3 Key Takeaways From Search Love San Diego 2018

There is no question that search engine optimization is ever changing and evolving – rapidly! Because of this, it’s important for SEO experts to be on top of what’s hot and insights as to what is not longer useful.  Since the search engines are consistently updating their algorithms and guidelines, it’s important to not only read about the latest trends, but also attend conferences. Conferences are beneficial for networking, gaining and understanding the latest techniques as well as keeping up with technology.

Firm Media’s SEO team had the pleasure of attending  Search Love San Diego 2018.  Big names like Rand Fishkin, Wil Reynolds and Darren Shaw were in attendance.

We heard “talks” on featured snippets, local search hacks, big data and more! It’s impossible to summarize two days worth of awesome topics into one blog, so we’ll summarize three great points and strategies we took away.

Featured Snippets

What exactly are featured snippets? A featured snippet is the result at the top of the page that summarizes an article to a user’s search query.

Rob Bucci brought up 3 interesting facts about featured snippets:

1. Shopping boxes knock featured to #2
2. The higher you rank, the better chances of getting a featured snippet
3. The new thing is a double snippet SERP

We have found that writing quality content and optimizing the content for user’s intent has really helped in achieving a “featured snippet” also known as “position 0”.

Site Speed

Mat Clayton had an interesting talk about the importance of site speed.

Why Is Site Speed is So Important?

• Site speed impacts rankings
• Directly affects conversions. The faster the site is, the more it converts.
• It helps with indexing (it helps the search engines find content faster and the faster the website, the more pages it will index)
• Better user experience

Ways to improve site speed:

• Reduce the number of assets
• Reduce the size of assets
• Prioritize order (in code)
• Use HTTP2

Our clients will be happy to hear that we are already practicing these techniques. We are constantly auditing our sites for faster, better user experience and switched over to HTTP2!

Local Search

Because Firm Media primarily focuses on local optimization this was probably the most important talk. Darren Shaw gave a great presentation about 6 local search hacks.

6 Areas of Local Search

1. Google My Business
2. Citation Cites
3. On-page Website Factors
4. Link Factors
5. Reviews
6. Behavioral Stats (people clicking on the site)

In short, Search Love San Diego was a blast with much to learn from. Our SEO team is excited to hit the ground running with implementing new strategies and techniques that will ensure to increase your rankings, traffic and most of all your foot traffic!

For more information about our SEO services or Search Love San Diego, contact us by phone or by filling out the form!