What BrightonSEO 2017 told me about good copywriting
I spent two days at BrightonSEO this year. It was a blast, as always, and a great help in understanding how copywriting needs to shift with the demand of SEO.
I held a content marketing workshop on day one with some creative and inspiring people. On day two I attended some of the expert presentations that BrightonSEO has to offer.
Over the course of the two days I had discussions, answered questions, and generally got involved in conversations about the state of the SEO industry.
Here are some of the things that I picked up there, that will inform my work as a copywriter and content marketer.
Technical SEO is a massive deal
Christoph Cemper gave an excellent overview of how broken links can really harm your SEO. Fixing this issue led to over 500% increase in traffic to the website.
Action: Do a proper link audit. If you don’t have anyone on it, hire an agency or a freelance expert.
Update your top performing blog posts
Jo Turnball and Daniel Furch showed how updating your best content can lead to better SEO opportunities. This is not only a more efficient way to create content, but gives you better bang for your buck.
Action: Use your web analytics to find your best performing content, and re-publish it with updated material.
Make Mobile your number 1 priority for content
Duane Forrester of Yext gave us a massive wake up call on mobile. This will be the most important factor in Google’s index next year.
It’s also where your audience is spending most of its time. Stunning stat: Over 50% of our mobile time is spent on apps, not the web browser.
Action: Review your most important content from a mobile perspective. How does it look on mobile devices? Can readers read it/scan it well?
Audience engagement is getting more immersive
Jes Scholz of Ringier Emerging Markets showed us how audience engagement is on a journey. From photos, to video, to 360 video and now Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality.
AR and VR is going to open up huge opportunities for marketers to engage in ever more powerful ways, with the launch of iPhone 8 / iPhone X and Samsung’s latest models fuelling progress.
Action: Experiment with AR and VR features in your content. Soak up what’s happening and consider what your brand can do with these new tools.
Google cares about quality content more than ever
Gary Illyes of Google told us that every update Google makes to its algorithms is about the quality of a site and its content. And there are 2 or 3 updates to Google a day.
This is a reminder that we should stay focused on the audience, and not Google. If it’s changing this quickly, we’re better off focusing on the end game – the value our content has for our audience.
We knew this, didn’t we? But still, it’s always worth reminding ourselves – the audience comes first.
Action: Make ‘content value for the audience’ a key factor in how you assess your content’s quality.
Summary
SEO is a fast changing sector, but the fundamentals remain.
I missed many of the other great presentations, but you can find most of them on the SiteVisibility website.
I’ll be running another content marketing course at BrightonSEO in April 2018, so let me know if you’re going.