I’ll be attending the April 2023 edition of Brighton SEO, for the first time in person since pre-Covid events. It’ll be a chance to refresh on the latest trends and look out for innovations within the industry.

Some things I’ll be looking out for:

• User-focused study – I’m particularly interested in hearing from people who are striving to research search users in more direct formats. SEO practices rely too heavily on so-called best practice and assumptions that go unverified
• Ethical approaches to SEO – the work we do has an impact on the world around us. We provide content for users in ways that affects their wellbeing (finance, healthcare etc). The internet has an environmental impact, with growing awareness of the carbon footprint of content being one example
• Leadership & team building – an aspect of SEO that I’m passionate about. How we inspire and empower people to learn and grow as professionals, and the development of cohesive teams

I’m sure there’ll be plenty of discussion about AI and Chat GPT, and it’ll be interesting to see how it’s being used and whether there’s a balanced view, or if a more gung-ho attitude is adopted. My personal views align quite closely to those of Mike King, who has advocated for more cautious use for the time being.

Is SEO moving more into the strategic realm, or are people still primarily focused on tactical implementation? In my experience, there are certainly pockets of the former, where an in-house lead is acting more as a consultant seeking to embed SEO into the work of other disciplines. Mostly, however, it’s still being approached as a standalone activity, with production of “SEO content” and on-page optimisation for target keywords still prevalent.

There’s a widening gap between the technology employed by search engines and the knowledge and understanding of it among SEOs. This means a growing deficit in SEO methodology and a failure to understand that the best routes to success are, increasingly, through integration of our work with those of other professionals.

Some will claim “that’s just what Google wants you to believe”, and there may be a kernel of truth in this. However, it’s also difficult to justify techniques that are plainly at odds with UX and content design and, at the same time, harder to confidently recommend to a client.