When you’re not accustomed to BrightonSEO, it’s a search advertising convention created by Kelvin Newman. It’s just about the U.Ok.’s “should attend” search convention.
It’s been working since 2010 and was initially hosted in a room above the Quadrant pub in Brighton, U.Ok.
Once I first attended 10 years in the past, it was hosted in a smaller venue on the Brighton Dome. There have been fewer individuals (and the swag was just a little totally different again then).
Quick ahead to at this time, and 6,000+ tickets are actually bought for every occasion. There’s a brand new stateside BrightonSEO in San Diego, so it’s honest to say it’s come an extended method.
To offer you a really feel for the occasion (and maybe persuade you to attend subsequent time), right here’s my breakdown of September’s BrightonSEO.
The U.Ok. will not be the primary place you consider relating to the solar. However we bought fortunate and had nice climate the entire time we have been at BrightonSEO.
From the skin, the BrightonSEO venue doesn’t look large. However inside, the dimensions of the occasion hits you (particularly in case you are a speaker).
Auditorium 1 has a 3,000-person capability—so it’s large.
One of many issues that makes BrightonSEO particular is that it’s managed to maintain the “small convention” really feel, regardless of changing into a lot larger than after I first visited 10 years in the past.
Small levels preserve talks intimate (the Skyline stage holds simply 300 individuals). Additionally, the after-parties and social occasions are nice for constructing close-knit relationships.
Convention organizers Kelvin Newman and Jo Walters nonetheless tempo the occasion’s halls, as they’ve for over a decade.
Earlier than the primary convention kicked off, we hosted our first search engine marketing workshop and networking occasion in a room above the Ye Olde King & Queen—a really British-looking pub in-built 1779.
Michelle Lindner, our neighborhood supervisor, ran a stay demonstration displaying find out how to do key phrase analysis for search engine marketing.
Subsequent, Joshua Hardwick, our head of content material, guided us by a case examine on find out how to construct high-authority hyperlinks. Lastly—and maybe most significantly—we chatted with attendees over a couple of beers and a buffet.
It was nice to see acquainted faces like Alex Panagis and a father-and-son search engine marketing duo, Matt Browne and Lenard, on the occasion.
I’m typically responsible of considering that solely SEOs could be curious about an search engine marketing workshop. However individuals from building, SaaS, consulting, and different industries additionally attended. It jogged my memory that search engine marketing is extra common now.
Wednesday was a busy day in Brighton. There have been quite a lot of paid workshops organized by BrightonSEO.
Wix additionally held its common dinner, which our very personal Patrick Stox attended with different well-known business faces. (See who you’ll be able to spot.)
The Lumar social gathering at Patterns proved widespread once more this 12 months.
And even in the event you weren’t within the temper for partying, you would get entangled in BrightonSEO’s free “netwalking” occasion.
https://twitter.com/brightonseo/standing/1698972483985314182
One of many nice issues about BrightonSEO is that even earlier than you begin the primary convention, there’s no scarcity of actions to get entangled in. The largest problem normally is deciding what occasions to attend.
The Ahrefs sales space had two big phrases stamped throughout it: swag giveaway.
So at 7 a.m., earlier than the convention opened, we hauled armfuls of T-shirts, water bottles, books, luggage, and—most significantly—a espresso machine to our stand.
BrightonSEO bought very busy, in a short time.
Inside minutes of the gates opening, the convention corridor was buzzing with exercise as SEOs and entrepreneurs navigated the venue.
The freshly floor espresso at our stand proved widespread. (We even noticed John Mueller having a cup.)
In addition to the espresso, guests to our stand may seize some Ahrefs swag: books, luggage, T-shirts, bottles, stickers, and extra.
Our newly launched newbie’s information to search engine marketing e-book was our hottest merchandise.
If you wish to pay money for one, we normally give them away at search engine marketing conferences we attend. However in the event you can’t wait, you’ll be able to order it right here.
Our T-shirt was our second hottest swag merchandise, and other people have been proud to share that they bought one on social media.
In addition to gifting away plenty of enjoyable stuff, occasions like this gave our workforce an opportunity to meet up with our clients face to face.
I bought speaking to individuals from each company and in-house backgrounds. From heads of departments to individuals beginning their careers. They have been largely based mostly within the U.Ok. or Europe, however some had come from as distant as Japan.
In addition to being requested about search engine marketing greatest practices and the Ahrefs platform, we additionally bought requested a couple of extra particular questions at this occasion:
- Technical SEOs requested us about find out how to take care of hreflang points (fortunately, our new hreflang visualization device was launched halfway by the convention).
- Attendees requested about different new options—we have been excited to share our new Portfolios characteristic that permits customers to trace a number of URLs within the dashboard.
- Attendees additionally requested about what made Ahrefs totally different from rivals, and we have been very happy to inform them concerning the distinctive options of Ahrefs.
But it surely wasn’t all search engine marketing.
We had enjoyable alongside the best way, with a couple of attendees courageous sufficient to attempt our momentary tattoos.
At one level, the Brighton “search engine marketing Gull” appeared at our stand.
In addition to search engine marketing Gull, BrightonSEO had loads of well-known faces.
When it got here to talks, we have been spoiled for selection—the whole lot from crawling, to e-commerce, to accessibility, to AI and content material automation, and far extra.
You solely have to click on by the talks to see they’re the who’s who of search engine marketing. In truth, the largest downside was making an attempt to keep away from timetable clashes.
Listed below are my favourite audio system from day one:
Between talks, most individuals ended up downstairs across the exhibitor stands.
One of the widespread and attention-grabbing—BrightLocal’s arcade stand, with a vibrant retro 80s really feel.
It may need helped that it was additionally gifting away £5,000! (~$6,117).
It was additionally a enjoyable expertise, although we couldn’t get the Ahrefs workforce off it!
Wix additionally had an ideal stand with a response recreation embedded into the wall.
Once we approached the stand, Crystal Carter thought it could be a good suggestion to pit me towards Joshua to see who may win a much-coveted can of Wix search engine marketing beer.
With the stakes so excessive, Joshua’s reflexes grew to become like a bolt of lightning, and he gained the can of beer in a single spherical.
After a busy first day, the workforce gathered for a night meal of tempura prawns, oysters, and sauteed samphire at The Salt Room.
Our espresso stand proved much more precious on the second day after numerous after-parties the night time earlier than.
It was an enormous day for our workforce: Each Andrei ?i? and Patrick Stox have been talking on Friday.
First up was Andrei. The room was so packed for Andrei’s speak that we struggled to get in and see him ourselves.
Andrei’s speak targeted on 10 fast methods to enhance your rankings utilizing Ahrefs, with suggestions like:
- Discovering unlinked model mentions utilizing Internet Explorer.
- Utilizing Website Audit to search out vital points, and going granular by evaluating HTML code and textual content adjustments within the URL particulars panel.
Subsequent up was Patrick, who flew all the best way from Raleigh, North Carolina. If you realize something about technical search engine marketing, then you definitely’ll know who he is.
In addition to moderating the Tech search engine marketing panel, Patrick offered his latest hreflang examine, which discovered that 67% of domains utilizing hreflang have hreflang points.
Right here’s a fast pattern of my favourite audio system from day two:
Last ideas
Seaside, solar, search engine marketing, and good instances. What extra do you want?
BrightonSEO is considered one of my all-time favourite search engine marketing conferences. It’s grown so much since I’ve been in attendance. But it surely nonetheless feels as heat, pleasant, and easygoing as the primary time I went.
When you haven’t been but, it’s value a go to to be taught extra about search engine marketing, meet the Ahrefs crew, and have some enjoyable.
Need to ask a query about BrightonSEO? Ping me on X (Twitter).