Today I've got two guests with me. I've got Venkata and Zach and we are just coming back from Brighton SEO in San Diego. That happened November 19th and 20th 2024. There were a lot of great speakers, a lot of notable guests. We had people like Will Reynolds, rand Fishkin, mike King, barry Schwartz all made appearances there. I really wanted to just jump in right away, guys, and get a feel for what you guys thought about it, maybe just give a quick background of what kind of work you guys are doing in SEO and then let's jump into seeing what your guys just general feel for the event was. So, venkata, do you want to start?

I think I'd start with myself. I'm Venkat Bhagdala. I work in mostly enterprise SEO, try to tackle problems with SEO as a solution. And talking about the event, it was good. I think I see a lot of energy, a lot of SEOs. Probably I've never seen this many of SEOs in one place, one platform, especially like enterprise to local, so that was exciting. That was one thing I really loved it.

Enterprise to local, so that was exciting. That was one thing I really loved it. I'm Zach, I work on loopnetcom, so also on the enterprise side. I have a background in technical SEO, but I've also been getting into content strategy, and so the event it was awesome, the ultimate opportunity to nerd out. I've also never seen that many SEOs in one place. Usually people are like what's SEO? But this was awesome. There was like huge crowds of people that love SEO. I was all about it.

Now, one thing that was unique this year is that they had the Brighton SEO Conference, but also HeroConf, which is a paid search conference. So did that add anything to you guys? Were you able to go to any of those tracks?

Personally, I'm like an SEO addict, so I can't betray my SEO, so I'm like enjoying all the stuff, but it's good to see a collaboration there. I see our VPs and leadership teams are who have to manage both the sides of things. I had a pleasure to talk with some of the people who are attending those conferences, but it's good to see from two angles, so that's definitely a good combination to have. End of the day, we are marketers.

Yeah, I was super focused on the SEO and AI stuff, but we did have our PPC team come out with us and that was really cool having those guys there too. It made a big difference just in our whole group, and then afterwards we're able to kind of reconvene and talk and sync up with them too and kind of bounce ideas off of each other. So it was really cool having both aspects at the event.

Yeah, one of the things that I liked about it is I think there were also some talks that crossed over. There was a lot of like reporting or big query there were some things like that, and I know they jumped over to some of the SEO talks. There were a couple of the paid talks where it was talking about, like, looker Studio reports that I found kind of interesting. So I think it was nice that, even though maybe it wasn't something I do on the day to day, maybe there are times when I am bringing in some paid data into my SEO data or I want to look at them side by side, make some analysis. There were some really good talks about that. So, yeah, I thought that that was great to have into there and it helps bring those teams together a bit more who sometimes don't get to go to these together, because there's not a whole lot of conferences like that.

Now, venkat, I had a question for you. You went to a conference maybe about a month ago. How did that one compare to this Same kind of energy or what'd you think?

Yeah, I think I've been to Tech SEO Connect. It's more focused of techies or SEOs and tech stuff, but this is a blend of everything like talking from agencies, local SEOs vendors. I think this is like a massive scale of stuff. The other one is super focused on tech stuff and AI, so that's a big difference. I saw was like different multiple perspectives here. There was everyone is on the same page in the last conference. Both are good.

That one was more tech focused. This was more general, Zach. What do you think was basically the theme that you took away from this conference?

Ooh, I saw a couple overarching themes, but I guess I would have to say the intersection between SEO and.

AI right.

So optimizing for SEI and optimizing for LLMs, and maybe even also like relevancy right, because in the world of LLM optimization with SEO, relevance is becoming more and more important, along with topical authority, and I saw a couple of different speakers mention these things, so that was one of the overall arching topics that I found.

What about you, phil? Yeah, I think the big thing was brand and knowledge graph. Those two really hit home, I think, and what I found was different this year from last year's Last year, ai was a little like we're a your brand is about, and don't stray was a big, big component to that. But I do think that there was a lot of just what you need to do to get AI. So some definite, real interesting themes, venkata, what did you take away from it? From a general theme?

Yeah, I think I really loved how Mike and even you or Jordan from Previsible, how they're emphasizing about how Google is using RAG or other systems. Currently, the industry is mostly looking at things in 10 years older version of how Google crawls, index the stuff, but right now how it's using RAG. That's the reason. Those are the some things it's hard to get out of any other conferences. These people are really advanced in what they're doing, how Google sees us, how to collect the data, how they find similarities. Those are the things I really enjoyed Bringing to the table, exposing to everyone. Hey, we need to see things in a different way, not a 10 years old way. So even you mentioned on this, your presentation, that how the RAC is playing a key role nowadays?

Yeah, definitely so, zach. I know that a big takeaway you had when we chatted was knowledge graph, knowledge graph. Were there any vendors out there that you were like? These guys are cutting edge?

they're really hitting the mark and you're like I want to talk more to them about that. Oh yeah, I went over and I spoke with Martha over at Schema app a couple of times and the team over there, so I've been following her work a little bit and even using that to drive the direction of the work that I've been doing and so, yeah, I'm excited to potentially work with them more in the future.

Uh, they have a lot of really good stuff going on vincato are there any vendors that you talked to that you uh felt like, okay, we need to chat some more.

That, uh, you're excited to see what they were working on yeah, probably like I'm becoming an unofficial brand ambassador for DemandSphere lately. I guess I really love their perspective of seeing capturing and serve data differently. Number one position number one is not anymore position one how they are trying to analyze the fold pixel data in order to educate other business cases or like to report leadership. That's one thing I really enjoyed, and definitely what Jack Toctopus was also doing regarding JS rendering and the tools they're building. I really love them as well, apart from Ahrefs and these people are pretty known Screaming Frog but these two vendors are something I really was interested to know more about.

All right, any celebrity encounters. Who'd you get selfies with I?

think Ran for sure I met Ran. He's definitely where I learned about most of the stuff from Moz Olden days. He was like love to see them. And Elijah as well. Product lead SEO. I read his book. I like him as well In person as well. Part from SEO Both read his book. I like him as well, uh, in person as, apart from seo, both of them I like the most personalities and seo. Those were people like I was like happy to see them yeah, and zach, you got to talk to martha.

I know that that's someone you've been following for a while. Anyone else you got to talk to that? Uh was a celebrity seo status.

Oh yeah, I didn't. I didn't go up to as many people, but I did get to come to um. Well, jr Oaks spoke right after you and I've been following his work. He's a really intelligent guy, so that was cool to get to see him speak. Uh, mike King was there right. Got to listen to Will Reynolds he was. He's awesome too. So, yeah, it was really cool, uh, being in the same room with these guys and getting to hear them speak, um, compared to usually.

you know, I'm reading their articles, so yeah, For someone who's maybe never been to an SEO conference. Now, Zach, this is your first SEO conference, right? What would you say? Like is it worth it?

Yeah, it's totally worth it. I loved it. I can't wait to go to the next one, okay.

And then, what should someone do who's thinking about going? What should they do to take advantage of going to a conference?

That's a good question. Well, bring something to take notes with your laptop, or a pen and pad because you're going to want to take some notes. Pad because you're going to want to take some notes. Maybe make reservations for lunch, because everybody is going to lunch at the same time and it's really busy. But basically, just get some rest and come ready to learn, check out the tracks, check out the speeches ahead of time so you can kind of map out where you want to go, because there's probably going to be multiple places you want to be at the same time. So come in with a team or some teammates would probably be good. That way you guys can divide and conquer and compare notes later, in case there are multiple sessions you want to be in at the same time. And other than that, just come ready to nerd out, I guess.

I'll add one thing. Like when you go to school, you're going to get out what you put in, and I'd say, get in early. I would highly suggest walking through the vendor floor and really make sure you set aside a few hours. That can be any time. That could be before the show starts. Most of them are going to get there an hour, hour and a half before it starts. They're going to usually be there, especially on the first day after the last talk, but remember that in between it's going to be really busy. You may not have a chance to really talk, but remember that, like, in between it's going to be really busy. You may not have a chance to really talk. Maybe even set aside extra time at night or, you know, lunchtime to, if you want to sit down and talk to someone a little bit more in depth, like, really go for it.

I would push to say that, like, this is one of those opportunities where you can talk to a dozen or two different vendors, maybe even two or three that offer something really similar, and really get an idea of which one might be a better fit, and make sure you have that week or two after your conference open to being able to take some calls and demos and, you know, make sure that you're ready to do this, because oftentimes I find that I'm finding vendors who fit that we didn't even know about and they're right there, so you're talking to the people that can really help you out. So there's that. And then there's a lot of networking opportunities and you can do as little or as much as you want, introverted or extroverted as you are, there are options. Introverted or extroverted as you are, there are options. And I'd say, try to take advantage of what you can and don't feel uncomfortable going up to someone and just asking hey, what is it that you do? I'm just here to nerd out and if you want to talk SEO, I had a lot of people that just said I'd love to just talk tech SEO with you for a little bit. Or I have this issue Do you think you have you run into that, do you? Do you have any ideas?

And like, we just collabed for a little bit, and it's probably one of the few times where you really can talk to people who all are trying to do the same kind of thing you know, because LinkedIn is a little tougher, things like that but this is a great way where, if you, you can have just one of those five or 10 minute conversations. So I really encourage people to talk to as many people, and even the vendors. May I was introduced to someone through a vendor who were connected on LinkedIn. We chat all the time and so they really know a lot of people as well. So, you know, rely on them also to help with your networking. Vinkata, what about?

Yeah, this is something I'm realizing is like this is probably the most helpful for individuals to talk with others, build relations, and everyone has their own expertise. This is the only opportunity they have to connect with someone who are experts in something and get to know each other. You do work and everything. We are only focused on specific visions, specific roadmaps, but imagine that you have like 10 roadmaps trying to learn each other from different perspectives. I think I encourage everyone who's starting their career maybe, who have expertise as well, who have 10 plus experience as well.

It's worth to be in these conferences because A you know what's going on, what's changing, what's to adopt, build the relations, know as much as knowledge you can, and I think the conference is probably. I work 10 hours a day. I do pre-research. Who are the speakers who I want to talk with, when can I find them? Where can I find them? And after that I'm going to say, hey, this is an extremely great conference. I like your points. Try to connect in a LinkedIn, maximize whatever you can. This conference is worth to invest yourself only at least 1% of your revenue in a whole year. So I encourage everyone to talk with vendors, talk with speakers, build the relations. This is the knowledge you can't get anywhere else, I can assure you.

Oh yeah, I totally agree and I had the privilege to speak at this conference and I had a lot of people come up to me in person afterwards and chat and ask to connect on LinkedIn.

And you know some of these speakers like your maybe your Rand Fishkins or something like that they're getting tons of requests all the time, getting tons of requests all the time, but maybe a lot of the other speakers if you haven't had the opportunity to be able to connect on LinkedIn, this is also an opportunity to actually talk to them in person and ask them. And I think a lot more of these speakers are open to connecting to someone during the conference because they know that they're a real person. They're actually wanting to connect and maybe be able to follow everything that you're writing, and so they're a lot more open to it during these conferences. So I think you have a better opportunity also to connect with them than outside of the conference is just a random LinkedIn connect request. I would just love to hear some of your guys' final thoughts on the Brighton SEO 2024 San Diego conference. Zach, do you want to start with just some final thoughts?

Yeah, I thought it was like you guys said it was really, really informative. It was great being able to hear from a ton of industry experts from around the world. It was really good to be able to even hear talks that validated the work that we've been doing right, the things that we've been emphasizing, like topical authority and relevance, using schema to disambiguate relationships in order to strengthen the knowledge graph. These are reoccurring things that I heard throughout Brighton, and so that was really good to hear and I'm just really looking forward to the next one. To be honest, and Venkata some final thoughts.

I would encourage everyone to go to as many conferences as possible, especially Brighton SEO 2025. Be ready for that, because this is so far the biggest event I ever saw. So great. I met a lot of people, learned a lot from different perspectives. I truly enjoyed every second of the conference.

Yeah, it was a great conference for me. Final thoughts this is one of those where I think it's not too expensive, but they also do have free ticket offers. So get on that waiting list right away. You can typically get a free day. I think there's a certain percentage of tickets that they do give out for free. It's San Diego, so it's fairly easy to get to. There's a lot of hotel options.

It's definitely something I encourage people to go to If you're on the West Coast. If you're on the East Coast, they do this in the UK, in Brighton, which sometimes can actually be less expensive than flying to the West Coast. So they do have a couple options. They have a little bit different flavors between the two of them, so really take a look at the speakers and see which ones you want to do If you're interested in speaking. They're very open to first time speakers and they have a lot of mentorship, encouragement, feedback and help. So if it's something that you're interested in, I definitely would jump on that and reach out to them sooner than later. It's a great opportunity.

We got to see all kinds of speakers a couple speakers from Microsoft that showed off some of their new AI features and their tools. We saw Brand talking, will talking, mike King talking, so we got to see some of the biggest players in the industry as far as speakers go, and it was really, I think, a great event, well-organized. We weren't really worried about getting into any of the rooms. They seemed like they were sized just right, never had any issues hearing any speakers, seeing their slides, knowing what was coming up and everything.

So I felt like this was really not only well organized but great group of diverse people speaking, a great mix of all kinds of different types of speakers as well, and I felt like this year especially felt very genuine and it didn't feel like the talks were sales pitches, which I've seen in other conferences and in the past. So these really did feel like they were trying to share their knowledge and I was really really happy to see that. I appreciate having you guys on here. It was great seeing you guys in person over the last few days and we'll go ahead and we might have a couple more follow-ups as we kind of dive deeper into some of the things that we had as takeaways from the conference and maybe share with a few people on some of the stuff that we'll be working on here over the next few weeks. So thank you, venkata, thank you Zach, thank you.

Thanks guys.