So, by now you should already know that me, Josh and Tash popped down to Brighton the Friday before last to attend the ever-awesome Brighton SEO. Set to be the biggest and most badass yet, I was pretty excited to see what it had to offer, seeing as this was my first proper grown-up conference and all that. Here’s my top 4 take-aways from the weekend.

Everyone is fabulously stylish

For reals. Maybe it’s just the irrepressible fashion blogger in me, but the first thing I noticed is that people who attend BrightonSEO dress really well. From expert colour blocking to statement coats and prints to super pointy brogues, they had every SS15 trend down; I was making some mental style notes.

Not only is everyone dressed delightfully, but it also presents the opportunity to play a fun game of ‘who does what’, a super-sleuth way of guessing people’s job roles based on their fashion choices. It’s pretty fun, and by the end of the day you’ll definitely be able to spot the PR types from the SEOs, and the social media bods from the designers. I just wondered what people thought which tribe I belonged to with my fried egg print skirt and bright green cardi.

Design your website for mobile first

If there’s one thing that you take away from the whole of this blog and the future of content marketing, it’s that mobile is a HUGE FRICKIN’ DEAL, PEOPLE. What with the impending algorithm update in less than a week, if your website isn’t mobile friendly then you’re going to die it’s not all going to be sunshine and daisies, I’m afraid.

The wonderful Vicke Cheung of Distilled presented my favourite talk of the day with her beautifully designed slides on how you should be designing for mobile first, and start thinking about desktop after. By stripping your idea back to its core elements and creating a simple stunning design for mobile, you can then start beefing it out (if needs be) for the desktop version. It’s an interesting sentiment, but I think it’s increasingly important now that we’re all going mobile.

If this information about mobile sites, like me, makes you break out in a cold sweat, then don’t panic. Read Josh’s awesome blog for everything you need to know.

It’s not all going to be relevant

As this was my first trip to Brighton SEO, I went in with my little fresh-faced noggin expecting to absorb everything and relate it intrinsically to what I do here at NLM. So of course, whilst sitting there and furiously taking notes I was a little taken aback to discover that not everything these people were saying about creating competitions or the history of Google Penguin updates was directly relatable to my job.

Of course it’s not all going to be completely relevant, but it certainly is interesting. Go in with an open mind – have some idea of what you want to get out of the event but remember that the speakers use personal examples of what has worked for them, which may not always work for you. If you don’t think that the talk you’re sitting in is particularly valuable to you, pop out and go and have a cuppa in the beautiful atrium area. There are loads of other like-minded bods milling around that you can stop to have a chat to, and who knows, you might just get some business out of it.

Another top tip from the weekend:

You don’t have to go to Tesco for lunch

This is possibly the most important point. As one of the greediest people who ever lived a discerning foodie, it’s worth noting that you don’t have to chow down on the rest of the stale shitty sandwiches that the Tesco Express on the corner is churning out.

The beautiful Brighton Lanes are but a skip and a jump away, and offer a multitude of foodie choices, as well as some fantastic vintage shopping opportunities. With the generous hour and a half you get for lunch, you can definitely spend some time exploring the best of what Brighton has to offer. Because who needs networking on a gloriously sunny day on the south coast? Pfft. Go get a pint instead.

Image credits:

Deckchairs

Clueless gif

Mobile is a big deal

Brighton SEO atrium and Brighton Lanes images courtesy of the superb photographic talents of Miss Lily Doughball.