After a seven year hiatus, I was incredibly excited to visit BrightonSEO for the second time, and follow in the footsteps of my colleague Will, who also attended the May 2024 conference. Anyone who’s anyone in the SEO world knows that BrightonSEO is the big one, and having been in digital marketing for a decade, my visit was long overdue!
At Fluid, we are very lucky to have a personal development fund that allows us to attend such great events as BrightonSEO, so I made the most of it with the aim to bring back some awesome insights for me and the team.
What new SEO skills can I learn?
What industry experts can I see?
And, more importantly, how much SEO-related free merch can I fit in my bag!?
What is BrightonSEO?
BrightonSEO is one of the biggest search marketing conferences in the UK, bringing SEO pros and digital marketers together for talks, workshops, and networking. It covers everything from technical SEO to content and link building, offering practical tips and insights from industry experts. It’s a great place to learn, connect, and stay up to date on the latest SEO trends.
Originally ‘a room above a pub’, it has grown into the main SEO event in the UK all whilst maintaining a warm, accessible and fun atmosphere. So, if you’re visiting the event on your own like myself and Will have both now done, don’t fear! You are quickly welcomed by the super SEO community and made to feel like part of the BrightonSEO family.
Day one
My journey started way too early on Thursday morning as I had to make a 4-hour drive down to the coast. I arrived just in time for the afternoon talks, and let me tell you, they didn’t disappoint!
New for 2024 - Masterclasses
The first session I attended was a masterclass on Implementing Schema via Google Tag Manager with Radu Stoian. Masterclasses are a new edition to Brighton and are a 70 minute, in-depth session in a classroom setting, allowing you to get way more hands-on with the topic than the regular 20 minute talks.
A few takeaways that stood out were:
• Google is totally fine with Schema implemented through GTM.
• There's no issue with sites using JavaScript either — just keep an eye on your crawl budget. As long as you're not doing things en masse, you’re good!
From there, I shifted gears and attended a Link Building Panel featuring Joshua Hardwick from Ahrefs (yes, I had a fanboy moment—what SEO nerd like me doesn’t love Ahrefs?). One controversial topic that caused a heated debate on the panel was that of buying links. It seems as though this topic has been raging on since I last attended the event in 2017!
Break Time = Freebies Time
During lunch, I indulged in the usual BrightonSEO tradition—freebies! I picked up a sweet Screaming Frog beanie, BrightonSEO T-Shirt and& socks, enjoyed some donuts, cakes, and gathered a ton of stickers to decorate my laptop. Brighton SEO definitely knows how to keep attendees well-fed and happy.
After the break: SEO implementation and overcoming challenges
After lunch, I dived into more talks, this time on implementation. As an SEO Manager, I’m familiar with the task of trying to sell the importance of SEO to clients and the wider team, so these talks were of incredible relevance and gave me some great ideas to bring back to Fluid:
• Helen Benavides from giffgaff shared the power of education in getting SEO tasks done. It was a refreshing perspective on internal buy-in.
• Alexandre Hoffmann discussed bridging the gap between SEO strategy and success—a timely reminder that strategy is only as good as its execution.
• Ashleigh Noad had a great talk on overcoming implementation blockers, which focused on how to get buy-in for SEO projects as we head into 2025. It was practical and loaded with advice I’m excited to put into practice.
After a long day of talks, I made the most of the free beer token and met up with a client who was also attending on their own to compare notes and grab some much needed dinner.
As I now consider myself an old man, and have a beautiful daughter who loves to seize the day from around 6am (if we’re lucky), I took this opportunity to swerve the after party and get my head down at the approximate time of 9pm. Lad alert!
Day two
After a solid night's sleep and eating my own body weight at the breakfast buffet, I was buzzing for more SEO wisdom (or maybe that was just the after effect of four sausages).
I kicked off Friday with talks covering measurement, case studies, link building, and tech SEO. I made sure to balance out my sessions between masterclasses and more general talks to get a comprehensive experience.
Lunch on the beach was the perfect way to recharge—Brighton treated us to sunshine all weekend long! I soaked up the relaxed atmosphere, feeling lucky that the weather played along for once. Brighton has to be up there as one of my favorite UK cities and I’d highly recommend taking a weekend visit even if the conference isn’t on.
Search planning and the future of SEO
Later, I attended talks on search planning, including the impact of the new EU Digital Markets Act with Luca Tagliaferro, and some super insightful sessions like:
• Forecasting SEO results in the GA4 era by Ramona Joita—which made GA4 seem a little less intimidating.
• Lottie Namakando’s session on how to use competitors to supercharge your search had me scribbling down notes non-stop!
Final thoughts
Unfortunately, I had to leave before the final round of talks to start the long trek back to Derby, but I already had several pages of notes ready to take back and share with the Fluid team. All in all, Brighton SEO was an incredible experience. From the insightful talks and key takeaways to the networking and seaside views, I couldn’t have asked for more.
I’m already looking forward to future events, and I can’t wait to hit more SEO and marketing conferences with the Fluid team.