The 1st Search Leeds SEO & PPC Conference

Search is a rapidly moving industry, and, at FPA, we know we have to keep up with the latest developments in terms of available tools, techniques and data if we are to give our clients the best possible support.

To this end, we regularly attend the Brighton SEO conference held twice a year on the south coast. But we recently jumped at the chance to attend an alternative event in the north – #SearchLeeds 2017 – for the first time.

The biggest event of its kind in the region brought together around 1,200 industry insiders for the one day conference at the city’s First Direct arena.

With three stages in three conference halls, the event covered topics from Google Shopping to link building to mobile-first optimisation and Facebook ads.

We sent along our Client Support Manager Ian Cowlard, who says: “I was impressed with the venue and the organisation of the event, the range of topics covered, how well it kept to time and the quality of the presentations. The speakers really knew their stuff and put it across extremely well.

“There was so much going on it wasn’t physically possible to attend everything, but you could move easily between the conference halls.”

Particular highlights for Ian included the session on futuristic paid media strategies from Koozai’s Samantha Noble, and the one on PPC, about increasing your odds of winning, by Search Laboratory’s Peter Whitmarsh. Equally useful was the session called Are you seeing the whole elephant? Why you need multiple perspectives on your customers to get the full picture, by Rob McGowan of Response One.

Speakers came from big names like the Telegraph group and Bing, who were there alongside other well-known brands such as River Island and Auto Trader.

Ian adds: “I think one of the most important lessons to take away was that having all the data and all the tools is great, but you also need to build close working relationships with your clients and be aware of their marketing objectives, and how you are going to help meet them. Knowing how to press the buttons is one thing, but knowing why you are selecting the buttons to press takes marketing support to a higher level.”

Thanks, Search Leeds, for a useful and informative day – we like to think we’ll be back next year!