And it’s not just me who thinks so:
There are a great deal of pleasant people in Website positioning I’m grateful to have met by way of this convention. These of us who stay down underneath don’t usually get probabilities to attach with one another at giant occasions like this (a minimum of not with out an insane quantity of journey).
Kudos to James Norquay and the Prosperity Media group for placing collectively such a fantastic occasion. You’ll positively be seeing me once more subsequent yr.
To provide you a really feel for the occasion (and hopefully persuade you to affix me subsequent yr), listed here are my prime takeaways.
Each instances I’ve attended this convention, the Prosperity group has gone all out on hiring top-notch, five-star venues.
Situated within the coronary heart of Sydney, each venues have been straightforward to get to and are close to many sights for interstate or worldwide vacationers to take pleasure in.
It’s also possible to anticipate five-star service from the venue employees, and the meals and drinks offered all through the day exceeded my expectations. None of that undrinkable convention espresso over right here.
There are additionally quite a few nice sponsors (together with Ahrefs, after all) supporting the occasion. We shared a stack of our SEO for Beginners and White-Haired SEO children’s books with attendees:
To not point out the after-party overlooking the harbor. It was a fantastic place for folks to let their hair down, take pleasure in some drinks on Prosperity Media’s tab, and get into deep and fascinating conversations. Simply what a lady must nerd out over information graphs with Nik Ranger or Google’s useful content material updates with affiliate people.
It was a enjoyable day throughout!
Some conferences have a really feel about them the place you realize you’ll primarily be round affiliate people, or enterprise people, or generalist entrepreneurs. Sydney Website positioning Convention wasn’t like this.
There have been round 300 folks on the occasion, and I used to be pleasantly shocked by the various vary of expertise and pursuits of the attendees. I met affiliate entrepreneurs, company homeowners, in-house groups, and division heads from enterprise firms. There have been additionally some non-Website positioning builders and WordPress specialists.
In case you’re something like me then chatting to different attendees within the breaks or social occasions after the convention is the place you be taught some tremendous fascinating issues! It’s actually my favourite a part of going to conferences.
My finest Website positioning-related takeaway got here from Georgia Tan who shared some superior issues she’s engaged on along with her group round “digital shelf optimization” for purchasers like Pepsico. It’s about going past Google or different search engines like google and yahoo to optimize merchandise for particular ecommerce, market, or app platforms the place folks store.
I additionally discovered some nice non-Website positioning recommendations on dwelling in Andorra and the digital-nomad residency choices obtainable. Value testing if you happen to’re searching for a nomad-friendly place in Europe as your subsequent base!
The speaker lineup delivered information bombs for every attendee, irrespective of their function or Website positioning expertise. It wasn’t the case that just one or two audio system had been the standout favorites right here.
The range in presentation matters hit the nail on the pinnacle, and each attendee I spoke to walked away with new insights and actionable suggestions related to their function. That’s how you realize a convention has nailed it with its speaker lineup.
In case you’re feeling just a little FOMO, to not fear; listed here are my favourite takeaways from every speaker that you could additionally stroll away with.
| Speaker | Subject | Takeaways |
|---|---|---|
| Jes Scholz | From search to surfaces: Your information to Google’s metamorphosis | Jes made a robust case for the seismic shift that search is on the verge of within the Gemini period. Google is shifting away from utilizing schema.org and its ~1,400 outlined entities for understanding content material in direction of Gemini’s ~175 billion parameters. In consequence, Google is re-training folks to cease looking out with solely 2-5 phrases and somewhat embrace longer, conversational, context-rich searches as a substitute. |
| Jonas Grünfeld | Digital PR tendencies for 2024 to get prime outcomes |
Jonas shared three sensible digital PR methods.
I particularly liked his tackle how there are two forms of linkable property: content-based, or experience (non-content-based). |
| Nik Ranger | Unlocking the hidden energy of inside hyperlinks with machine studying | Nik’s speak was nerdy in the easiest way! She coated precisely how she makes use of machine studying to programmatically enhance inside linking on web sites. You possibly can take a look at out the mannequin utilizing the LinkBERT demo. |
| Sally Mills | Website positioning automation: Getting our time again | Sally shared next-level recommendations on how she makes use of AI to automate duties like net scraping, redirect mapping, and turning key phrases and intents into topical maps en masse. So many golden nuggets for making boring (but important) processes extra environment friendly. Take a look at her free automation scripts. |
| James Norquay | Affiliate & eCommerce Website positioning development: What’s working in 2024 |
James’ speak consisted of rapid-fire suggestions for half-hour straight. A few of my favorites embrace:
|
| Ana Luna, Benjamin Cleary + Georgia Tan (Panel) | Shifting the Needle: Search campaigns at enterprise scale | Georgia, Ana, and Ben answered questions regarding doing Website positioning at a mid-market or enterprise stage. There have been some nice takeaways for in-house and enterprise people looking for concepts on easy methods to implement their methods or to get buy-in from non-Website positioning executives. |
| Tim Soulo | Preserve your enemies shut: The best way to do aggressive intelligence with Ahrefs | Tim shared sensible use instances for utilizing Ahrefs as a aggressive intelligence instrument, together with 3 metrics, 3 actionable suggestions, and three instruments together with my favourite, the portfolio feature. You should use this to check a section of a competitor’s web site to yours or observe all of your opponents as a batch so that you get up to date opponents’ stats anytime you want them. |
| Greg Gifford | The best way to be a neighborhood Website positioning superhero | Greg’s presentation was dynamic and filled with native Website positioning scorching suggestions. I particularly liked Greg’s tip about getting hyperlinks from church buildings, charities, and different hyper-local, trusted organizations in your space. Native hyperlinks like this tie in along with his recommendation to show your weblog into a neighborhood vacation spot and a spot that native people flip to for content material concerning the space, not nearly your providers. |
| Regan McGregor | Belief or bust: Successful over customers and bots in Website positioning | Regan took a deep dive into all issues E-E-A-T with some nice examples of easy methods to run an in depth E-E-A-T-based model audit. My favourite tip was utilizing Google search operators like [example.com -site:example.com] to seek out listed model mentions on websites apart from your personal. |
| Aaron Taylor | The third pillar of Website positioning: Consumer interactions | I’m biased in direction of paying additional consideration to all issues combining Website positioning and UX. So Aaron’s speak on the influence of consumer interactions in Website positioning has a gentle spot in my coronary heart of Website positioning hearts. My prime takeaways:
|
| Dejan Mladenovski | Programmatic Website positioning: A profitable components for scaling development | What an lively speaker to shut off the day! I liked Dejan’s recommendations on making essentially the most out of programmatic Website positioning. And it wasn’t about creating quasi-spam, mass-AI pages at scale. I liked his takeaways on utilizing APIs, next-level programmatic inside hyperlinks, and programmatically inserting hreflang. My #1 tip was to solely take into account a programmatic Website positioning marketing campaign for key phrases and matters with over 20,000 searches a month if you wish to get a return on funding. |
Ultimate ideas
Good vibes, enjoyable people, and skilled audio system. What extra do you want?
With some top-level audio system already secured for subsequent yr’s lineup, together with Aleyda Solis, Kyle Roof, and Cyrus Shephard, I encourage you and your group to affix me at Sydney SEO Conference in 2025.
See how a lot enjoyable these people are having? This may very well be you subsequent yr.
See you there 😉