BrightonSEO is over for another year, well, for 2021 anyway. We’ll certainly be back in April to experience it all over again.

With over 100 speakers taking to the stage over two days, discussing everything from creating the perfect PR campaign and YouTube SEO hacks to optimising JavaScript. There was something for everyone.

In an ever-changing industry, we understand the importance of keeping up to date with new trends, which is why we sent three of our team along to attend the largest search marketing conference.

After over a year in isolation, with many being stuck within the same four walls, it was great to be back in Brighton – sat amongst crowds of like-minded people, listening to individuals from the forefront of their fields speak passionately about the industry, sharing a wealth of knowledge.

Here are just some of our highlights from the conference – we can’t wait to put these into action for PushON and our clients.

“How to do keyword research in a language you don’t speak”

Lidia Infante – Rise at 7

Anyone who either speaks multiple languages or has dabbled with the likes of Babble or Duo Lingo, knows that there is much more to speaking another language than simply knowing the direct translation for each word. There are different dialects and foreign grammar to consider, meaning methods used to conduct keyword research in English won’t always produce the same results for clients who operate outside of the UK.

Lidia Infante, Senior International SEO lead at Rise at Seven, broke down a formulaic way to approach keyword research in foreign languages in a few easy steps. We can use Lidia’s creative and almost mathematical approach to keywords to better assist with our entire SEO & Content strategy.

“How to optimise JavaScript… Without Learning JavaScript”

Emma Thompson – Absolute Digital Media

Handling JavaScript is not for the fainthearted, or so we thought. Emma Thompson, SEO Account Manager at Absolute Digital Media, gave us a fresh perspective. Rather than be afraid of JavaScript, we should embrace it. Our SEO team remains involved in the development process from beginning to end. This ensures that the JavaScript is streamlined with SEO objectives from the get-go, avoiding nasty surprises when launching a new website (imagine going from page 1 to page 4 at the click of a button). JavaScript can sometimes feel like another language that only the development team can speak. However, Emma’s advice on how to communicate with the development team was incredibly insightful.

Our SEO team doesn’t necessarily need to be fluent; they need to communicate tasks so that the development team can understand. This birthed a new idea in how we can communicate the urgency vs impact of a task, prioritise the work that needs to be done, and maximise speed and efficiency for our clients.

“Core Web Vitals: Loopholes, flaws & endless delays”

Tom Capper – Moz

We know we weren’t alone when we caught ourselves in the storm of Core Web Vitals and their perceived effect on rankings. Tom Capper, Search Scientist at Moz, revealed some glaring errors in those vitals and how they don’t always make sense, reminding us that we need to prioritise the human user before any bot or crawler. You could follow the core web vitals recommendations and hack the system, but ultimately, you wouldn’t have a site that is useful to consumers. When analysing our client’s website performance, we should be watching out for high traffic pages, useful optimisations with the user in mind and finally, speed.

“How cognitive bias is ruining your conversions”

Kendra Macdonald – Automation Ninjas

Kendra ran a psychology-based session to delve into the marketing tactics that we use on our consumers and why we should reconsider them. In Kendra’s words, “Marketers f*cking suck! We’re all a big bag of d*cks to our consumers!”.

Cognitive bias is essentially a subconscious error in thinking that means you misinterpret information. Tricks such as loss aversion exploit these biases. We think it’s fair to say that we have all been hoodwinked once or twice, with the offer of free shipping. We’re coaxed in with the promise of free shipping, so we go ahead and buy a product for £12 when in reality, the product is worth £10 with £2 towards shipping. These are shortcuts that marketers can take, ignoring strategies in favour of quick wins.

Content needs to be strategic – it needs to give customers what they want and not rely on lazy tricks. We can ensure that all our content doesn’t feed into cognitive bias by making sure we are using simple, repetitive language in copy, keeping messaging clear and concise, rather than going too in-depth and confusing customers. We apply these rules to our content anyway, but it’s an important reminder of why we do it, especially if we have clients that push for content to be too complex. 

“Where to find data for your outreach campaign”

Hana Bednarova – Shout Bravo

Data-driven campaigns and content are great for outreach and obtaining backlinks, but getting the right data can be expensive, so it’s not always an option for clients on a tight budget. Instead, we need to get creative with how we source data – investing time rather than money.

Hana advised on the best places to dig out data across a huge range of industries, from construction to communications, and how to approach local councils, the police and even the NHS by sending freedom of information (FOI) requests. The press has been doing this for years, but many marketers didn’t know this was an option. Once you have thoroughly analysed your data, you can shape it into a campaign. This allows marketers to create relevant, data-driven campaigns that can be outreached to relevant publications, no matter how niche. 

It’s given PushON a new way to think about how we obtain data – if we have campaign ideas that require data to back it up, we’ll be able to incorporate this into our strategy. 

“Turning wild opinions into traffic, backlinks and social proof”

Ryan Law – Animalz

Many brands like to play it safe with content but to build trust; you do need to demonstrate your expertise – even if that means taking a risk! For example, opinionated content isn’t necessarily the biggest organic traffic driver, but it does spark a conversation and is more likely to be shared and generate backlinks. On the other hand, contrarian content that has a strong opinion encourages discussion and social shares. It also positions the writer as an expert, as clearly, they know better than anyone else. To try this out for ourselves, Ryan suggested thinking of truisms from the industry your client is in – and challenge them to construct a counter-narrative. Rather than relying on SEO, these articles can be shared via newsletters, social and community channels to spark a debate and increase engagement.


To summarise, our key takeaways from BrightonSEO Autumn 2021 include:

  • A new approach to keyword research when creating an SEO and content strategy for clients operating overseas.
  • How to effectively communicate with our development team to ensure that SEO tickets are actioned accordingly in terms of urgency VS impact.
  • How to better understand search intent to truly optimise your pages in line with what a potential client is looking for.
  • Clear, concise messaging is essential when communicating with consumers and potential clients to avoid cognitive bias and marketing tricks!
  • Where to find powerful data to propel data-driven client campaigns.
  • Take a risk with content; the engagement and impressions will be worth it!

Contact us today to find out how we can apply our newfound knowledge and support your eCommerce Strategy.