November 26, 2024 • 18 mins
What if the future of SEO is being rewritten right before your eyes? Join us as we explore this fascinating landscape as we recap Brighton SEO in San Diego. Together with my insightful guests, Venkata and Zak, we unpack the engaging discussions around AI integration in SEO, brand consistency, and Microsoft and Google's latest innovations. The event was not just about absorbing expert knowledge but also experiencing the synergy between SEO and paid search, thanks to the concurrent HeroConf. This crossover provided the opportunity for additional insights, especially in the realms of reporting and data analysis.
Networking is more than exchanging business cards; it's about building impactful relationships. We delve into the immense value of engaging with speakers and vendors, leading to potential collaborations and deep dives into trends like topical authority. Reflecting on the event's accessibility and supportive environment for newcomers, we highlight the opportunities it offers for both seasoned professionals and first-time speakers. Our gratitude extends to Venkata and Zak for their contribution, as we look forward to future conferences and additional episodes discussing more in depth discussions on topics that stood out.
Guest Bios:
Venkata Pagadala:
Venkata Pagadala is a seasoned SEO and Growth Strategist, driving businesses from startups to enterprises generating over $1 billion annually to online success. With data-driven strategies, he has led campaigns achieving 40+ million monthly organic visits and worked with industry leaders like Apartments.com and Recovery.org.
Specializing in AI-driven content creation, site migrations, and technical SEO, Venkata excels at simplifying complex challenges to deliver measurable results. Featured on platforms like Spotify and SEOFOMO, he’s dedicated to building impactful online presences, sustainable growth, and revenue optimization in the digital landscape
https://www.venkatapagadala.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/venkata-pagadala/
Zak Perez:
With over thirteen years of expertise, Zak Perez is dedicated to optimizing LoopNet.com, the largest online marketplace for commercial real estate, with over 20 million indexed URLs.
His background spans SEO, front-end development, UX/UI design, conversion rate optimization, accessibility and AI. He brings a holistic and data-driven approach, aimed at maximizing online visibility, improving user experience, and driving results.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/zakperez/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today I've got two guests with me.
I've got Venkata and Zach andwe are just coming back from
Brighton SEO in San Diego.
That happened November 19th and20th 2024.
There were a lot of greatspeakers, a lot of notable
guests.
We had people like WillReynolds, rand Fishkin, mike
King, barry Schwartz all madeappearances there.
(00:21):
I really wanted to just jump inright away, guys, and get a
feel for what you guys thoughtabout it, maybe just give a
quick background of what kind ofwork you guys are doing in SEO
and then let's jump into seeingwhat your guys just general feel
for the event was.
So, venkata, do you want tostart?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
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, itwas good.
I think I see a lot of energy,a lot of SEOs.
Probably I've never seen thismany of SEOs in one place, one
platform, especially likeenterprise to local, so that was
(01:01):
exciting.
That was one thing I reallyloved it.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Enterprise to local, so that was exciting.
That was one thing I reallyloved it.
I'm Zach, I work on loopnetcom,so also on the enterprise side.
I have a background intechnical SEO, but I've also
been getting into contentstrategy, and so the event it
was awesome, the ultimateopportunity to nerd out.
I've also never seen that manySEOs in one place.
(01:26):
Usually people are like what'sSEO?
But this was awesome.
There was like huge crowds ofpeople that love SEO.
I was all about it.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Now, one thing that was unique this year is that
they had the Brighton SEOConference, but also HeroConf,
which is a paid searchconference.
So did that add anything to youguys?
Were you able to go to any ofthose tracks?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Personally, I'm like an SEO addict, so I can't betray
my SEO, so I'm like enjoyingall the stuff, but it's good to
see a collaboration there.
I see our VPs and leadershipteams are who have to manage
both the sides of things.
I had a pleasure to talk withsome of the people who are
attending those conferences, butit's good to see from two
angles, so that's definitely agood combination to have.
(02:13):
End of the day, we aremarketers.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Yeah, I was super focused on the SEO and AI stuff,
but we did have our PPC teamcome out with us and that was
really cool having those guysthere too.
It made a big difference justin our whole group, and then
afterwards we're able to kind ofreconvene and talk and sync up
with them too and kind of bounceideas off of each other.
(02:36):
So it was really cool havingboth aspects at the event.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, one of the things that I liked about it is
I think there were also sometalks that crossed over.
There was a lot of likereporting or big query there
were some things like that, andI know they jumped over to some
of the SEO talks.
There were a couple of the paidtalks where it was talking
about, like, looker Studioreports that I found kind of
interesting.
So I think it was nice that,even though maybe it wasn't
(03:02):
something I do on the day to day, maybe there are times when I
am bringing in some paid datainto my SEO data or I want to
look at them side by side, makesome analysis.
There were some really goodtalks about that.
So, yeah, I thought that thatwas great to have into there and
it helps bring those teamstogether a bit more who
sometimes don't get to go tothese together, because there's
not a whole lot of conferenceslike that.
(03:24):
Now, venkat, I had a questionfor you.
You went to a conference maybeabout a month ago.
How did that one compare tothis Same kind of energy or
what'd you think?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yeah, I think I've been to Tech SEO Connect.
It's more focused of techies orSEOs and tech stuff, but this
is a blend of everything liketalking from agencies, local
SEOs vendors.
I think this is like a massivescale of stuff.
The other one is super focusedon tech stuff and AI, so that's
a big difference.
I saw was like differentmultiple perspectives here.
(03:56):
There was everyone is on thesame page in the last conference
.
Both are good.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
That one was more tech focused.
This was more general, Zach.
What do you think was basicallythe theme that you took away
from this conference?
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Ooh, I saw a couple overarching themes, but I guess
I would have to say theintersection between SEO and.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
AI right.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
So optimizing for SEI and optimizing for LLMs, and
maybe even also like relevancyright, because in the world of
LLM optimization with SEO,relevance is becoming more and
more important, along withtopical authority, and I saw a
couple of different speakersmention these things, so that
(04:38):
was one of the overall archingtopics that I found.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
What about you, phil?
Yeah, I think the big thing wasbrand and knowledge graph.
Those two really hit home, Ithink, and what I found was
different this year from lastyear's Last year, ai was a
little like we're a your brandis about, and don't stray was a
big, big component to that.
But I do think that there was alot of just what you need to do
(05:26):
to get AI.
So some definite, realinteresting themes, venkata,
what did you take away from it?
From a general theme?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
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 othersystems.
Currently, the industry ismostly looking at things in 10
years older version of howGoogle crawls, index the stuff,
but right now how it's using RAG.
(05:56):
That's the reason.
Those are the some things it'shard to get out of any other
conferences.
These people are reallyadvanced in what they're doing,
how Google sees us, how tocollect the data, how they find
similarities.
Those are the things I reallyenjoyed Bringing to the table,
exposing to everyone.
Hey, we need to see things in adifferent way, not a 10 years
(06:18):
old way.
So even you mentioned on this,your presentation, that how the
RAC is playing a key rolenowadays?
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Yeah, definitely so, zach.
I know that a big takeaway youhad when we chatted was
knowledge graph, knowledge graph.
Were there any vendors outthere that you were like?
These guys are cutting edge?
Speaker 3 (06:41):
they're really hitting the mark and you're like
I want to talk more to themabout that.
Oh yeah, I went over and Ispoke with Martha over at Schema
app a couple of times and theteam over there, so I've been
following her work a little bitand even using that to drive the
direction of the work that I'vebeen doing and so, yeah, I'm
excited to potentially work withthem more in the future.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Uh, they have a lot of really good stuff going on
vincato are there any vendorsthat you talked to that you uh
felt like, okay, we need to chatsome more.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
That, uh, you're excited to see what they were
working on yeah, probably likeI'm becoming an unofficial brand
ambassador for DemandSpherelately.
I guess I really love theirperspective of seeing capturing
and serve data differently.
Number one position number oneis not anymore position one how
they are trying to analyze thefold pixel data in order to
(07:34):
educate other business cases orlike to report leadership.
That's one thing I reallyenjoyed, and definitely what
Jack Toctopus was also doingregarding JS rendering and the
tools they're building.
I really love them as well,apart from Ahrefs and these
people are pretty knownScreaming Frog but these two
vendors are something I reallywas interested to know more
about.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
All right, any celebrity encounters.
Who'd you get selfies with I?
Speaker 2 (07:58):
think Ran for sure I met Ran.
He's definitely where I learnedabout 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 aswell.
Part from SEO Both read hisbook.
I like him as well, uh, inperson as, apart from seo, both
of them I like the mostpersonalities and seo.
(08:20):
Those were people like I waslike happy to see them yeah, and
zach, you got to talk to martha.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
I know that that's someone you've been following
for a while.
Anyone else you got to talk tothat?
Uh was a celebrity seo status.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Oh yeah, I didn't.
I didn't go up to as manypeople, but I did get to come to
um.
Well, jr Oaks spoke right afteryou 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 Reynoldshe was.
He's awesome too.
So, yeah, it was really cool,uh, being in the same room with
(08:57):
these guys and getting to hearthem speak, um, compared to
usually.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
you know, I'm reading their articles, so yeah, For
someone who's maybe never beento an SEO conference.
Now, Zach, this is your firstSEO conference, right?
What would you say?
Like is it worth it?
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Yeah, it's totally worth it.
I loved it.
I can't wait to go to the nextone, okay.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
And then, what should someone do who's thinking about
going?
What should they do to takeadvantage of going to a
conference?
Speaker 3 (09:26):
That's a good question.
Well, bring something to takenotes with your laptop, or a pen
and pad because you're going towant to take some notes.
Pad because you're going towant to take some notes.
Maybe make reservations forlunch, because everybody is
going to lunch at the same timeand it's really busy.
But basically, just get somerest and come ready to learn,
check out the tracks, check outthe speeches ahead of time so
(09:50):
you can kind of map out whereyou want to go, because there's
probably going to be multipleplaces you want to be at the
same time.
So come in with a team or someteammates would probably be good
.
That way you guys can divideand conquer and compare notes
later, in case there aremultiple sessions you want to be
(10:12):
in at the same time.
And other than that, just comeready to nerd out, I guess.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
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 inearly.
I would highly suggest walkingthrough the vendor floor and
really make sure you set aside afew hours.
That can be any time.
That could be before the showstarts.
(10:38):
Most of them are going to getthere an hour, hour and a half
before it starts.
They're going to usually bethere, especially on the first
day after the last talk, butremember that in between it's
going to be really busy.
You may not have a chance toreally talk, but remember that,
like, in between it's going tobe really busy.
You may not have a chance toreally talk.
Maybe even set aside extra timeat night or, you know,
lunchtime to, if you want to sitdown and talk to someone a
(11:01):
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 talkto a dozen or two different
vendors, maybe even two or threethat offer something really
similar, and really get an ideaof which one might be a better
fit, and make sure you have thatweek or two after your
conference open to being able totake some calls and demos and,
(11:23):
you know, make sure that you'reready to do this, because
oftentimes I find that I'mfinding vendors who fit that we
didn't even know about andthey're right there, so you're
talking to the people that canreally help you out.
So there's that.
And then there's a lot ofnetworking opportunities and you
can do as little or as much asyou want, introverted or
(11:46):
extroverted as you are, thereare options.
Introverted or extroverted asyou are, there are options.
And I'd say, try to takeadvantage of what you can and
don't feel uncomfortable goingup to someone and just asking
hey, what is it that you do?
I'm just here to nerd out andif you want to talk SEO, I had a
lot of people that just saidI'd love to just talk tech SEO
with you for a little bit.
Or I have this issue Do youthink you have you run into that
(12:09):
, do you?
Do you have any ideas?
And like, we just collabed for alittle bit, and it's probably
one of the few times where youreally can talk to people who
all are trying to do the samekind of thing you know, because
LinkedIn is a little tougher,things like that but this is a
great way where, if you, you canhave just one of those five or
10 minute conversations.
So I really encourage people totalk to as many people, and
(12:31):
even the vendors.
May I was introduced to someonethrough a vendor who were
connected on LinkedIn.
We chat all the time and sothey really know a lot of people
as well.
So, you know, rely on them alsoto help with your networking.
Vinkata, what about?
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah, this is something I'm realizing is like
this is probably the mosthelpful for individuals to talk
with others, build relations,and everyone has their own
expertise.
This is the only opportunitythey have to connect with
someone who are experts insomething and get to know each
other.
You do work and everything.
(13:08):
We are only focused on specificvisions, specific roadmaps, but
imagine that you have like 10roadmaps trying to learn each
other from differentperspectives.
I think I encourage everyonewho's starting their career
maybe, who have expertise aswell, who have 10 plus
experience as well.
It's worth to be in theseconferences because A you know
(13:30):
what's going on, what's changing, what's to adopt, build the
relations, know as much asknowledge 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 wantto 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.
(13:50):
Try to connect in a LinkedIn,maximize whatever you can.
This conference is worth toinvest yourself only at least 1%
of your revenue in a whole year.
So I encourage everyone to talkwith vendors, talk with
speakers, build the relations.
This is the knowledge you can'tget anywhere else, I can assure
you.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Oh yeah, I totally agree and I had the privilege to
speak at this conference and Ihad a lot of people come up to
me in person afterwards and chatand ask to connect on LinkedIn.
And you know some of thesespeakers like your maybe your
Rand Fishkins or something likethat they're getting tons of
requests all the time, gettingtons of requests all the time,
(14:31):
but maybe a lot of the otherspeakers if you haven't had the
opportunity to be able toconnect on LinkedIn, this is
also an opportunity to actuallytalk to them in person and ask
them.
And I think a lot more of thesespeakers are open to connecting
to someone during theconference because they know
that they're a real person.
They're actually wanting toconnect and maybe be able to
follow everything that you'rewriting, and so they're a lot
more open to it during theseconferences.
So I think you have a betteropportunity also to connect with
(14:54):
them than outside of theconference is just a random
LinkedIn connect request.
I would just love to hear someof your guys' final thoughts on
the Brighton SEO 2024 San Diegoconference.
Zach, do you want to start withjust some final thoughts?
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Yeah, I thought it was like you guys said it was
really, really informative.
It was great being able to hearfrom a ton of industry experts
from around the world.
It was really good to be ableto even hear talks that
validated the work that we'vebeen doing right, the things
that we've been emphasizing,like topical authority and
(15:31):
relevance, using schema todisambiguate relationships in
order to strengthen theknowledge graph.
These are reoccurring thingsthat I heard throughout Brighton
, and so that was really good tohear and I'm just really
looking forward to the next one.
To be honest, and Venkata somefinal thoughts.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
I would encourage everyone to go to as many
conferences as possible,especially Brighton SEO 2025.
Be ready for that, because thisis so far the biggest event I
ever saw.
So great.
I met a lot of people, learneda lot from different
perspectives.
I truly enjoyed every second ofthe conference.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Yeah, it was a great conference for me.
Final thoughts this is one ofthose where I think it's not too
expensive, but they also dohave free ticket offers.
So get on that waiting listright away.
You can typically get a freeday.
I think there's a certainpercentage of tickets that they
do give out for free.
It's San Diego, so it's fairlyeasy to get to.
There's a lot of hotel options.
(16:35):
It's definitely something Iencourage 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 canactually be less expensive than
flying to the West Coast.
So they do have a coupleoptions.
They have a little bitdifferent flavors between the
two of them, so really take alook at the speakers and see
which ones you want to do Ifyou're interested in speaking.
(16:57):
They're very open to first timespeakers and they have a lot of
mentorship, encouragement,feedback and help.
So if it's something thatyou're interested in, I
definitely would jump on thatand reach out to them sooner
than later.
It's a great opportunity.
We got to see all kinds ofspeakers a couple speakers from
(17:17):
Microsoft that showed off someof their new AI features and
their tools.
We saw Brand talking, willtalking, mike King talking, so
we got to see some of thebiggest players in the industry
as far as speakers go, and itwas really, I think, a great
event, well-organized.
We weren't really worried aboutgetting into any of the rooms.
(17:39):
They seemed like they weresized just right, never had any
issues hearing any speakers,seeing their slides, knowing
what was coming up andeverything.
So I felt like this was reallynot only well organized but
great group of diverse peoplespeaking, a great mix of all
kinds of different types ofspeakers as well, and I felt
(18:00):
like this year especially feltvery genuine and it didn't feel
like the talks were salespitches, which I've seen in
other conferences and in thepast.
So these really did feel likethey were trying to share their
knowledge and I was reallyreally happy to see that.
I appreciate having you guys onhere.
It was great seeing you guys inperson over the last few days
(18:23):
and we'll go ahead and we mighthave a couple more follow-ups as
we kind of dive deeper intosome of the things that we had
as takeaways from the conferenceand maybe share with a few
people on some of the stuff thatwe'll be working on here over
the next few weeks.
So thank you, venkata, thankyou Zach, thank you.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Thanks guys.
Today I've got two guests with me.
I've got Venkata and Zach andwe are just coming back from
Brighton SEO in San Diego.
That happened November 19th and20th 2024.
There were a lot of greatspeakers, a lot of notable
guests.
We had people like WillReynolds, rand Fishkin, mike
King, barry Schwartz all madeappearances there.
(00:21):
I really wanted to just jump inright away, guys, and get a
feel for what you guys thoughtabout it, maybe just give a
quick background of what kind ofwork you guys are doing in SEO
and then let's jump into seeingwhat your guys just general feel
for the event was.
So, venkata, do you want tostart?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
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, itwas good.
I think I see a lot of energy,a lot of SEOs.
Probably I've never seen thismany of SEOs in one place, one
platform, especially likeenterprise to local, so that was
(01:01):
exciting.
That was one thing I reallyloved it.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Enterprise to local, so that was exciting.
That was one thing I reallyloved it.
I'm Zach, I work on loopnetcom,so also on the enterprise side.
I have a background intechnical SEO, but I've also
been getting into contentstrategy, and so the event it
was awesome, the ultimateopportunity to nerd out.
I've also never seen that manySEOs in one place.
(01:26):
Usually people are like what'sSEO?
But this was awesome.
There was like huge crowds ofpeople that love SEO.
I was all about it.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Now, one thing that was unique this year is that
they had the Brighton SEOConference, but also HeroConf,
which is a paid searchconference.
So did that add anything to youguys?
Were you able to go to any ofthose tracks?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Personally, I'm like an SEO addict, so I can't betray
my SEO, so I'm like enjoyingall the stuff, but it's good to
see a collaboration there.
I see our VPs and leadershipteams are who have to manage
both the sides of things.
I had a pleasure to talk withsome of the people who are
attending those conferences, butit's good to see from two
angles, so that's definitely agood combination to have.
(02:13):
End of the day, we aremarketers.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Yeah, I was super focused on the SEO and AI stuff,
but we did have our PPC teamcome out with us and that was
really cool having those guysthere too.
It made a big difference justin our whole group, and then
afterwards we're able to kind ofreconvene and talk and sync up
with them too and kind of bounceideas off of each other.
(02:36):
So it was really cool havingboth aspects at the event.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, one of the things that I liked about it is
I think there were also sometalks that crossed over.
There was a lot of likereporting or big query there
were some things like that, andI know they jumped over to some
of the SEO talks.
There were a couple of the paidtalks where it was talking
about, like, looker Studioreports that I found kind of
interesting.
So I think it was nice that,even though maybe it wasn't
(03:02):
something I do on the day to day, maybe there are times when I
am bringing in some paid datainto my SEO data or I want to
look at them side by side, makesome analysis.
There were some really goodtalks about that.
So, yeah, I thought that thatwas great to have into there and
it helps bring those teamstogether a bit more who
sometimes don't get to go tothese together, because there's
not a whole lot of conferenceslike that.
(03:24):
Now, venkat, I had a questionfor you.
You went to a conference maybeabout a month ago.
How did that one compare tothis Same kind of energy or
what'd you think?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yeah, I think I've been to Tech SEO Connect.
It's more focused of techies orSEOs and tech stuff, but this
is a blend of everything liketalking from agencies, local
SEOs vendors.
I think this is like a massivescale of stuff.
The other one is super focusedon tech stuff and AI, so that's
a big difference.
I saw was like differentmultiple perspectives here.
(03:56):
There was everyone is on thesame page in the last conference
.
Both are good.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
That one was more tech focused.
This was more general, Zach.
What do you think was basicallythe theme that you took away
from this conference?
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Ooh, I saw a couple overarching themes, but I guess
I would have to say theintersection between SEO and.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
AI right.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
So optimizing for SEI and optimizing for LLMs, and
maybe even also like relevancyright, because in the world of
LLM optimization with SEO,relevance is becoming more and
more important, along withtopical authority, and I saw a
couple of different speakersmention these things, so that
(04:38):
was one of the overall archingtopics that I found.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
What about you, phil?
Yeah, I think the big thing wasbrand and knowledge graph.
Those two really hit home, Ithink, and what I found was
different this year from lastyear's Last year, ai was a
little like we're a your brandis about, and don't stray was a
big, big component to that.
But I do think that there was alot of just what you need to do
(05:26):
to get AI.
So some definite, realinteresting themes, venkata,
what did you take away from it?
From a general theme?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
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 othersystems.
Currently, the industry ismostly looking at things in 10
years older version of howGoogle crawls, index the stuff,
but right now how it's using RAG.
(05:56):
That's the reason.
Those are the some things it'shard to get out of any other
conferences.
These people are reallyadvanced in what they're doing,
how Google sees us, how tocollect the data, how they find
similarities.
Those are the things I reallyenjoyed Bringing to the table,
exposing to everyone.
Hey, we need to see things in adifferent way, not a 10 years
(06:18):
old way.
So even you mentioned on this,your presentation, that how the
RAC is playing a key rolenowadays?
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Yeah, definitely so, zach.
I know that a big takeaway youhad when we chatted was
knowledge graph, knowledge graph.
Were there any vendors outthere that you were like?
These guys are cutting edge?
Speaker 3 (06:41):
they're really hitting the mark and you're like
I want to talk more to themabout that.
Oh yeah, I went over and Ispoke with Martha over at Schema
app a couple of times and theteam over there, so I've been
following her work a little bitand even using that to drive the
direction of the work that I'vebeen doing and so, yeah, I'm
excited to potentially work withthem more in the future.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Uh, they have a lot of really good stuff going on
vincato are there any vendorsthat you talked to that you uh
felt like, okay, we need to chatsome more.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
That, uh, you're excited to see what they were
working on yeah, probably likeI'm becoming an unofficial brand
ambassador for DemandSpherelately.
I guess I really love theirperspective of seeing capturing
and serve data differently.
Number one position number oneis not anymore position one how
they are trying to analyze thefold pixel data in order to
(07:34):
educate other business cases orlike to report leadership.
That's one thing I reallyenjoyed, and definitely what
Jack Toctopus was also doingregarding JS rendering and the
tools they're building.
I really love them as well,apart from Ahrefs and these
people are pretty knownScreaming Frog but these two
vendors are something I reallywas interested to know more
about.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
All right, any celebrity encounters.
Who'd you get selfies with I?
Speaker 2 (07:58):
think Ran for sure I met Ran.
He's definitely where I learnedabout 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 aswell.
Part from SEO Both read hisbook.
I like him as well, uh, inperson as, apart from seo, both
of them I like the mostpersonalities and seo.
(08:20):
Those were people like I waslike happy to see them yeah, and
zach, you got to talk to martha.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
I know that that's someone you've been following
for a while.
Anyone else you got to talk tothat?
Uh was a celebrity seo status.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Oh yeah, I didn't.
I didn't go up to as manypeople, but I did get to come to
um.
Well, jr Oaks spoke right afteryou 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 Reynoldshe was.
He's awesome too.
So, yeah, it was really cool,uh, being in the same room with
(08:57):
these guys and getting to hearthem speak, um, compared to
usually.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
you know, I'm reading their articles, so yeah, For
someone who's maybe never beento an SEO conference.
Now, Zach, this is your firstSEO conference, right?
What would you say?
Like is it worth it?
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Yeah, it's totally worth it.
I loved it.
I can't wait to go to the nextone, okay.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
And then, what should someone do who's thinking about
going?
What should they do to takeadvantage of going to a
conference?
Speaker 3 (09:26):
That's a good question.
Well, bring something to takenotes with your laptop, or a pen
and pad because you're going towant to take some notes.
Pad because you're going towant to take some notes.
Maybe make reservations forlunch, because everybody is
going to lunch at the same timeand it's really busy.
But basically, just get somerest and come ready to learn,
check out the tracks, check outthe speeches ahead of time so
(09:50):
you can kind of map out whereyou want to go, because there's
probably going to be multipleplaces you want to be at the
same time.
So come in with a team or someteammates would probably be good
.
That way you guys can divideand conquer and compare notes
later, in case there aremultiple sessions you want to be
(10:12):
in at the same time.
And other than that, just comeready to nerd out, I guess.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
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 inearly.
I would highly suggest walkingthrough the vendor floor and
really make sure you set aside afew hours.
That can be any time.
That could be before the showstarts.
(10:38):
Most of them are going to getthere an hour, hour and a half
before it starts.
They're going to usually bethere, especially on the first
day after the last talk, butremember that in between it's
going to be really busy.
You may not have a chance toreally talk, but remember that,
like, in between it's going tobe really busy.
You may not have a chance toreally talk.
Maybe even set aside extra timeat night or, you know,
lunchtime to, if you want to sitdown and talk to someone a
(11:01):
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 talkto a dozen or two different
vendors, maybe even two or threethat offer something really
similar, and really get an ideaof which one might be a better
fit, and make sure you have thatweek or two after your
conference open to being able totake some calls and demos and,
(11:23):
you know, make sure that you'reready to do this, because
oftentimes I find that I'mfinding vendors who fit that we
didn't even know about andthey're right there, so you're
talking to the people that canreally help you out.
So there's that.
And then there's a lot ofnetworking opportunities and you
can do as little or as much asyou want, introverted or
(11:46):
extroverted as you are, thereare options.
Introverted or extroverted asyou are, there are options.
And I'd say, try to takeadvantage of what you can and
don't feel uncomfortable goingup to someone and just asking
hey, what is it that you do?
I'm just here to nerd out andif you want to talk SEO, I had a
lot of people that just saidI'd love to just talk tech SEO
with you for a little bit.
Or I have this issue Do youthink you have you run into that
(12:09):
, do you?
Do you have any ideas?
And like, we just collabed for alittle bit, and it's probably
one of the few times where youreally can talk to people who
all are trying to do the samekind of thing you know, because
LinkedIn is a little tougher,things like that but this is a
great way where, if you, you canhave just one of those five or
10 minute conversations.
So I really encourage people totalk to as many people, and
(12:31):
even the vendors.
May I was introduced to someonethrough a vendor who were
connected on LinkedIn.
We chat all the time and sothey really know a lot of people
as well.
So, you know, rely on them alsoto help with your networking.
Vinkata, what about?
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah, this is something I'm realizing is like
this is probably the mosthelpful for individuals to talk
with others, build relations,and everyone has their own
expertise.
This is the only opportunitythey have to connect with
someone who are experts insomething and get to know each
other.
You do work and everything.
(13:08):
We are only focused on specificvisions, specific roadmaps, but
imagine that you have like 10roadmaps trying to learn each
other from differentperspectives.
I think I encourage everyonewho's starting their career
maybe, who have expertise aswell, who have 10 plus
experience as well.
It's worth to be in theseconferences because A you know
(13:30):
what's going on, what's changing, what's to adopt, build the
relations, know as much asknowledge 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 wantto 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.
(13:50):
Try to connect in a LinkedIn,maximize whatever you can.
This conference is worth toinvest yourself only at least 1%
of your revenue in a whole year.
So I encourage everyone to talkwith vendors, talk with
speakers, build the relations.
This is the knowledge you can'tget anywhere else, I can assure
you.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Oh yeah, I totally agree and I had the privilege to
speak at this conference and Ihad a lot of people come up to
me in person afterwards and chatand ask to connect on LinkedIn.
And you know some of thesespeakers like your maybe your
Rand Fishkins or something likethat they're getting tons of
requests all the time, gettingtons of requests all the time,
(14:31):
but maybe a lot of the otherspeakers if you haven't had the
opportunity to be able toconnect on LinkedIn, this is
also an opportunity to actuallytalk to them in person and ask
them.
And I think a lot more of thesespeakers are open to connecting
to someone during theconference because they know
that they're a real person.
They're actually wanting toconnect and maybe be able to
follow everything that you'rewriting, and so they're a lot
more open to it during theseconferences.
So I think you have a betteropportunity also to connect with
(14:54):
them than outside of theconference is just a random
LinkedIn connect request.
I would just love to hear someof your guys' final thoughts on
the Brighton SEO 2024 San Diegoconference.
Zach, do you want to start withjust some final thoughts?
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Yeah, I thought it was like you guys said it was
really, really informative.
It was great being able to hearfrom a ton of industry experts
from around the world.
It was really good to be ableto even hear talks that
validated the work that we'vebeen doing right, the things
that we've been emphasizing,like topical authority and
(15:31):
relevance, using schema todisambiguate relationships in
order to strengthen theknowledge graph.
These are reoccurring thingsthat I heard throughout Brighton
, and so that was really good tohear and I'm just really
looking forward to the next one.
To be honest, and Venkata somefinal thoughts.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
I would encourage everyone to go to as many
conferences as possible,especially Brighton SEO 2025.
Be ready for that, because thisis so far the biggest event I
ever saw.
So great.
I met a lot of people, learneda lot from different
perspectives.
I truly enjoyed every second ofthe conference.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Yeah, it was a great conference for me.
Final thoughts this is one ofthose where I think it's not too
expensive, but they also dohave free ticket offers.
So get on that waiting listright away.
You can typically get a freeday.
I think there's a certainpercentage of tickets that they
do give out for free.
It's San Diego, so it's fairlyeasy to get to.
There's a lot of hotel options.
(16:35):
It's definitely something Iencourage 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 canactually be less expensive than
flying to the West Coast.
So they do have a coupleoptions.
They have a little bitdifferent flavors between the
two of them, so really take alook at the speakers and see
which ones you want to do Ifyou're interested in speaking.
(16:57):
They're very open to first timespeakers and they have a lot of
mentorship, encouragement,feedback and help.
So if it's something thatyou're interested in, I
definitely would jump on thatand reach out to them sooner
than later.
It's a great opportunity.
We got to see all kinds ofspeakers a couple speakers from
(17:17):
Microsoft that showed off someof their new AI features and
their tools.
We saw Brand talking, willtalking, mike King talking, so
we got to see some of thebiggest players in the industry
as far as speakers go, and itwas really, I think, a great
event, well-organized.
We weren't really worried aboutgetting into any of the rooms.
(17:39):
They seemed like they weresized just right, never had any
issues hearing any speakers,seeing their slides, knowing
what was coming up andeverything.
So I felt like this was reallynot only well organized but
great group of diverse peoplespeaking, a great mix of all
kinds of different types ofspeakers as well, and I felt
(18:00):
like this year especially feltvery genuine and it didn't feel
like the talks were salespitches, which I've seen in
other conferences and in thepast.
So these really did feel likethey were trying to share their
knowledge and I was reallyreally happy to see that.
I appreciate having you guys onhere.
It was great seeing you guys inperson over the last few days
(18:23):
and we'll go ahead and we mighthave a couple more follow-ups as
we kind of dive deeper intosome of the things that we had
as takeaways from the conferenceand maybe share with a few
people on some of the stuff thatwe'll be working on here over
the next few weeks.
So thank you, venkata, thankyou Zach, thank you.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Thanks guys.
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