On 13 April 2012 Crafted Media's search team attended the Brighton SEO event. This is their write up with details of every session.

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Brighton SEO

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#brightonseo
BrightonSEO has fast become one of the most On Friday 13th April the Crafted Media search
anticipated search events of the year. Earlier team prepared for a road trip down to the
this year the Crafted Media search team were Brighton Dome to join fellow search agencies,
poised at their desks ready to secure tickets marketing teams and delegates from as far afield
and just as the confirmation emails arrived as Thailand. BrightonSEO certainly lived up to
@KelvinNewman tweets that the event sold its reputation this year so we’ve pulled together
out in a record 13 minutes. key takeaways from some of the presentations.
www.brightonseo.com

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Contents
1.0 20 SEOs and a Fish and Chip Shop
2.0 The Panel ‘Ask the Engines’
3.0 (Re-) Launching a Brand or Product Online Effectively
4.0 Killer Market Research for Peanuts
5.0 I believe that Authors are The Future
6.0 How you can get BIG links from BIG media sites
7.0 It’s only Words? Working with Content Strategy
8.0 SEO & PPC Working Together in Harmony

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1.0
By Daniel Somers,
Senior Search Consultant, Twitter 20 SEOs and a Fish and Chip Shop
Hearing about a free search event left me with absolutely love what they do. In fact, not just love and SEO as one solid platform, highlighting
BrightonSEO in mixed emotions; normally any conference that it but have a real passion for all things to do with how one side of marketing can really boost
allows free tickets requires 3 pages of questions search, social and online marketing. It’s great to the other. It was not that long ago when PR
the words of Daniel and a well-oiled overdraft before you get to know work within a tight knit industry that’s constantly and SEO were kept at the other ends of the
if you are truly rewarded with a golden ticket. changing. Google and other search engines (yes office, so it’s a true reflection on how things are
Somers, Senior Search With BrightonSEO I was pleasantly surprised others do exist), are always moving the goal posts changing within the online marketing world.
and not force fed anything, other than free to suit their needs and certainly not the needs of
Consultant at Crafted. knowledge, experience and rubbing shoulders the website owners or online businesses. Rather The venue was also fantastically placed for a
with some of the most talented SEOs and than moan about what we do as an SEO quick bite of Harry Ramsden’s famous fish &
internet marketeers in the country. community we simply roll up our sleeves and chips on our extended lunch break, a whole
work around the bad (cheers Google) and make hour and twenty minutes (remind me to
The venue wasn’t held in some ‘rent a space’ things good for website owners across the globe. claim expenses). It was great to see Brighton
office, but held in one of the most historic play host to one of the most rewarding online
locations in Brighton and Hove; The Brighton It was great to see speakers such as Lexi Mills industries. So, to the guys at #BrightonSEO;
Dome. Amazing, considering it’s an event (from @distilled), who is clearly from a strong “I salute you,” for pulling off such a knowledge
for a reasonably new and definitely up and PR background, making her presence felt on packed and fun day!
coming industry. the stage in front of hundreds of gifted search
engineers, consultants and in house SEOs. Ever wondered how many SEOs you can fit
One thing I really picked up on at BrightonSEO She simply said, “We welcome SEO”, before in a fish and chip shop? Last time I counted
was the feeling that people, just like me, proceeding into a powerful talk on using PR it was 20 ;)

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2.0
By Zoë Dean,
The Panel ‘Ask the Engines’
Search Account Manager, Twitter …with Pierre Far, Dave Coplin, Martin Mcdonald, Rishi Lakhani
Is SEO dead? a ‘really good faith effort’ to clean up bad links – scripted to explain that Google are protecting
Arguably the highlight ‘Clean it up – tell us what you did and be honest’. user privacy whilst pointing SEOs to Webmaster
Bound to spark debate and passion, the first Undoubtedly link ranking factors are important Tools to uncover search queries.
of the day, this was a question was an inspirational start to the but what next? Social.
conference and allowed the panel to reflect on Martin Mcdonald and Rishi Lakhani represented
chance for SEOs to ask the evolution of SEO and where the industry Bing stressed that companies need to be really the SEOs in the room by responding with,
is right now. Pierre Far reassuringly answered, good at social – in particular Twitter and “That’s rubbish”. Rishi went on to ask some key
the engines some of the “SEO will never die,” whilst Dave Coplin of Bing Facebook. To the amusement of the audience, questions including, “What % of users of Google
compared SEOs to magicians. The big subject Pierre added Google+. actually know that their search queries are hidden
most pressing questions was that whilst this is an industry with no formal and who actually understands that if they click on
education or qualifications, it is a discipline that The platform is perhaps irrelevant – create an organic results its hidden but a paid ad is not?”
in search marketing is constantly and rapidly changing. We have to powerful, interesting content and it will naturally Interestingly it was Bing who defended Google
adapt to new technology and products quickly. get shared. Social cannot be ignored – but if you on this topic and Dave Coplin said “It’s really
right now. To mix the do it ensure you do it properly. easy to be upset about this but we are at the
SEO is not a checklist. forefront of some difficult questions in society
panel up Google (Pierre Why do Google hide search queries? about our privacy.”
Pierre Far reflected on Google’s algorithm The infamous ‘(not provided)’.
Far) and Bing (Dave - “What does the user want? Did they get it?” It didn’t really matter that the room didn’t get
And whilst we came back to ‘great content’ it is There was no escaping the topic of Google the answer they wanted on the ‘not provided’
Coplin) were joined by evident that this now extends beyond copy to hiding search queries in Analytics and of all the issue, as Dave Coplin puts it, “Debates like this
images, video and applications. questions you’d expect Pierre to come prepared are crucial to ensure we get the balance right”.
Martin Macdonald and with a slick answer to, this was one. Pierre’s initial
‘Bad links’ was a hot topic and the panel response was, “Thank you that it wasn’t the first To put the fire out and in true BrightonSEO
Rishi Lakhani. responded to the question of what a site should question,” which demonstrates that Google style the panel closed with the question, “Larry
do if it is deindexed or penalised for bad links. knows exactly how SEOs feel about this change. Page vs. Steve Ballmer in Sumo suits, who
The answer was simple – Google are looking for Disappointingly the answer was defensively would win?”

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3.0
(Re-) Launching a Brand
By Amy Lightowlers,
or Product Online Effectively
Search Executive Samantha Noble, Digital Marketing Director at Koozai
Koozai, formerly Impact Media, struggled with Once your name has been chosen, brand Sam gave some tips in further establishing your
Sam Noble from Koozai, brand confusion therefore decided to rebrand. development can begin. brand by creating social profiles with your name
Sam highlighted other reasons to rebrand could and associated names wherever possible, even
the digital marketing include an overcrowded marketplace, buy-outs, • Secure trademark if you don’t use all of them you can re-direct to
mergers or because of a new product/service. the ones you do. She also suggested using reverse
agency, told the story of Underlining the importance of conducting the • Find the right branding agency image searches to locate where your old logo can
research when re-branding, Sam stressed, be seen on the web, giving you a list of sites to
how Koozai re-branded “A brand is not what you say it is, it’s what • Check domain availability contact when you change logo.
they say it is”.
themselves in May 2011. • Check social profile availability with As a final note, Sam said to put your ‘Page 1
Consumer opinion will dictate the success Knowem and claim all possible profiles Domination’ into action NOW and don’t lose
The process took over of your brand therefore listening to their views sight of how you want your brand to grow.
and whether they connect with your brand • Review brand consistency
a year but gave them is essential.
• Decide on a date to go live
a unique identity that When choosing a brand name, Sam pointed out
that your brand name needs to be something • Update company properties
they have been able you will like and that fits for the long term. and documentation
Before Koozai was suggested, the preferred name
to monopolise. for the company was ‘Guava’. This word inspired • Prepare a press release and blog
them to create a unique name that would stand post ready for the go live day
out against competitors. Koozai was born.

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4.0
By Rachel Tooke,
Killer Market Research for Peanuts
Search Consultant Adam Lee, Managing Director at No Pork Pies
Researching the correct language to use is software such as ClickTale, can inform you about
To create a successful important so your visitors feel like you really the ways your customers use your website and
understand your product or service and can can help develop and redesign your site.
business, understanding advise them accurately. To do this, use social
media tools, market research tools and website Additionally, to find out what your current
your prospective optimisation software. brand presence online is, use Google
thinkinsights for example.
client needs is the To find these prospective visitors, to find out
what they are talking about, what they want or Adam’s presentation confirmed that market
key to success. need, use social media tools such as Brandwatch, research is an important element of SEO and
Klout, Followerwonk. From this research, you can give insightful information that can be
can formulate a set of keywords and ideas on integrated within a standard search approach.
which to base your website content.
There are a range of ways to gain information
from your current customers, including market
research, polls, surveys and questionnaires. Using

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5.0
By Nick Woolnough,
I believe that Authors are The Future
SEO Executive James Carson, Digital Marketing manager at Bauer Media
Over the past nine months, Google users may content relating to their field of knowledge, thus
The Future of have noticed an increase in author thumbnails potentially spelling an end to the effectiveness of
appearing in the search results (SERPs). This writing online via a range of pseudonyms.
Online Authorship development is all about giving authority to
prominent online authors and was a hot topic at The relationship between a piece of content and
(rel=“author”) Brighton SEO. an author is made using a small piece of HTML
known as rel=“author”. There are numerous
Below is an example of author ownership in resources online to help writers and webmasters
the SERPs, linking to an article which happens implement rel=“author” or rel=“me”, with Carson
to be singing from the same hymn sheet as James predicting that the concept of online author
Carson of Bauer Media, a speaker at Brighton ownership will slowly see the value of quality
SEO who gave an excellent presentation on the journalism come to the fore on the internet
future of online authorship. He emphasised how – backing up the ‘content is king’ philosophy
Google will lend weight to articles and sites on that has been a popular phrase in SEO for the
which registered Google+ users have posted past couple of years.

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6.0
How you can get BIG
By Georgina Rayner,
links from BIG media sites
Marketing Executive Lexi Mills, Online PR Consultant at Distilled
She also underlined the importance of presenting At this stage, she highlighted the importance
Lexi Mills offered tips to ‘the right person with the right story at the of persistence, noting that any response good
right time’ and discussed the need to choose or bad needs to be acted upon and is a potential
and tricks for achieving your battles wisely, only targeting relevant sites link waiting to happen. She also explained that
that are likely to have a realistic interest in your often, journalists are weary of non-branded
‘Big Links’ from ‘Big content. Mills also suggested that if a site had anchor text and that it is usually easier to
previously published your content without request branded links.
Media’ sites as well as links, an agreement that links would be included
should be a precursor to you providing them Finally, Mills provided an example of useful
highlighting ways in with any future content. twitter feeds including: #journorequest,
#prfail and #prwin and also identified the
which PR and SEO Next her presentation tackled the delicate value of PR distribution sites such as
subject of asking for ‘followed’ links as well as PRNewswire and BusinessWire. Her key tip
can work together targeting specific keywords in your outreach. when using BusinessWire was not to fill out
She emphasised a ‘softly, softly approach’, focused the URL and blog boxes when completing
more harmoniously. on relationship building and underpinned by your press release as this is the only way to
helpfulness, whilst strongly advocating the need get a link.
to make telephone contact rather than simply
sending emails. She even suggested that if all else A thought provoking presentation that bridged
fails; tell the journalist your boss has requested the gap between PR and SEO – make love
that you ask for a link! not war.

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7.0
It’s only Words?
By Andrew Doyle,
Working with Content Strategy
SEO Manager, Twitter Charlie Peverett, Content Strategist at iCrossing
Charlie began by painting the picture of SEO This growing vested interest in website content ‘Content Strategy’ by Christina Halverson and
Fresh from our and its historical separation from editors, UX means that content is; thirdly to know your value as an SEO - “search
designers and ordinary citizens. He initially • Political – needs of all involved have to be insight is valuable at every stage”.
lunchtime stroll to delved into the barriers between *magic* SEO balanced
practices and traditional online brand and • Shares multiple objectives – all involved have Five main takeaways
Brighton pier and back content while comparing SEO to the Wizard different objectives i.e. SEO requires visibility
of Oz and Toto (Web 2.toto to be exact) pulling while UGC strives for engagement 1. Content is your visible assets i.e. words,
Charlie Peverett from back the curtains. Charlie then took a sword • Quality content is expensive pictures, video, audio, tools, data
to the simple labelling of ‘Great content’ as a 2. Widening vested interest in website content
iCrossing was first up checkbox in search marketing presentations. Charlie then made one of the central points 3. Speak the same language as everyone
Charlie discussed his disappointment with this of his presentation. All activities i.e. SEO, PR else involved
with a presentation on brushing over of ‘creating quality content’ and etc. share different objectives, these activities 4. Read the book ‘content strategy’
emphasised his belief that it is the central element largely manifest as content and are all seen by Christina Halverson
content strategy. within all online marketing strategies. by users. Content therefore is becoming 5. Know your value as an SEO - search insight
increasingly important to brand. Thus a is valuable at every stage
The presentation then moved towards describing content strategy is what ties your users
content. Charlie defined content as ‘all of your and your brand together online. Charlie’s presentation certainly stirred a few
websites assets that communicate with users’ feathers in the room but the central theme is
for example words, video, sounds, images etc. Charlie then discussed some tips for online something to which all websites should strive.
Also he discussed the widening of users who content strategy. Firstly he advised to speak A successful content strategy is central to brand
create content within websites. Expanding from the same language as others within the process and online marketing. Happy at destroying
IT, SEO and e-commerce in 2001 to customer i.e. link bait is sick inducing, over-optimisation clichés at every turn I thoroughly enjoyed
services, brand, PR, CSR, the CEO and user means making something too good and using Charlie’s presentation and I am completely
generated content in 2012. the term ‘bloggers’. Secondly read the book on-board with all of Charlie’s ideas.

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8.0
SEO & PPC Working
John Stuchfield,
Together in Harmony
PPC Executive Tim Ireland, Jellyfish
He first stressed that PPC & SEO are part of He stressed that understanding these differences Tim followed this up by highlighting that PPC
Tim Ireland from the overall ‘information universe’, which also is vital for effectively responding to customers’ can also support SEO in more practical ways.
features TV, radio and print. He suggested that search behaviour and that advertisers need to
Jellyfish, the digital the internet has a lower ‘threshold of influence’ recognise that customer’s relationships with For example, it can act as a ‘reconnaissance craft’
than other mediums but is a more democratic products will change over time. and provide insights about patterns of search
marketing agency, environment where users share and pass on behaviour and demand, which is useful in the
information they like. This makes it easier This will involve periods of highs and lows, organic keyword research process.
highlighted the to shape. with different products resulting in vastly
different patterns of highs and lows. For PPC can also contribute towards the relevance
importance of using Tim then focused on fundamental differences example, newspaper buyers will enjoy of organic listings by overwhelming (and even
between SEO and PPC: frequent highs while an owner of a flat displacing) competitors and taking up more
PPC and SEO in screen TV may experience an initial high space on the SERPs.
Organic listings which then fades.
conjunction with each • Receive the most traffic from SERPs but the The ultimate goal therefore is to use PPC in
process of improving your rank in these Businesses must therefore use PPC & harmony with SEO in order to dominate your
other, rather than as listings is a slow one SEO tactically in responding to these particular search market and turn user interest
• Require the ‘accumulation of relevance’ emotional patterns. into a tangible reward.
two separate entities. over time
• SEO should be used to capitalise on predictable
PPC emotion peaks
• Receives a lower volume of traffic but is an • PPC should be used to respond to fast-moving
immediate process and unexpected changes in search behaviour
• Has ‘no capacity to accumulate relevance’ or even to combat sustained low periods

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