A review of the key themes from Brighton SEO April 2018, with a recap on the state of search and content looking into the future of SEO and Google. References links to original Brighton SEO slides where possible.

1. Key Themes
from Brighton SEO
April 2018
Liz Madeley
@liz_madeley
https://www.dayoutwiththekids.co.uk

3. Up to 10,000 attendees
4 sessions, 5 tracks, 81 talks
Google search keynote speakers

4. This is a summary of some of the key themes running through the talks
at Brighton SEO April 2018
It’s a recap on the state of search as it is now – into the future of search
and Google

5. Google is still crawling websites in it’s old ways – so don’t forget about
traditional technical SEO
Read server logs to get the full picture of how Google is crawling our
website for optimisation and any changes
F r o m t a l k b y F i l i W i e s e : h t t p s : / / w w w . b r i g h t o n s e o . c o m / c o n f e r e n c e - t a l k / o p t i m i z i n g - s e a r c h - b o t s /
Google crawls a website top-down first Subsequent crawls are random

6. The majority of content gets very low shares & links…
F r o m t a l k b y S t e v e R a y s o n & G i l e s P a l m e r : h t t p : / / b u z z s u m o . c o m / b l o g / c o n t e n t - t r e n d s - 2 0 1 8 /

7. …AND shares are decreasing thanks to dark social
Did you know? 17% of people get their industry news from Slack
F r o m t a l k b y S t e v e R a y s o n & G i l e s P a l m e r : h t t p : / / b u z z s u m o . c o m / b l o g / c o n t e n t - t r e n d s - 2 0 1 8 /

8. As more time passes after a story breaks, and more content is published,
shares and links decline
Content is no longer king, NEW content is king
F r o m t a l k b y S t e v e R a y s o n & G i l e s P a l m e r : h t t p : / / b u z z s u m o . c o m / b l o g / c o n t e n t - t r e n d s - 2 0 1 8 /

9. SEO is more important than ever when it comes to
content marketing
• Focus on your audience by channel and
demographics for links, shares and social
engagement
• People are more likely to link to and share
research content or referenceable content.
• Leverage tribal sharing – New York Times
readers shared anti-Trump pieces
• Use GetSocial to track copies and shares for a
clearer picture of dark social

10. It’s as important as ever to focus on user intent – and find that sweet
spot where our business needs meet user needs
Web
Content
Google is getting better at understanding user intent and users
know it can return more relevant results

11. Google is aiming to be the computer from Star Trek and search engine
optimisation could become ‘answer engine optimisation’ – as Google aims
to answer any question you might have
Featured snippets, voice search and voice assistants are the beginning of
this

12. There’s been a huge increase in video results in the SERPs – Google
wants to use video to answer questions
F r o m t a l k b y R o b B u c c i : h t t p s : / / w w w . b r i g h t o n s e o . c o m / p e o p l e / r o b - b u c c i /

13. Google wants to learn all about us, understand our questions and
choose the best answer from available options
Schema is really important to teach Google about DOWTK for featured
snippets and voice search

14. Credibility and brand building are key – we need to convince Google
we are the best source for answers
Build brand mentions across business directories, links, press features,
Wikipedia, Crunchbase, Wikidata and reviews
F r o m t a l k b y J a s o n B a r n a r d : h t t p s : / / w w w . s l i d e s h a r e . n e t / J a s o n B a r n a r d 2 / a - u n i v e r s a l - s t r a t e g y - f o r - a n s w e r - e n g i n e - o p t i m i s a t i o n -
b e y o n d - p o s i t i o n - 0

15. There’s potentially a new cutting edge opportunity – Google voice
assistant…
… companies can look at building voice assistant commands directly as
a fully controlled branding exercise
• Use IFTTT to write
commands then make them
public

16. Summary
• Google is still crawling websites in its old ways – so don’t forget about technical SEO
• The majority of content gets very low shares & links and shares are decreasing thanks to dark social
• Content is not king – NEW content is king
• SEO is more important than ever
• It’s as important as ever to focus on user intent – and find that sweet spot where our business needs meet user needs
• Google is aiming to be the computer from Star Trek and search engine optimisation could become ‘answer
optimisation’ – as Google aims to answer any question you might have
• Google wants to learn all about us, understand our questions and choose the best answer from available options
• Credibility and brand building is key – we need to convince Google we are the best source for answers
• There’s a new cutting edge opportunity – Google voice assistant…

17. Thank you
Liz Madeley
@liz_madeley
https://www.dayoutwiththekids.co.uk