Why Ignorance Doesn’t Have to be Frightening: My First Time at Brighton SEO

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” – Socrates

Within the SEO world, I am a veritable newbie. Having entered into this industry like a newborn babe, wide-eyed and blinking and utterly confused, I was just about starting to feel like I was getting a grasp on exactly what’s going on in this fascinating and ever-changeable trade. Brighton SEO proved me very, very wrong. I am but a toddler, whilst my similarly-aged colleagues are now appearing in my mind’s eye as grandparents. However, Brighton SEO also showed me that that is entirely OK. For every talk I sat through, for every head-scratch at every new term, for every in-joke that had everyone in the crowd in uproarious laughter (everyone but me), I learnt what I next need to learn. I’ve never scribbled notes so fast with so little comprehension.

It would have been remiss of me to think that I would go to the Brighton SEO conference and understand everything thrown at me. Indeed, if that had been the case then it wouldn’t have done its job; everyone at the conference was there to learn, to be exposed to new ideas and findings, and was hoping to walk away feeling wiser and more prepared for the next challenge that Google is soon to throw at us. Yet, it can be an intensely intimidating experience to be sitting in a room where people who are all in the same industry as you are nodding away knowingly whilst you’re still trying to figure out how to spell that new word. Maybe it was the foggy head from the Prosecco on the beach the night before, maybe it was the sheer amount of new information that was being thrown at me, but towards midday I began to gain an almost giddily spiritual level of clarity that I can only attribute to our dear friend Socrates: “The only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing.” Maybe one day I will attend Brighton SEO and walk away dusting my hands of the whole wonderful endeavour, having found it had nothing new to teach me. But I hope that day doesn’t come anytime soon, because learning is fun and it is challenging and this whole industry is based on that idea – the idea that the human race is always hungry for new and entertaining information, and SEO people are more than happy to keep providing it.

It was clear to me what I needed to do once I returned to my comfy office chair. They say that if you can’t explain something to an 11 year old, then you haven’t fully understood it. Therefore, I’ve taken on the task of truly getting to grips with 3 of my favourite talks to then present them to you – my metaphorical 11 year old reader. Hello, I hope you enjoy, and what are you doing on a digital marketing website, by the way?

Over the next few days I’ll be posting new blog posts on each of the below speakers’ talks. Check back on this blog post for a link to each of them, or keep an eye on our social media so that you don’t miss my easy-to-digest, 11 year old suitable (sort of), Brighton SEO top-talks breakdown.

Greg Gifford of DealerOn
Marketing to Local Customers Takes More Than Local SEO

Natalie Jones of WooRank
Inbound Comedy: Stand out by making your audience laugh

Nathalie Nahai
Creating Persuasive Content