The sun was out and the mood was still that of a bank holiday. After a courageous battle with the M25, this was what Brighton SEO 2015 had to offer…
We attended the advanced link building and outreach training course, taken by Laura Crimmons of Branded3. This course was designed to help understand how to build out a well-rounded link building and PR outreach strategy.
Link building has been a technique much in the SEO ‘press’ recently. The aftermath of Google’s Penguin algorithm update has turned old link building techniques e.g. link farms, directory sites or spammy link building practices into punishable offences (and rightly so). As a result we are all switching from processed link building techniques to free range link building.
The course covered all aspects of link building from the mandatory do’s and don’ts, to some fantastically creative PR campaigning case studies. Needless to say we came away with plenty of inspiration and ideas.
We were given some insight in to trends within the industry for example: Social media is an underused resource; we are beginning to see differences in topics trending on different social channels. Examples of this are: Twitter is trending sport topic shares, Pinterest for Beauty, fitness and food and Facebook tends to lead with shares in the health, news and science sector. Using this information we can begin to direct our social media outreach to the most effective platforms.
Genuine connections that are generated through social outreach can be highly valuable as they will be relevant to your website. This is the way forward with link building and we think will continue to evolve so that only pure and genuine links will be the ones that will add any value to your site.
Key takeaways:
- Link building is far from dead, when used in the right way building links can be highly effective.
- Switch from processed link building to free range link building.
- Use the right social media platforms in PR campaigns to create genuine links for your website.
- Be creative with your outreach techniques.
Day two was more of a free-for-all conference, with plenty of seminars, speakers and stands to get our teeth into. We attended the ‘Content Strategy’ seminar with Steve Morgan, Christoph C Cemper and Paul Jackson.
Steve Morgan gave us some great insights into generating exciting content campaigns with next to no budget. Christoph C Cemper took us through the aftermath of the penguin updates and its effects. Last but not least was Paul Jackson outlining the difference between creative and consistent messaging vs content clutter.
We finished up the day with a fireside chat with The Apprentice’s Mark Wright, which proved to be a much-anticipated event. While many may have had their reservations about the latest crowned prince of Sir Alan Sugar’s empire, it seems that he has undoubtedly won over the SEO community in what has been titled ‘his best interview yet’.
With our heads absolutely filled to burst with ideas, Brighton SEO has been a fantastic success, and we greatly look forward to the next one!