How structured data is paving the way for AI-generated search

Last week I attended the Google Search Central Live Zürich 2023, or #SCLZurich for short. The conference, held over a whole afternoon at the Google HQ in—you guessed it—Zürich, Switzerland 🇨🇭, marked its grand comeback after the pandemic years. I had a really great day meeting with fellow SEOs, chatting with friends from the Women in Tech SEO group, and learning a lot from the Google Search staff. The talks were very interesting and got me thinking about many topics and ways to improve my skills.

If you want a breakdown of all that was said, head over to this recap post of #SCLZurich by Olesia Korobka or this 7 talks - 7 take-aways post by Corina Burri.

One topic that kept coming back throughout the afternoon was structured data. Although it’s, of course, a very important technical topic, I was surprised to see it mentioned, if not extensively developed in almost all talks that day. So this got me thinking: why are we hearing so much about this today? How does structured data inform the future of SEO, and how does it shape the impending era of AI-generated search?

How structured data helps improve search results

Microdata, structured data, schema markup, and semantic markup* are not new to SEO at all. We’ve been using these snippets of code in our pages for ages, especially when it comes to e-commerce. Structured data is what informs Google Shopping of your products’ features for example, as Matthias Weismann, Software Engineer at Google Shopping, explained it detail at the conference..

By the way, the Product schema markup is undergoing a hefty upgrade, with new variants that will better help the user find the product they are searching for. Think certificates, labels, sustainability or dietary specificities. These are exciting times!

By meticulously organising information about our products and services using structured data, we're essentially handing search engines a roadmap to our content. By linking or nesting items to one another, we’re saying, "Here's what we offer, and here's how everything is interlinked.”

This carefully crafted organisation doesn't just enhance the appearance of our search listings with rich snippets but significantly betters the user experience by delivering more precise search results.

Structured Data, AI and search

So what does structured data have to do with AI? Well, when Google crawls a website, it gathers all the information a page has to offer, including structured data. Then the indexing algorithms come into play and try to make sense of the page. At this stage, Google uses a bunch of machine learning, AI and NLP tools to figure out what the content is about and if it’s worthwhile for users.

Imagine a scenario where two pages have the same quality of content and relevant information. On the first page, Google has to sift through the content, analyse headings and links to understand what the page is about. In the second page, Google has to do the exact same work, but with added information, structured in the same way across all webpages for the same type of item.

On the first page, algorithms have to put in more work to categorise the content in their database, whereas on the second page, they “only” have to check if the information provided in the structured data bits of code match and correlates to the content on the page.

Of course, I'm oversimplifying here, but you get the idea. Structured data makes Google’s work easier. It takes way less computing power for Google to understand content with a roadmap than having to figure out a path on itself.

“While we have the technology to find that structure in web page text automatically, those systems are not perfect. (…) When you tell us what's on your web page in a structured way, we can more accurately interpret the contents.”
— Ryan Levering, Software Engineer in the Structured Data Team at Google (source)

If we think of it with a very down-to-earth capitalistic approach, it’s just more cost efficient for search engines. The same applies to having a technically sound and fast loading website, it requires less energy to load and crawl, which means it costs less to index. (Yes, it’s also more environmentally friendly, of course, but let’s not be blind to the societal system we operate in.)

How taking full advantage of structured data can benefit both users and website owners

The ripple effect of fully harnessing structured data can be huge. Imagine having your website not only fully present in the results of a query, but also taking space on the result page by offering rich results to users. It’s not only about the ranking position, it’s about the experience you offer.

For example, as Maria White, Global SEO Lead at Kurt Geiger, explained in her presentation at SCL Zürich, the experience you offer to your user does not start on your website’s homepage, it starts on the SERP.

Going beyond the typical variants offered in a Schema item and actually going through the documentation to precisely optimise every relevant bit of information will help your website in the long run. Right now, there are open conversations happening on the Schema.org forums about how items should evolve through time.

For example, food product items could get an allergens variant in the near future, helping users take care of their health when researching and buying food online. And guess who is actively participating in this conversation? Yep, Google is. They are even at the origin of some of these evolutions. I don’t know about you, but to me, having an announcement at the next Google I/O that search results for purchasing food will now display allergens seems like a totally on brand thing for Google to do.

For search engines, it’s a clearer, more efficient route to quality results. For us, it’s about becoming the “cost-efficient” choice that demands less power to crawl and index, potentially earning a favourable nod from search algorithms in the long run. It's not merely about scaling the search product but elevating the quality of the user experience while reducing the digital carbon footprint of our online endeavours.

This proactive approach, as I gleaned from the conference, could be a game-changer in how we approach SEO, ensuring a win-win scenario for both search engines and website owners. Doing your research—dare I say, hiring an expert—on structured data, and not just “filling in the fields my CMS put up for me” could be one element that will tip the scale in your favour in the near future. Actively optimising your website with a collaboration mindset with search engines rather than a “quick win” approach is sure to be beneficial in the long run. If not for your rankings right now, then for your users, who crave information before making an informed purchase on your website.

Conclusion

The narrative around structured data is far from over. It's an unfolding chapter in the SEO playbook that holds promise for a more efficient, user-centric, and AI-compatible future. I invite you to delve deeper, explore the schema.org documentation, and start weaving structured data more intricately into your SEO strategy. It's about laying a solid foundation today for the AI-driven SEO landscape of tomorrow.

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*Structured Data is a term used to describe data that is organised in a specific manner, making it easier for search engines to understand the content on web pages.

Schema Markup is a semantic vocabulary or a set of code tags you can add to HTML to improve search engines' understanding of your pages, essentially a form of structured data.

Microdata is a specific syntax used for embedding structured data in HTML documents, and it's one of the formats you can use to implement schema markup on your website.

Semantic Markup is a broader practice that refers to the use of HTML tags and other markings to denote not just the structure, but the meaning of the content, which includes practices like schema markup and others.

BrightonSEO September 2023: AI, making friends and sustainability

I’ve returned from my 8th participation in the BrightonSEO conference, definitely the sunniest one yet! 😎 Having the conference this early after Summer feels like a small continuation of holidays, with the beach and the ginormous seagulls. But hey, I wasn’t there just to enjoy the lovely weather, but also to keep on track with what has been going on in the SEO industry, and make new friends.

Setting the Scene: The Evolution of AI in SEO

In the past year, AI has been the main topic of discussion in the industry. From ChatGPT to Bing, Bard and the Search Generative Experience, the past few months have been dense with new features, techniques and speculations.

I was wholly expecting AI to be a primary topic for this edition, and I was not mistaken. A lot of talks were about AI this time around and it’s interesting to see how the conversation is shifting.

Why BrightonSEO Is Crucial for an International SEO Consultant

So, why do I keep coming back to BrightonSEO? As a one-woman operation, it's my responsibility to stay updated for both myself and my clients. Whether it's listening to experts or having face-to-face chats with them, this is where I find the golden nuggets of information that I can directly apply to my client projects.

Typically, Digital PR is not my specialty, and I was able to get some amazing insights from Jo O’Reilley on the topic for a client of mine. In the midst of the conference I also had to send out an important proposal draft for a big project, and was able to exchange with other independent consultants to improve my initial draft.

Key Themes and Trends: AI, Sustainability, and More

This time around, the conference offered a variety of topics. Sustainability in SEO was one topic that particularly caught my attention. The discussion around environmentally-friendly practices in SEO is not only necessary but aligns with my values as well.

Another focus was on business development specifically for consultants, offering actionable advice on how to grow our practices a stressless way.

I was also invited to participate in a freelance roundtable where we discussed common challenges and solutions in our line of work.

These sessions added layers of depth to my understanding of where the industry is headed and how my daily work can have a positive impact.

Meeting and making friends

This edition was primarily about meeting friends and colleagues or making new friends, than about attending all talks. Thanks to the power of replay, I got to dedicate time to having deep conversations, sometimes way deeper than expected! From the struggles of freelancing to celebrating wins, it’s amazing for me to be able to connect authentically with people who share the same vision of SEO.

More importantly, the networking / friendship opportunities extend beyond the conference. They lead to long-term professional relationships. The insights and feedback I received from peers are invaluable, especially when dealing with big client proposals and strategic decisions.

Learning and Takeaways: Practical Knowledge for Immediate Use

Several talks and workshops were incredibly impactful. Alice Rowan's presentation about creating authentic content provided actionable advice and additional resources for further reading. Another session about measuring SEO sustainability by Ellie Connor offered insights that I can immediately include in my SEO strategies.

The talk on SEO forecasting by Hannah Rogers introduced a straightforward framework, providing me with another tool to better serve my clients.

Lastly, the keynote by Professor Hannah Fry helped me better understand the importance of interpreting data on a large scale.

Impacts and Next Steps

My takeaway from this year's BrightonSEO is twofold: One, although the introduction of AI into SEO can seem overwhelming, we are all learning and adapting together. Two, the SEO community is diverse and abundant with opportunities for everyone.

In terms of next steps, my focus will be on maintaining the valuable relationships I've built and integrating the new tools and strategies I've learned into my work.

To sum up, BrightonSEO September 2023 was a comprehensive learning experience. The conference remains a crucial event for anyone in the SEO industry and is a catalyst for professional growth and meaningful connections. I’ll be back in April 2024 to find out if AI overlords have indeed taken over 😉

Check out my previous articles on BrightonSEO ↓

If you have questions or would like to discuss more about the future of SEO, I'm just an email away.

BrightonSEO April 2023: Diving into the Future of SEO and Embracing the Power of AI

It's that time of the year again, and I couldn't be more excited to attend my 7th BrightonSEO conference (IRL)! This event never fails to amaze me with its wealth of knowledge, networking opportunities, and of course, the classic fish'n'chips on the beach (if the seagulls don't have other plans). This time, I was particularly looking forward to diving deep into discussions around AI, the future of SEO, and international SEO strategies.

Let’s talk about my expectations

A lot (and I mean, A LOT) has happened in the past 6 months. AI took over our timelines and experimentations, Bing is… hype now (what ?!), it feels like every tech company is either working on a search engine or infusing AI just about everywhere.

Our job as SEOs is shifting, morphing in something more about Search Experience Optimisation than Search Engine Optimisation – good news, we won’t need to update the acronym.

I remember in October 2022, the chatter at BrightonSEO was a little bit about AI, and somewhat about the probability of Apple releasing a search engine. 😂 That feels like a lifetime ago!

This time around, I had the feeling AI would be more present in conversations, I also felt like we’d hear a lot about techniques to make websites lighter, load faster and more accessible to users. In general, I was very excited to learn more about international SEO, content strategies and ultimately, improving the user experience across the board.

Highlights from key talks

Here are a few highlights from the talks I attended as well as the links to the slides. Full disclosure, I couldn’t catch all the talks I wanted, and I am planning on watching quite a few replays, I’ll update this section as I catch-up!

- DAY 1 -

TikTok for search marketing by Rachel Pearson

I’m not a huge TikTok fan, but I was curious to learn a bit more with this talk.

• TikTok is not the new Google. 😮‍💨

• TikTok content can be indexed by Google but not embedded.

• Consistency is key on the platform, and testing different optimisations is encouraged.

Stop writing SEO articles: templates content that ranks by Dale Bertrand

I’m considering using templates more in the SEO and content strategies I deliver to my clients. For me, this is about simplifying the content production process while making content that performs for users. Dale also shared a bunch of handy recipes to follow.

• Consider templates like:

  • Collection Pages

  • Niche buying guides

  • FAQs, Niche calculators

  • Comparison content

  • etc.

• Use datasets to create content, comparison pages, calculators. See government-issued data for ideas.

Google Bard, ChatGPT, the sky is falling and SEO is dead (again) by Simon Lesser

• SEO is not dead.

• Chats are another way to interact, and content should be future-proof.

• Focus on content that can't be replaced with a summary.

• Don't be a middleman - add value to your content.

- KEYNOTE -

The future of SEO: What the past decade can teach us about the next by Areej Abuali

Areej’s keynote was fascinating and very moving. I highly recommend you watch the replay, my few notes definitely don’t do justice to the journey she took us on with this keynote.

• Leverage AI tools for more efficient SEO activities.

• Investment in SEO will grow, as it becomes more cross-functional in companies.

• Prioritize audience over Google - optimize for user discovery.

• Create your own space.

- DAY 2 -

Value of feature snippets by Niki Mosier

Probably one of my favourite talks, I learned a lot and had loads of ideas for client projects!

• Paragraph featured snippets dominate, followed by lists.

• Quick wins are possible with feature snippets, which help with brand awareness.

• Schema markup can help get feature snippets.

• 19% of all SERPs have featured snippets

• 77% of questions start with “why”

• 50% of mobile screen is covered by featured snippets

• 70% of articles in featured snippets are no older than 2-3 years

Google’s local knowledge panel - the CMS you never knew you had by Claire Carlisle

• Research "sameAs" property in schema, "hasMap", and other schema properties for local SEO optimisation. 😉

conversations

BrightonSEO is as much about the talks than the conversations I have with fellow search professionals. I was half expecting to have loads of conversations about AI, but as it turned out, most of the chats I had were about freelancing. From figuring out how to operate as a freelance in SEO to pricing, using the right title on your badge, or managing client relationships, I think we covered everything!

I’ll update this section with any thought that tickled my curiosity during the chats, and numerous coffee breaks.

Reflecting on the future of SEO and the industry

This edition of the BrightonSEO conference left me with several thought-provoking takeaways about the future of SEO and the industry as a whole:

Diversity in SEO conferences is crucial 💙

A more diverse lineup and crowd lead to more balanced conversations and foster a sense of belonging that I find lacking in other contexts within the industry. Areej's keynote had me pondering the next decade and how our industry must become more open to better reflect the needs of users. Furthermore, the Women in Tech SEO gathering on the first day was, as always, highly engaging and work-focused. The exceptional expertise these women bring to the table is both outstanding and inspiring. I am so grateful to be part of this community, and more generally to be part of this industry. Our work has the power to have such a positive impact on the world!

The international SEO community is exceptional. People are friendly, open-minded, and relaxed. While I know this may only reflect my own network, I feel that my bubble is expanding for the better, with incredible individuals joining the fold.

AI has undoubtedly made its presence known in the SEO world 🚀

Many speakers incorporated AI into their presentations, emphasising that it is how it’s another tool for us to use. While AI won't replace us anytime soon, it can significantly aid our day-to-day tasks and help our clients. Personally, I actually feel in control when it comes to the AI topic, as I continuously research and test the new tools I can get my hands on. While I wasn't surprised by the speakers' insights, I did learn about some new tools and tricks to try out.

The future of the SEO industry is looking bright ✨

SEO is far from dead, and I find it thrilling to delve into the nitty-gritty of the field at conferences like BrightonSEO. I'm eager to see where the future takes us and how our industry will evolve. BrightonSEO provided a wealth of actionable ideas for me to implement immediately with my clients. This conference is always hands-on, and I came away with numerous valuable insights this time around.

Understanding and using AI for an effective international SEO strategy - A talk at the SEO Camp Day Strasbourg 2023

Link to the slides in French 🇫🇷

If you’re here, this means you likely just attended or watched my conference at the SEOCamp Day in Strasbourg, held on the 10th February 2023. I hope you enjoyed it!

I have a ton of resources about AI and international SEO. Here’s a brief list of links, I’ll soon add a comments and a few more.

What is generative AI? - McKinsey

GPT-3 explained - Science Focus

Chinese room thought experiment - Wikipedia

ChatGPT for SEO - Aleyda Solis

Generate alt tags with ChatGPT - Danny Richman

ChatGPT: Friend or Foe? - The Recipe for SEO Success Podcast - Kate Toon

What’s the future of SEO? - Panel discussion at the Erepday 2022 conference

I had the privilege of being invited to participate in the panel discussion “What’s the future of SEO?” at the 2022 Erepday conference in Strasbourg alongside two other SEO experts: Dan Bernier and Mickaël Hamard.

The Erepday conference brings together the essential news of the “hot” topics of e-reputation, branding and customer relations 2.0. It is an exceptional day of conferences, panels and networking with expert speakers in the field of the web and e-reputation to grow your brand and business. It’s organised by the amazing teams at Blue Boat.

So, what’s the future of SEO?

On the panel discussion, we discussed what SEO will look like in 10 years. My take on this was that it will remain fun and exciting, and I am positive that SEO will be around for the foreseeable future. I also believe the emphasis will be put on inclusivity and accessibility on the web.

We can't predict exactly what will happen in SEO over the next 10 years, but we know Google's global vision is to make internet information available to everyone. That shouldn't change much.

By working on making information available to people all around the world, Google is setting the stage for a new era of digital knowledge, where information is made accessible to everyone, regardless of their location, language, device or background.

We had conversations around the evolution of the SERP, especially how Google was bringing sensorial elements to the SERP. We also discussed the importance of authenticity, the need to remain true to oneself, and the concept of staying true to one's values even when the world around us changes. We discuss how the future of online search will be spread across multiple platforms, and how this will create a shift in the way we access information. We explore the implications for businesses, as well as the importance of finding ways to remain relevant in this ever-evolving landscape. Additionally, we consider the impact on people's lives and how our approach to information gathering will be shaped by the resources available to us.

The video is only in French, but the transcript can be translated to English 🙂

I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at the 2022 Erepday conference in Strasbourg and I am thankful to the organisers for inviting me to be a part of the panel. It was great to be able to share my insights and knowledge with the other experts and attendees.

I am confident that SEO will continue to evolve and become even more important in the future, and I am looking forward to seeing what the future has in store for the industry.

Round Table: French Technical SEO - the SEO Kitchen Show by Oncrawl

I was kindly invited by the Oncrawl teams to participate in The SEO Kitchen Show’s first roundtable about French technical SEO. The SEO Kitchen Show is a series of webinars that were run over the course of 3 days in June 2022.

The goal was to share our expertise and have the audience benefit from it. We got to debate on various topics related to French technical SEO with my colleagues Véronique Duong, Julien Deneuville, Emmanuel de Vauxmoret and Rebecca Berbel to try and sort out the best French technical SEO recipe.

Topics we talked about include:

• What is technical SEO and how it’s different from “regular” SEO

• How technical SEO is important and what is its role in an SEO strategy

• What are the hot trends in technical SEO right now and which subjects could be more highlighted

• Technical SEO tools

Video recording of the SEO Kitchen show panel on French Technical SEO (in French)

This particular roundtable was in French, but you can switch on translated subtitles if you want the English version.

Other topics were discussed in English and included:

• SEO automation

• Enterprise and strategy

• Agency SEO

• Search intent

• Algorithm updates

• Content and technical SEO

• E-commerce

• Data science

I highly recommend you check out the other round tables where a lot of people I deeply admire in the industry gave their best advice.You can watch/binge watch all the replays for free!

Bonus → The SEO Kitchen Show created a cookbook with all our best recipes! 👩🏻‍🍳🥘

BrightonSEO April 2022 recap, notes and slides

I can’t believe this was my 5th time at BrightonSEO (IRL). I don’t do many conferences, but this one is worthy enough for me to travel 1000+ km twice a year to hang out with fellow SEOs, learn tons, make new friends, and, of course, grab a fish’n’chips on the beach - if the seagulls don’t steal it from me!

I took loads of notes, and plan to catch up on the talks I couldn’t attend on the BrightonSEO video vault. Until then, here are a few excerpts of my notes, as well as useful links and resources.

Quality assurance

Goodbye SEO fuckups! Learn to set a quality assurance framework

Slides and talk by Aleyda Solis.

Notes:

• 85% of SEOs have one to two major SEO incidents each year

• We generally spend more time fixing and improving than building stuff

• It’s not only a matter of catching error faster but to prevent them too

• SEO monitoring should be a part of a broader SEO quality assurance process:

1. Educate to prevent SEO mistakes

2. Validate to avoid launching SEO errors

3. Monitor

Technical SEO QA: shining a light on invisible work

Slides and talk by Myriam Jessier & Gianna Brachetti-Truskawa.

• Always have a staging environment to test things on

• Define what’s important for your QA:

• Critical pages

• User flows

• Core functionalities

• Questions to ask yourself: Is it crawlable? Is in indexable? Is it rank-worthy?

• Make sure to communicate potential risks to the teams

• What matters:

• Do not overload with thousands of pages

• GSC has a time delay, so keep it in mind for QA

• Some QA checks must be manual

• QA your code: canonicals, schema, and hreflang

• Use a configuration file in Screaming Frog, so everyone does QA the same way every time

• Be aware that each type of site has its own QA flavour

• Some deployments are not done by humans: cron jobs, scripts, server updates

Brand vs SEO: how to win allies and influence brand guardians

Slides and talk by Becky Simms.

• Use personas, even when you work on SEO

• SEO and the brand both use the website as a vehicle, so there’s necessarily some overlap or collaboration opportunities between both fields

Fundamentals

Beyond the basics: 5 (or 10) Google Business Profile elements you might not know about but REALLY should

Slides and talk by Claire Carlile.

• There’s now a “request a quote” feature in Google Business Profile, but it can show how your potential clients can get quotes from your competitors as well

• In your local results tracking tools, include your competitors

• UTM trackers in URLs are crucial in GBP

• When you ask for reviews from your clients, give them ideas on what they could write about to avoid “empty” or boring reviews

• Use Vision AI to check what Google sees in the pictures you add to your Google Business Profile. You want to make sure what Google sees reflects what you want your business to show.

Reporting

Freddy Krueger’s guide to scary good reporting

Slides and talk by Greg Gifford.

• There’s an unconscious bias where clients don’t always trust digital marketers or SEOs. That means every time we get in touch with our clients we have to overcome the mistrust.

• Your client came to you for a problem, and you provide a solution, so the solution needs to appear in the report. Clients want to know quickly if the stuff you do is working.

• So the most important thing is to know what to put in your report.

• You need to make it crystal clear that what you do matters. This is often as simple as:

  • Organic traffic

  • Leads

  • Organic leads

• That’s all you need in the end and that can up be put in one page.

• Customise reports to each client to speak to each clients goals. Use questions over jargon for headlines.

Keyword research

How to go after the long tail keywords (and why it matters!)

Slides and talk by Paola Didone.

• For long tail keywords, instead of creating new pages for each, start by focusing on pages you already have. You can add a small paragraph on a category page with those long tail keywords and it will do the job for the most part.

• Check what is already ranking for the keywords you are targeting

• Look at the proportion of the search volume of the head term vs the long tail keywords volume. There’s more point to targeting a long tail keyword that represents 30% of the head search term volume than 0.5%

Effective zero-volume keyword research and why it’s important

Slides and talk by Mark Williams-Cook.

• Interestingly, the content ideas AlsoAsked provides will likely have zero search volume.

• 70-80% of searches are long tail keywords

• 15% of searches are new

• So by not focusing on these keywords, we are actually getting on just 15% of keywords.

• It’s not because you have a very low search volume that you shouldn’t write about something. Think about intent volume instead of search volume.

Agency & Freelance SEO

Managing expectations with “impossible keywords”

Slides and talk by Jessica Maloney.

• “Impossible keywords” are the ones where the SERP is dominated by a brand (ex. Chapstick) for example, the ones where the client wants to to rank for X without further explanation.

• How to proceed with the client:

  1. Understand why

  2. Education

  3. Data : it’s your backup to explain and show the client what’s possible, keyword difficulty metrics

  4. Offer alternative keywords

  5. Use your own data from Google Search Console

  6. Eyes on the competition : when a client comes with a competitor and a keyword, they are often more annoyed by the competitor than by their own ranking for this keyword. So showing them what this competitor does will work better.

Explode your agency growth: be more you

Slides and talk by Nicole Osborn.

• Blending in = invisibility

• Home page should say :we know what your problems are and we know how to solve them”

• Add call to action on the first screen of the home page

• Your copy has to be super attractive, honey to a bee

• Don’t be too vague on what you do great

• Purple and blue themes are overdone

• Stock images are boring

• About page: have pictures of the people, not the building

• Boring won’t get you on the best shortlists 😉

• 3 strategies to ditch boring:

• Stand out brand values

• Connect with stories: be noticed by more of your best fit clients, tell people about who you are and they will come

• Show your personality

• People want to work with people they like, and they will talk about you if they believe they’ve found a rare pearl

Future of Search

Web design for people and planet

Talk by Tom Greenwood.

• Check out the Website Carbon Calculator

• Practical step to make a website more efficient for everybody and the environment:

  1. Do you actually need this bit of code or this image?

  2. Images weigh way more than a thousand words

  3. For simple stock photo pictures, is it really communicating useful information?

  4. Blurring the edges of a photo where you have a subject in the center can reduce the size by 50%

  5. WEBP files are 30% lighter than jpeg

  6. Use SVG files and optimise them by hand because Illustrator adds extra information

  7. Auto play videos burn through data and are detrimental to the environment and to people who don’t have access to a lot of data

  8. Animated SVG are cool

  9. System fonts are zero waste, like Times New Roman, Courrier New, and Arial

  10. WOFF2 font files are lighter

  11. Reuse styles rather than adding styles to improve CSS

  12. Jquery for forms is heavy

  13. MinimalGA for Google Analytics tracking is lighter than Google Tag Manager

  14. Contextual ads over personalised ads -> example: have sports ad on a sports article

  15. Test on Motorola Moto E6 or similar because that is the average of what users have worldwide

  16. Use dark mode

Search in the Metaverse

Slides and talk by Kara Thurkettle.

• Impacts on search:

  • Search what you see

  • Use AR

  • Try on clothes virtually so the user gets more information

• Use these technologies to do product demos, people are searching more and more for AR related terms like “see flooring in my room”

• The Metaverse changes the user journey, where the SERP becomes a 3D virtual street, or where the information provided to the user is even more personalised

Search intent

How to determine search intent for B2B

Slides and talk by Adriana Stein.

• Buyer personas are as important up in B2B in B2C

• The challenge for SEOs is to align search intent and purchase intent

• B2B is more complicated than B2S in the purchase decision stage because you have multiple people deciding to make the purchase, so we need to understand whether the search intent is B2B or B2C, as well as understand what different buyer personas we will have to deal with.

• Step 1: Streamline the buyer personas

  • It’s impossible to talk to people without knowing who they are

  • Update buyer personas regularly

  • Simplify it by categorising the personas

    • End users - the ones that use the product

    • Influencers - people who have a voice in the buying process

    • Decision makers - the ones that decide the purchase

• Step 2: Keyword research and clustering

  • Check keywords by hand and look at what the SERP looks like

  • Depending on the results you’ll be able to tell if they are B2B or B2C queries

• Step 3: Keyword map

  • Map keywords to each page/type of page

  • Use multiple keywords to describe one product, by tying it to different use cases, different contexts

  • One seed keyword, multiple related keywords

• Step 4: Create content

  • Use seed keyword, determine what buying stage this refers to, create title, then h1 and body, repeat with another seed keyword.

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This is just a quick summary of some of the talks I attended in person at the event. I haven’t mentioned the keynotes which were both incredible, or the talks I’ll catch up on in the BrightonSEO video vault.

If you want to check out all the slide decks from the event, SiteVisibility has them all listed here.

This is hands-down the best SEO conference I have ever been to, I already have my ticket for October 2022 and even pitched to talk! 🤞