We all know external links play a key part in rankings and how tricky it can be to get high-quality backlinks. So, what if you could tap into a unique link source, one that your competitors can’t steal? Jackpot I hear you say! Then, look at your own links and improve your internal link building strategy. Make it more aggressive, less branded and more keyword-centred. This has had a positive impact for websites in the past and can help you optimise your website even further. For more information, check out Christopher C. Cemper’s talk.

#5: Competitor Research can be conducted in any language… Even the one you don’t speak! You just need a clear method

What if one of your clients came to you asking to carry out competitive research in another language? Easy if you’re fluent in the specific language, but what if it’s one you don’t speak and with a different alphabet? Tricky, right? Well, this is what happened to Paola Didonè, and she shared her method to carry out successful competitor research even without understanding the language. Her method? Track the keywords you need, analyse your rankings, look for content outreach opportunity and research topic searches and trends, in this order. She details each step of her method in her slides, so go and have a look to see how you can learn from her experience!

Still need some help with your SEO? Get in touch with our digital team, they’ll have the answers to your questions.

*If you don’t know what structured data or schema mark-up are, here’s quick recap: Schema is a coding language which allows bots to find out more about your content. It gives search engines more information about the type of content (is it a recipe, a product page, a news article…), your industry, your location, your reviews, etc.