The Mixtazure team participated in the SEO Vibes 2023 conference organized by WhitePress in Budapest. In this article you will find a small summary of the most interesting presentations I have attended. Enjoy!
1. AI + Data Science: It’s not so easy, bro – Robert Niechciał
The first case study was presented by Robert Niechciał and explored the complex world of artificial intelligence and data in the context of SEO.
Key information of the presentation is as follows:
- The importance of building an internal database, which includes quality information (a kind of internal knowledge base).
- Using AI tools together with an internal database to improve the quality of the outputs generated by them.
- AI models must be fine-tuned to best suit the context for which they are used.
- Vector databases and the concept of cosine similarity (also applied to vectors) will be increasingly important and used for organic searches (and by Google’s internal systems).
- User signals will be increasingly important for Google’s algorithm.
- The enrichment of Google’s knowledge graph will continue, and it will include more and more information about entities.
- Aggregating data from Search Console and other analysis tools will be increasingly important to correctly interpret organic performance.
2. 7 SEO learnings from eCommerce websites in Barcelona
This presentation had as its focus the presentation of some SEO implementations for eCommerce websites in Barcelona, the focus being, however, on the official tourism website of the city of Barcelona.
Key information of the presentation is as follows:
- SEO audits need to be as simple and easy to understand as possible, so that they can then be implemented quickly and efficiently.
- Seasonality and trends can positively or negatively affect organic performance.
- An accessible website is very important for UX.
- Backlinks are, and will remain, very important to achieve a top organic ranking.
- Bing can be a good source of organic traffic and is worth considering when implementing an SEO strategy.
3. Kyle Roof – Lorem Ipsum
Kyle Roof’s presentation showed how the Google algorithm can be “fooled” only through On-Page elements such as Headings. Kyle’s experiment showed us that you can appear on the first positions organically with Lorem Ispsum type placeholder content.
Key information of the presentation is as follows:
- H1 will always have more influence than any number of H2 elements.
- H4 elements are no longer considered by the algorithm (aka it’s worth using H1, H2 and H3).
- A page can be almost entirely written in Latin, but as long as it has certain key On-Page elements optimized it will be able to be displayed in the first organic positions.
- Backlinks that are “nofollow” can send PageRank signals (link juice) if they are present on pages that have and attract traffic (regardless of what type of traffic).
4. How to Deliver SEO Performance at Scale – Mihai Vînătoru
The case study presented by Mihai Vînătoru highlighted the traditional approach to SEO services, encouraging professionals to stop selling SEO services and start selling the value they bring to clients.
Key information of the presentation is as follows:
- Using historical data from tools to adapt SEO strategies.
- Creating small and agile teams that are in direct contact with customers.
- Forecasting traffic and revenue (or leads) brings extra value to customers.
5. Pixels, Letters, Bytes – Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR
Koray’s presentation was the most complex, its purpose being to exemplify how every detail can make a difference to the ranking. The motto of the presentation is that every bit, letter and pixel counts in the context of Google’s algorithm.
Key information of the presentation is as follows:
- The algorithm is always changing, and can at any time trigger a reprocessing for a website in order to recalculate the ranking signals.
- Users need to find clear and contextual answers to their questions.
- The agorithm works like a kind of “probability machine”, and the content that is formulated in this form has much better chances of rankings.
- Processing costs for a website must be reduced as much as possible, so that the respective website is as cheap as possible to be analyzed/processed by Google.
- Entities are incredibly important, and they need to be mentioned and detailed in your content in order to have good rankings for those organic topics.
6. How to Automate Your SEO Workflow – Gábor Papp
Gábor Papp’s presentation focused on automating SEO processes using Google Sheets and Google AppScript. The presentation had several practical examples of SEO tasks that are automated directly in Google Sheets.
He also made some tool recommendations that can help you, namely:
- Coding is for Losers – https://learn.codingisforlosers.com/
- Sheets for Marketers – https://sheetsformarketers.com/
Conclusions
The SEO Vibes Budapest 2023 conference was a nice experience, and managed to bring speakers with experience in the SEO industry. The organization was impeccable, the food was very good, and the information presented managed to bring to light new and practical concepts about SEO.