AI Antics, SERP Survival, and Link Love: Insights from My First SEO Conference
After four years in the SEO field, I finally landed at my first SEO conference: Brighton SEO in San Diego, CA. From a full day of technical SEO training to two full days of back-to-back SEO talks, was it worth the hassle of traveling over 1,200 miles, leaving the comfort of my work-from-home office, and socializing for three days straight? The answer to that is a resounding YES!
If you’re looking for insights into the SEO talks I attended, you’re in the right place. I’ll break down the key points I found most valuable below and action points that can help you and me improve in the SEO field, which constantly keeps everyone on their toes.
Content, Content, and More Content!
All SEO’s know that content is king and has been for years. But with the introduction and advancement of AI, is content still valuable? Yes, of course, content is still important and valuable. However, it’s what your content consists of that matters. Gone are the days of generic content marketing that’s only purpose is to rank highly on search engines. Now more than ever, users are looking for content that answers their questions right away and doesn’t make them sift through layers and layers of unuseful text (I’m looking at you recipe blogs).
Not only should your content answer a user’s query or fulfill their needs right off the bat, but there also needs to be a level of trust for them to know that your services or products are worth their time and monetary investment. E-E-A-T (expertise, experience, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Bianca Anderson went over E-E-A-T at this conference and did a wonderful job highlighting its best practices. Do you sell products? Start integrating “Productive Perspectives” into your product pages. Users want to know what they’re buying and a one-line description isn’t cutting it anymore.
Some of her key tips included:
- Adding unique author insights
- Writing in first person
- Demo-ing products and tools
Content needs to be personal. AI has no emotions nor does it have opinions. Differentiate yourself from AI by providing first-hand experiences in your content. Bonus points if it’s in video form!
Some other speakers who discussed content marketing topics included:
- Rosy Callejas: Building partnerships with content teams for success
- Ross Hudgens: Data-driven lessons from 12+ years of content-led SEO
- Rosa Mitchell: Maximizing ROI; How content marketing can boost your bottom line
- Misty Larkins: Don’t be a clickbait butterfly; hooking customers with content that delivers
- Stephanie Briggs: SEO projects that work (and how we found them)
Is Blogging Still Worth It?
To my surprise, blogging came up quite a few times during these talks. And, no blogging isn’t dead. If you’re not seeing results from your blog strategy, Alyssa Corso pointed out some mistakes you may be making:
- You’re not giving your blogs enough time to rank before changing them
- You’re ignoring user intent
- You don’t have a process for creating and publishing your blogs
Most SEOs know that an article can take time to rank. But, are you still giving it enough time? From Alyssa’s talk, she noted that on average her articles were reaching peak clicks between the 4 and 6 month mark. So, make sure you wait at least that long before updating your content.
But, you need to find the balance between letting your article do its thing and updating its content. Regularly updating your content can increase your weekly traffic and decrease its decay rate.
Other blogging talks included:
- Khalil Kanbar: Blogging in 2025 – How to turn traffic into conversions
- Louisa Frahm: How to use Google Trends to optimize your content
Topical Authority Was a Huge Buzzword
If you haven’t heard of topical authority, you may be behind. Not only is topical authority a proven strategy used to increase your web traffic, but Google even added it to their guidelines. Building authority for your website is one of the best things you can do. Not only does it show Google that you’re an expert in your field, but more importantly, it shows your users.
Are you still deciding whether to adopt a topical authority approach? Check out our topical authority case study. Our topical authority SEO approach skyrocketed our client to new heights with millions of impressions and thousands of clicks.
Is AI Taking Over the Marketing World?
I would be remiss if I didn’t bring up AI in this blog. AI has been a hot topic in the digital marketing sphere for the last two years. And, this conference certainly delivered some helpful tips on how to better use AI in strategies. From AI overviews in the SERP to using ChatGPT to propel your work efficiency, AI has likely become a part of your daily work schedule (I even used Otter AI to record some of these talks).
With the introduction of AI overviews into SERP, zero-click searches are becoming more and more popular. Users are finding their answers right at the top, with almost no need to click on any type of blue link. However, creating user-centric content that meets their needs can land you a position in those AI overview sources section.
Andy Crestodina gave us some practical AI tips when it comes to how to get AI to mention your brand:
- Make sure AI can crawl your site
- Confirm the site has a clear value prop
- Get listed in the directories/review sites
- Write AI-friendly press releases
- Write guest posts for big publications
- Collaborate with editors and thought leaders
Or maybe you’re wondering what to focus on the most with AI search optimization. Benu Aggarwal shared the seven focus areas:
- Research and intent mapping
- Content strategy
- User interactions
- Experience
- Omni channel real estate
- Data, AI, and schema
- Authority and relevancy
AI and Legality
I’m sure you hear legality and AI in the same sentence and immediately think it will be boring and dry content. However, the talk I attended by Daniel Russell was one of the most interesting (to me at least). I’ll save the dry legal talk and get straight to the point. No one owns the copyright to AI-originated content.
Keywords Still Matter
Yes, you read that right. Keywords do still matter. However, it’s how you use them that can separate you from your competitors. While keywords may be more nuanced than they once were, targeting keywords can still land you at the top of the SERPs when done correctly.
One thing that came up during a talk by Nicolas Garfinkel was how the SERPs have changed in relation to keywords that are synonymous with each other. For example, he shared a screenshot of two different SERP results: one with “best coffee maker” and the other with “top coffee maker.” You would think that the results would be the same if not extremely similar. But that wasn’t necessarily the case. Both results shared the same top two results (New York Times and Epicurious), but each result after that was different. From Reddit to TechRader, these keyword searches that are nearly identical show different results.
Ok, so what does that mean? The SERPs are competitive—we know this—but it’s even more fascinating to see that for essentially the same search, we’re getting different results. Keyword research matters and if you’re skipping it, you’re probably missing out on a lot of potential traffic and conversions.
Internal Linking and External Linking
Link building is a tried-and-true SEO strategy. However, internal linking matters too! Over the past year, we’ve been implementing an internal linking strategy, and our numbers have supported the point that internal links also matter! Some talks at Brighton confirmed this even further. If you’re having trouble ranking, audit your pages and make sure you have internal links with anchor text that represents the page you’re linking to.
Talks that focused on links included:
- Joy Hawkins: Does link building actually influence local pack rankings
- Griffin Roer: Internal Linking: SEO’s most overlooked tactic
- James Wirth: Link building your CMO will love
- Amanda Jordan: Link wars: the SEO awakens
- Gregg Gifford: Advanced local link building tips that will make you drool
- Roni Shehu: Get hundreds of organic links through statistics link building
Analytics to Improve Your Results
Every SEO likely has a love-hate relationship with analytic tracking tools. From Google Search Console to SEMrush, there are an infinite number of tools to track competitors, keywords, rankings, and more. But how can you best use these tools to improve your site overall? Katie Stone presented audience members with a talk on Google Search Console and how to best use it for user insights.
Query Listening can help you find what your users are searching for and better capitalize on those terms. How can you do this? By using Regex filters in Google Search Console. By customizing these filters, you can easily find search terms that real users are searching for.
Maybe you’re looking for data on a listicle on your website. Use Regex filters in GSC and input: “.*(best|top|alternate|alternative|vs|versus|review*).*” and search terms will populate. Now, you have a wealth of data that will show you if your page is getting impressions and clicks. This is a great filter to check if your page has hit its peak, or if it’s been on the decline. You’ll have a better understanding of when it’s time to update.
Other talks that focused on analytics included:
- Brie E Anderson: GA4 for search marketers
- Manu Nair: AI meets analytics
- Derek Perkins: Advanced BigQuery techniques
- Ray Grieselhuber: Going beyond “what happened” in SERP analytics
- Julian Hooks: Beyond algorithms; customer-centric SEO as the key to long-term success
SEO Isn’t Dead!
As SEO experts, we hear “SEO is dead” at least once a year. While sometimes it may seem that prediction is coming true because of AI advancements or new Google Core Algorithm shifts, SEO isn’t dead. Through the continuing SEO and search engine changes, we’ll continue to adapt and grow. By attending SEO conferences, we can further expand our knowledge and learn more ways to rank in these times. And if you’re still wondering if SEO conferences are worth your time, I encourage you to give one a shot. You may be surprised at how much you learn and the connections you make.