Follow-up: SERP Conf. 2024 (Vienna, Austria, 2024.10.30)
Olivian Breda
SEO (Search Engine Optimization), WordPress, and UX (User eXperience) Freelancer; doing SEO since 2006
SERP Conf. 2024 Vienna took place on the 30th of October, 2024 - Vienna | Austria | Ariana Event Hall.
SERP Conf. is an international SEO, e-commerce, and digital marketing event, including conference, exhibition, and networking with leading experts. SERP Conf. brings together the SEO and marketing community in one place with the goal of supporting businesses and sharing best practices for online development.
Below, my notes and photos from the event.
Photos on Facebook »
Photos on Google Photos »
My notes:
Mark Williams-Cook - Improving your SEO with conceptual models (and Google exploits)
Questions to ask for validating a supposition: Does it make sense? Does it scale? Any evidence?
It's important to have a good ratio between DA and BA - Domain Authority / Brand Authority. Spam score also matters.
Conceptual rankings help you understand the why - why things happen in a certain way.
Murat Yatağan - 10x growth of an established brand with gen-AI content scale-up
You must be agile, create things faster, get feedback, and iterate quickly.
Google, there should be added value, but you can use AI. AI-generated content will be created, but you will need to add personal value.
Try to ensure quality content.
Default indexing pages is not a good idea—if no index was done by error, some pages will take a lot of time to be reindexed.
Don't try scaling with AI-gen content without strong branding or a meaningful backlink profile. A backlink profile and domain authority provide Google with strong community signals—they help navigate Google updates.
Product market fit is key.
Internal linking is critical. It helps discoverability of AI-generated pages.
Q&A Session
It's important when doing SEO to know the quality of the traffic.
User value is significant.
"Will it convert?" - always ask yourself.
There is a correlation to convert better.
If you buy links, buy quality links.
Create products and services that people need. You need to understand your audience well.
Linkbuilding is very important - do this. But you should also satisfy users. (although understanding people is hard)
If we build many links quickly to AI-generated content, we risk being penalized by Google.
Bing might not have the same level of user data, so it might take them more time to penalize SPAM websites.
Bastian Grimm - Brave new world: Augmenting Tech SEO using ML & AI
What are LLMs good at? - Information Retrieval and Analysis - Personalised Recommendations - Natural Language Processing
What are LLMs NOT good at? - Understanding Context Beyond Training Data - Making Ethical or Moral Judgments - Limited Understanding and Reasoning
43.5% of websites use WordPress as a CMS.
Make.com - Ways to integrate and automate CMSes like WordPress. - Lots of options to automate.
Gephi - The Open Graph Viz Platform AI-powered internal linking: ChatGPT "knows" Gephi dataLeverage ChatGPT to analyze and optimize internal linking.
If your data has poor input quality, you will get poor results. Garbage in -> garbage out
Slides via QR Code: Peak Ace x Serp Conf. | Peak Ace
Erika Varangouli - Fast-tracking growth when you can't scale resources fast enough
It's also the biggest AI Chatbot by traffic - by a long shot. Forecast: growing.
Aleyda Solís - The State of Technical SEO Report 2024 by Women in Tech SEO and Aira is here 👌 going through: AI and Machine Learning in Tech SEO Tasks The Impact of Tech SEO Tools and Platforms Much more!
Dependencies SEOs typically miss: a. Revenue - Demand b. Visibility - Awareness c. Authority - Reputation d. User Experience - Product (growth needs to happen on both sides of the equation)
What got you here won't get you there. (things change in SEO; it's not a recipe you can always follow) Some things are simply not scalable.
#1 Scale at briefing stage.
Don’t use AI to: Do keyword research Replicate other people’s content structure
Use it to: Uncover gaps in your content Uncover gaps in ranking content Get ideas on subtopics to include Create outlines
#2 Scale content creation You can scale content predictability. Scaling depends on templates.
#3 Grow demand across channels Free Audio & Video Transcriptions with 99% Accuracy | AI-Powered
#4 Mapping of content hub
#5 Optimize performance
#6 Optimize for performance
#7 Promote your product
Don’t use AI to: Spam your audience with product mentions everywhere.
Use it for: Product descriptions Sales collateral Use case-based content Scripts for interactive demos and video tutorials FAQs and client objections
You need your whole organization to shift towards AI, not just specific people/parts of your business.
Content AI - SISTRIX - they are very competitive with AI.
Claude is good at content creation.
Sara Fernández - Web Accessibility: Optimizing for Inclusivity and SEO
Accessibility ensures that environments, products, and services allow everyone to participate equally and autonomously.
Accessibility and disability are not the same.
Ensuring accessibility:
Disability can affect vision, hearing, mobility, mental health, neurodiversity, and speech and can be permanent, temporary, or situational.
Permanent disability: a. Motor - missing an arm; b. Visual - blind; c. Auditory - deaf; d. Communicative - verbally.
Temporary disabilities: a. Motor - break an arm; b. Visual - cataracts; c. Auditory - hearing issues; d. Communicative - Laryngitis.
Recommended by LinkedIn
Situational disabilities: a. Motor - parent holding a baby; b. Visual - walk outside in bright sunlight; c. Auditory - noisy bar; d. Communicative - strong accent in a certain situation.
16 of the world's population; 1.3B people - with significant disabilities.
1 in 4 people in the EU have a disability to some degree.
To convince others about the impact of accessibility: a. Use the numbers; b. Empower the user to create a respectful, inclusive environment.
European accessibility act (EAA) - effective since June 28, 2025.
Best SXO accessibility practices: a. Content & language: - Use simple language; avoid jargon; write for all reading levels; - Use short paragraphs and bullet points; b. Structure & navigation: - Use h1, h2, h3; - Create descriptive links c. Visuals & contrast: - Ensure high contrast; - Alt text for images / transcripts for videos; d. Accessible interaction: - Make buttons at least 44px x 96px (& padding). - Allow navigation using only a keyboard.
Accessibility goes beyond a checklist of best practices. It is a continuous effort to provide a beneficial experience for as many people as possible.
Accessibility goes beyond business - it's a human right.
Cyrus Shepard - What Exactly is Helpful Content, Google? (or, WTF is Helpful Content, Google :))
Google was looking for sites that focus on a long-term audience (products, subscriptions, community, local brick-and-mortar) rather than a short-term audience (ad, affiliate, monetizing clicks).
Brand authority - how many people are searching for you?
How to calculate the DB/BA Ratio:
Experience - you can prove it via photos. Experience through language.
Not a ranking factor: Using personal pronouns per page (I have ...) - winning sites: 23.0 times per page. Losing sites - 9.4 times per page. You can use a regex for counting personal pronouns in a page using Screaming Frog.
Fixed scroll ads - poor-performing websites tend to have these more. (again, not.a ranking factor but an associating factor)
They always evaluate UX on mobile:
(Note from CS: I don't even audit websites on desktop)
Effort & originality - images. Originality of images. Google has sophisticated ways of determining information about your images.
76% of websites use non-original images vs. 32% of winning sites.
Google SearchLiaison on X: "@WilliamBlears @Fearless_Dining @lilyraynyc I'm begging. Please, I'm begging you or anyone to stop focusing on specific content things. It's not whether a TOC or saying someone is an "expert" is somehow a specific signal. It's that these things might indicate a pattern of doing too much "show Google" things that's taking" / X
Losing sites have less internal links than winning sites.
Losing sites updated their article much more often than winning sites.
Winning sites - the <title> were not changing vs. their H1s.
Unhelpful content: a. Low brand visibility; b. Monetizes clicks; c. Poor UX; d. Low-effort; e. Unpersonal; f. Easy to replicate; g. Over-optimized SEO.
Helpful content: a. Good brand visibility; b. Long term audience; c. Unobtrusive UX; d. High-effort; e. Personal; f. Hard to replicate; g. Straightforward SEO.
Create articles with experiences - make it personal. First-person voice.
Clean mobile UX.
Pull back on the SEO: a. Anchor text; b. Title tags; c. Too much Schema; d. Work with dates;
Add value: 1. Product comparisons; 2. Original product reviews; 3. Rigorous testing and rating; 4. Aditional price information.
Humanize your images.
Build brands is better than buying links.
Q&A Session
SEO continues to evolve, and our recommendations also evolve.
Listen to your users.
Test if you have an assumption.
We have to solve real problems for people, not just produce content.
We should create authentic content for both users / Google.
Searching for Easter can have multiple meanings, depending on the time you search for it: a. One month before Easter - When is Easter? b. Two weeks before Easter - Things to do on Easter; c. On Easter - Meaning of Easter.
Get both Screaming Frog and Sitebulb at the same time. SEO Agency - Screaming Frog Sitebulb Website Crawler for Better SEO Audits - Desktop & Cloud
The more tools you use - the merrier.
The year of voice search always seems to be the next year. But it was said about mobile - mobile search will be next year. And at some point, it actually happened.
Gerry White - VR is rapidly entering every home, is this a huge marketing opportunity?
Meta Quest might be popular this Christmas. Meta Quest MR, VR headsets and Accessories | Meta Store
VR & AR will be big.
Aleyda Solis - Winning at Ecommerce SEO Now
See the slides of the presentation here:
More slides: Aleyda Solis (@aleyda) on Speaker Deck
Tackling challenges from the root - to set a base for scalable growth independently of shifts:
#1 Maximize your PDPs optimization efforts - Google will refer more to PDPs and less to PLPs due to features & personalization;
#2 Facilitate Google access and understanding of your product-related content with SD, Merchant Center Feed and Image Optimization - To maximize your visibility with the growing search features;
#3 Grow your brand authority with informational content investment—so Google can't overlook you because you're so popular and attract clicks from users who know you.
It's time to maximize PDPs indexability & visibility through Google Merchant Center & structured data
Key product areas (reviews/images) are indexable, avoid JS Client Site Rendering or lazy loading.
Some of the speakers and panelists of SERP Conf. 2024 Vienna:
Aleyda Solis – International SEO consultant and founder of boutique SEO consultancy Orainti, working with established brands and startups with growth potential. Right now, she is one of the most influential SEO specialists worldwide. She writes and sends a prominent newsletter, SEOFOMO, with +32,000 subscribers, a 45% open rate, and a 10% click rate.
Bastian Grimm – CEO & Co-Founder of Peak Ace AG and a renowned expert in large-scale, international SEO – managing sites of almost any size in highly competitive industries around the globe. “Search Personality of the Year” at the European Search Awards and the “SEO World Champion” at the SEOktoberfest G50 Summit. He has over 20 years of experience in online marketing and technical and global SEO.
Michael King – Acclaimed international speaker covering SEO, content strategy, and the impact of generative AI. Innovating and elevating as the Founder & CEO of the performance marketing agency iPullRank, he is a consultant for companies all over the world, including brands like SAP, American Express, and HSBC.
Mark Williams-Cook – Director at Candour Agency and founder of AlsoAsked. With experience working with clients such as Expedia, SEMrush and FatFace. Mark is a highly respected member of the SEO community.
Cyrus Shepard – Founder of Zyppy SEO Consulting. He is an SEO consultant, online marketing specialist, publisher, speaker and writer. He enjoys building successful consumer websites and developing online commerce, also, search engine marketing (SEM), and content marketing.
Gerry White – Experienced digital marketer, SEO, and analytics specialist focusing on the technical elements of site performance.
Judith Lewis – Renowned international event host, writer, blogger, and digital media consultant. She is one of the well-known SEO and digital marketing professionals at the moment and one of the most invited speakers and hosts.
Erika Varangouli – Head of Branded Content at Riverside.fm. In 2020, Erika joined Semrush as Global Content Strategist and later became Director of Organic Search, increasing the blog’s organic performance by 600% in a year. She then served as Head of International Brand and Head of SEO Branding. As of April 2024, she is with Riverside.fm, creating educational content and fostering connections within the SEO community.
Sara Fernández – International SEO Consultant with a diversified background in UX Design, Translation & Localization and Content Strategy. She has extensive experience in helping B2B software companies, e-commerce businesses, and startups expand their global reach.
Dawn Anderson – Managing Director at Bertey – MSc DigM, PgDip DigM. Consulting on digital strategy and transformation, speaker, trainer, lecturer on digital strategy. Specialist in helping in-house teams improve visibility via SEO