Brighton SEO has returned for its 16th year on the 30th March 2026. The Brighton Centre hosted an event attended by over 4000 marketers from around the globe for two days of sun, sea and SEO! 

There were lots of different viewpoints at the event, with the elephant in the room in every talk, stall, and conversation being: how AI is impacting marketing. And so, we’ve put together a roundup of some key points we took away from this year’s event.

What is Brighton SEO?

Starting as a small, informal meeting between friends in a Brighton pub, Brighton SEO has grown into a huge event in the marketing industry, one that many look forward to every year. The event features several stages that host talks on a range of topics, focusing on the key talking points in the marketing industry. 

Talks range from SEO to content creation to paid media to much more. This was the first time I personally attended the event and the first time Search Theory had attended as an organisation, so I was very excited to see the different viewpoints and ideas people had, as well as the general consensus on current trends and issues. 

Key talking points from Brighton SEO

Looking at the list of talks before the event made it clear what the general conversation would be about this year. AI is no longer just a subject some talks focus on; now, almost all talks are about how AI is impacting their specific area of marketing. 

GEO was the term being thrown around in every SEO talk, with opinions on the topic being as divided as you’d expect. I also found it interesting that many talks focused on SEO evolving beyond keywords and simply trying to rank for them.

GEO

The elephant in the room at the Brighton Centre this year was GEO, especially given the huge rise in LLM usage since the last event; it was always going to be the hot topic. It was interesting to see the differing opinions on the subject as a whole, with some very good talks raising interesting points: 

• The difference between keyword use in Google searches and LLM searches, with Google searches featuring 3-9 keywords compared to LLM searches featuring 90-120. This huge difference just shows how impossible it is to capture all the keywords to rank for LLMs due to the depth of search. Funnily enough, Google have just shut down so-called ‘GEO specialists’ by stating that AIO and GEO are ‘Still SEO’ in their new AI search guide.
• The large number of exhibitors promoting link-building websites and GEO companies is ridiculous. Whilst link builders have been a thing for a while, there has been a shift in how they are promoted as they are now promoting themselves to help you rank number 1 in LLMS rather than in Google. However, random websites are not going to drive you brand citations from LLMs. They don’t have an unlimited budget to crawl every link on completely irrelevant websites. 
• Environmental issues with AI search, highlighted in another talk, need to be limited and further prove why link building for LLMs is a scam. Google still has 90% of the market, with Bing having the second-largest share, so it makes no sense to prioritise these generative search engines, which can be targeted by good SEO anyway. 

Conversational Search

One idea repeated in several talks at the event was the strength of conversational search, rather than merely focusing on keywords. The idea that you can rank number 1 and still lose was one we saw in several presentations. As Dan Liddle said in his talk, ‘if your brand only exists on your website, it barely exists at all’. 

The overall idea here is that your brand needs to be involved in conversations across organic social media platforms, digital PR, paid media, and more. If you can connect multiple channels effectively, it can be much more effective for your business than simply ranking number 1. 

Another interesting point raised is which platforms are most effective for conversational search marketing. YouTube has become the most-cited social media platform in Google searches, with Reddit in second place. Reddit is also a platform that was mentioned frequently, apparently serving as a database for AI models. This is interesting, as traditionally, social media marketing prioritises Instagram and Facebook for consumer-facing brands, and LinkedIn for B2B. 

Another idea that came up often was to be more explanatory in your content. To me, this idea has also emphasised the strength of blog content on your website. With blogs, you get the best of both worlds as you can implement keywords into headings whilst also adding explanatory text below. 

Owning entities

Owning entities were dubbed the new way to be recognised at what was probably my favourite talk of the event. Ashley Lidell’s talk went into the idea ‘you can rank number 1 and still be invisible’, similarly to how we mentioned before with the idea of conversational search. The focus should be on how to be recognisable, and his suggestion for doing so was to own entities. 

Entities are something you recognise and associate with a specific thing. This is done by repeated brand mentions and associations across channels, which ‘build confidence in your brand’. 

The more endorsements and mentions you get, the more recognition you get. Consumers don’t just buy a product from one search; they research across multiple platforms. A large social media profile and comments on posts can provide a level of trust and credibility.

Would We Come Back to Brighton SEO?

To simplify the messages and discussions in focus this year at Brighton SEO, the main takeaway is that ranking number 1 on Google is simply no longer enough. To capture the wider market, everything needs to be connected. And whilst that’s something most of us should already know, it’s good to be reminded and to hear the perspectives of your peers on the topic.

From SEO to paid to social to Digital PR, everything needs to work together. Knowing where to find your audience also needs to be a greater focus than simply optimising for engines, with the recent strength of platforms such as YouTube impossible to ignore.  

We were reminded why it’s worth going to these events, and we hope to make this an annual tradition for Search Theory!

Do You Know Your SEO?

In future Brighton SEO events, I really hope to see human creativity continue to be praised, highlighted, and focused on above all else. I also hope the GEO craze calms down and is less of a topic in the future, as, to put it simply, it is a load of crap. 

I would also like to see more variety among exhibitors, with fewer link-building and AI services. It’ll be exciting to attend more events and see how the conversation around search evolves and adapts as time goes on, as AI most likely becomes increasingly prevalent.

If you weren’t able to attend this year but need support with your SEO or GEO, or you simply have a question and need advice, get in touch with our team!