London’s Website positioning group is a vibrant, thriving one.
With a lot floor to cowl, we did some severe digging to showcase the town’s finest Website positioning audio system, conferences, and meet-ups.
London’s search group was nascent however sizable from the early noughties. By round 2010, small Website positioning meet-ups have been taking place with honest regularity throughout the metropolis.
Because the search house flourished, some meet-ups gained sufficient traction to prepare namesake conferences, together with LondonSEO XL and SMX London.
There’s a meet-up for each type of Website positioning skilled. Listed below are some notable ones:
Search London
Search London has been round for over a decade.
For context, co-organizer Jo took over Search London in October 2010. Again then, the meet-up was often known as “Website positioning, SMO and PPC” and was run by Judith Lewis—who at the moment owns promoting company Decabbit Consultancy.
The meet-up is open to anybody in Website positioning, PPC, or social media—and provides advertising and marketing professionals and first-time audio system a protected, supportive house to share their business data and experiences.
The group has ramped up its on-line and offline meet-ups up to now yr—these sometimes happen as soon as a month.
Search London audio system additionally sometimes broach broader and extra various matters, resembling how one can be an LGBTQ+ ally in advertising and marketing, or dealing with office stress.
Search ‘n Stuff
After shifting to London and attending a number of Website positioning meet-ups and conferences across the metropolis, Yagmur based Search ‘n Stuff in June this yr. She even held a ballot to gauge potential curiosity:
If I organised unique occasion; search business oriented / formatted “mezze” nights at a recent “ocakbasi”each different month in London, would you be prepared to pay and attend any of them?
* Ranging from June 23
* Together with max 12-15 attendees— Yagmur Simsek (@yagmrsmsk) April 29, 2023
Not like your typical Website positioning meet-up, every (paid) session takes place in a hearth restaurant with round 12 entrepreneurs. Anticipate sharings centered on methods, campaigns, and different related matters.
✨We didn’t let the water pipe downside cease us 😆 – we switched gears from the Turkish restaurant concept to a spontaneous cocktail bar with stay music and engaging tapas. 🎊 Due to the implausible enthusiasm from all on the gathering, we pulled off a tremendous night! pic.twitter.com/njm6niQPWE
— Yagmur Simsek (@yagmrsmsk) August 23, 2023
Fledgling as Search ‘n Stuff could also be, the group’s already held gatherings in Brighton and Istanbul. And Yagmur has larger plans—together with organizing a namesake convention that can deliver collectively a various vary of voices and insights.
On-line Advertising London
What began as a private venture for founder Gus in 2010 has since developed drastically: At present, On-line Advertising London brings collectively the town’s prime SEOs and entrepreneurs via quarterly networking occasions and workshops.
Subjects of dialogue revolve across the evolution of promoting, the way forward for work, and extra. You may also be part of their Slack channel, Tech London—although it isn’t Website positioning-focused.
In 2024, Gus and Michael plan to prepare extra common occasions for his or her members.
London Website positioning Meet-up
In case you’ve heard of LondonSEO XL, it’s possible you’ll know that the annual convention is an extension of this meet-up by Website positioning company Blue Array.
Since 2018, its mission has been to raise the business by selling sturdy Website positioning practices and audio system.
Earlier than shifting right into a extra informal networking session, its bimonthly meet-ups sometimes kick off with sharings from consultants—previous audio system embody Nick Wilsdon, Paige Hobart, and Search London’s Jo.
PPC Stay
PPC Stay is comparatively new to the Website positioning scene: After noticing there weren’t any PPC networking occasions across the metropolis, Anu based the (ticketed) meet-up in April 2022.
We’re so so so so so stuffed with pleasure after yesterday’s occasion. Take a look at the turnout and our superior audio system. It was a report turnout – once more!! Ooh…@ppcliveuk group are the very best!! 🥰🥰🥳
That wraps up our occasions of 2023 – see you Feb 1st, 2024!!🙌🏾✌🏾#PPCChat #MarketingTwitter pic.twitter.com/W5kdyCJrMv
— PPC Stay UK (@ppcliveuk) October 27, 2023
Occasions happen as soon as 1 / 4, with the subsequent one slated for Jan 2024. Every session is an off-the-cuff get-together over drinks and meals as 4 audio system share their experience. Anticipate a stable lineup—previous audio system embody Rand Fishkin, Crystal Carter, Holly Kelly, and extra.
Search conferences throughout the UK are aplenty—however you’ll discover some stable choices inside London, too
(Not from round right here? We rounded up the finest Website positioning conferences from elsewhere.)
WTSFest London
Ladies in Tech Website positioning (WTS) started in 2019 as a help community for girls within the technical Website positioning house and has grown to six,000 members throughout Fb and Slack.
Founder Areej AbuAli has since organized three editions of WTSFest—an annual full-day convention whose audio system come from all areas of search. WTS additionally runs workshops, a mentorship program, and even a podcast and e-newsletter.
LondonSEO XL Convention
LondonSEO runs meet-ups, as we talked about earlier—however their conferences are actually a fruits of the Blue Array group’s exhausting work. (Ahrefs was even a headline sponsor for LondonSEO XL in 2022 and 2023!)
For a style of what to anticipate, you possibly can entry speaker slides and replay movies from this yr’s convention right here. Audio system included Barry Schwartz, Chima Mmeje, Ahrefs’ personal Joshua Hardwick, and lots of extra.
MeasureCamp London
Conceived in 2012 by Peter O’Neill, MeasureCamp is a (free!) digital analytics convention that now takes place in 24 cities across the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4nl8LDH3kI
The thought behind the convention was born of informal meet-ups amongst a gaggle of builders, product managers, and social media customers. Peter leveraged the rising community and arranged the primary MeasureCamp convention in Mozilla’s London workplace in Sep 2012.
At MeasureCamp London 2023, consultants from the likes of Meta, Conductrics, and Measurelab mentioned every little thing from full-funnel development to measuring e-mail efficiency.
SearchLove Convention
SearchLove is a advertising and marketing convention conceived in 2009 by Distilled founders Will Critchlow and Duncan Morris. The convention at the moment takes place in London, San Diego, and Philadelphia.
In its most up-to-date San Diego version, the two-day convention noticed 200+ entrepreneurs in attendance to glean insights from the likes of Dr. Pete Meyers, Aleyda Solis, and Will Reynolds.
Search Advertising Expo (SMX) London
This well-loved convention sequence by Search Engine Land has been round for 15 years (!), and brings collectively a number of the best-in-class entrepreneurs.
Regardless of its identify, the convention is open to everybody: builders, PR reps, and social media entrepreneurs. Every version has a number of tracks regardless of your stage of expertise, so that you’re sure to go away with contemporary takeaways and an expanded community of contacts.
You’ll discover a slew of gifted search professionals residing within the metropolis—and attending meet-ups and conferences too. These embody:
Areej AbuAli, Crawlina
Areej is finest recognized for founding Ladies in Tech Website positioning. This group champions variety and inclusion for underrepresented voices within the tech business. She’s additionally the founding father of Website positioning consultancy Crawlina, whose providers span technical and on-site Website positioning.
Will Critchlow, SearchPilot
Will is the founder and CEO of SearchPilot, a server-side A/B testing platform. He beforehand co-founded Distilled alongside Duncan Morris. The pair are additionally the brains behind SearchLove Convention.
Chima Mmeje, Moz
Chima is a senior content material marketer at Moz and a contributor to Zenith Copy, Search Engine Watch, and extra. Earlier than this, she labored on content material technique initiatives for the likes of Aura, Tempo, and First Web page Technique.
Judith Lewis, Decabbit Consultancy
Judith has over 25 years of digital advertising and marketing expertise, with a concentrate on Website positioning. She based and at the moment helms promoting agency Decabbit Consultancy.
Anu Adegbola, PPC Stay
Anu is the CMO and founding father of PPC Stay, a London-based meet-up. She’s served in varied paid search roles and was beforehand world CMO at Brainlabs. She additionally hosts and produces a podcast referred to as #PPCChat Roundup—give it a pay attention right here.
Gus Ferguson, Ascendant
Gus is the co-founder of enterprise consultancy Ascendant, the place he takes care of its development advertising and marketing efforts. He’s additionally a co-organizer for advertising and marketing meet-up On-line Advertising London. Previous to this, he served as associate at development company Salience.
Yagmur Simsek, Philip Morris Worldwide
When she’s not organizing meet-ups for Search ‘n Stuff, Yagmur is an in-house Website positioning at Philip Morris Worldwide. She’s additionally the co-founder of cybersecurity agency CGS Community, and beforehand labored in Website positioning technique roles at digital companies together with Re:sign and Optdcom.
London is residence to a excessive focus of search-focused companies—amongst them Blue Array, The Website positioning Works, GenieCrawl, Website positioning Works, Crawlina, Brainlabs, and Make Company.
Then there’s Screaming Frog, which you will know (and use!) because of its web site crawler and log file analyzer instruments. Additionally they have an offshoot company that provides Website positioning providers and past.
One other fashionable (if barely extra area of interest) firm is SearchPilot by Will Critchlow, whom we talked about slightly earlier. His firm’s Website positioning A/B testing platform is constructed for companies throughout retail, journey, ecommerce, and extra.
Last ideas
With the wealth of search occasions and meet-ups round London, it’s by no means been simpler to increase your community or become involved—many teams are on the fixed lookout for first-time audio system, organizers, occasion areas, and sponsors.
Need to be included? Drop me a message on Twitter (X).