26 June 2019
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Insight Create Perform
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Insight Create Perform
Now in its fourth year, SearchLeeds has rapidly become the largest search marketing event in the North of England. For a couple of the team at LITTLE, this was our first time at Search, so we couldn’t wait to get stuck in!
The event is now a key date in the calendar for any SEO enthusiast in the region, as thousands descend on the First Direct Arena to gain insights from industry experts, as well as tips on how to soar to the top of SERPs.
From website auditing to machine learning to the Women in Digital panels, SearchLeeds had something to suit everyone, and with over 40 talks across four stages, the only downside was trying to catch as many speakers as possible in such a short timeframe.
SearchLeeds was hosted by Edit Agency for the first time this year after taking the reins from Branded3. Edit is a media, CRM, data science and technology agency based in Leeds, London and Bath.
Officially running every year since 2016, Search welcomes some of the biggest names in the industry to deliver talks on their specialist subjects. There are also networking opportunities before, after and during the event for those who want to catch up with marketing professionals from all backgrounds.
Search has seen significant growth since its inception, and over 2,000 people attended this year’s event. It is completely free, with some of the UK’s biggest corporations including ASDA, Google and Microsoft among the illustrious bill of previous attendees.
A brand new fourth stage was added for 2019’s event, with 12 extra speakers and an extensive list of topics to explore. In total, there were 48 talks covering areas including technical SEO, analytics, digital trends in 2019, ecommerce, PPC, and social media.
So, which of the talks at SearchLeeds caught our attention the most? Well, our five attendees (Chris, Ellie, Grace, Josh and Lucy) have each outlined our favourite speeches below:
This witty and informative talk from Lukasz explored how businesses can increase their visibility as well as internal links from popular sites while utilising content marketing to see significant results. Introducing theories including Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle of ‘Why, How and What’ to establish your brand, he explained to the crowd several ways in which to ensure a website is linked effectively.
As our Creative Director, Chris enjoyed Lukasz’s inventive and humorous take on what can typically be a formal topic for SEOs, as well as his impressive colourful suit!
Grant Kemp explored the correlation between SEO and analytics during his talk and introduced the audience to data studio custom formulas, as well as how brand vs non-brand keywords can be used to boost numbers.
He used relevant examples of using Analytics to track your customer activity and how simple changes significantly increase revenue, informing them when a product is due back in stock or redirecting them to a suitable alternative rather than just presenting them with the “out of stock” message.
Grant’s talk interested Ellie as she works closely with analytics on a regular basis to identify any new avenues for our clients to explore. In particular, the benefits of using data studio alongside analytics to customise and share reports easily was a favourite topic.
This talk was Kirsty Hulse’s (a favourite speaker of Grace’s over the last few SearchLeeds’) farewell to public speaking on SEO, before she launches her new business Roar. This engaging talk focused primarily on the concept of creativity in marketing and how emotional resilience can be vital in connecting with target consumers.
This talk was particularly great for us here at LITTLE, as creativity sits at the heart of a lot of what we do. For Grace, as our key Account Manager and content team lead – she’s always on the lookout for ways to inspire and motivate us all to be better, whether that’s nailing the next big social campaign or implementing a better PPC strategy. She gained several new ideas from Kirsty, (and a couple of decent book references too) which will allow our team to further bring their ideas to the forefront, enabling us to continue delivering the best possible campaigns for our clients.
The director of Searchmetrics UK, Shyam Dattani, took us on an engaging journey about his experiences in creating content that his audiences want to digest. Comparing your website to a physical store, with Google as the barrier, he shared several pieces of advice on how to give an intended target audience what they want, and quickly.
Focusing on user-centricity, Shyam discussed how businesses can build on their market research in order to clearly identify what users want to see, and in what format.
In this talk, Screaming Frog’s Oliver Brett blended humour and expertise to guide us on his experiences in linkbaiting, which is used to gain hyperlinks by creating fake content. Utilising an impressive number of Lord of the Rings memes, he reinforced just how easy it can be to make up engaging stories and gain coverage from some of the world’s most reputable publications.
Fake news is so relevant in today’s world, and she was intrigued to find out how brands can capitalise on creating ‘fake’ products and services. The idea of creating content that’s deliberately designed to be manipulative seems quite counter-intuitive for brands, but the results speak for themselves.
What made this talk Lucy’s favourite was that it served as a potent reminder of how embracing creativity and humour to fabricate content can help to see significant results on SERPs. Pretty clever!
Although we could only choose five of our favourite talks, we enjoyed listening to all of the speakers share their insights and experiences throughout the day. With Search taking place just a short walk across Leeds from the LITTLE studio, we’re fortunate to have such an inclusive and innovative event just around the corner. Roll on Search 2020! For a full list of slides from each speaker at SearchLeeds 2019, please visit their website here.
Check out some of the photos we snapped of this year’s event below:
Why not email hello@little.agency or call 0113 828 0000 to find out how we can help you to transform your content marketing.
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