Our SEO specialist Rachael recently attended the October round of BrightonSEO 2025, having been awarded a scholarship place on the SEO for eCommerce training course! Across both the training and conference talks, there was a lot of knowledge to bring back to our Belfast SEO Agency.
Here are four key lessons Rachael brought back to the office.
1. Keyword research is evolving, but intent still matters most
The training by James McKay opened with a focus on keyword research, reminding us that user intent remains the most important first step for SEO. Informational keywords might not always drive conversions, but they still build E-E-A-T and support wider digital PR efforts. Transactional keywords might be lower volume, but often deliver the strongest commercial value.
If competition for a seed keyword is very high, it’s worth looking for semantic variations, as these are often easier to rank for. Aside from keyword research tools, Amazon suggestions, Reddit and Wikipedia are other great places to find semantic search terms.
2. Ecommerce content needs to be genuinely useful
Another key reminder from the training was to think like a shop assistant when creating content for ecommerce sites. It’s not just about word count or keyword density, you need to anticipate what users need from your brand in order to make a confident purchase.
For ecommerce sites, this means:
- Including size guides, returns details, and payment options on product pages
- Keeping About and Store pages updated to reinforce trust and local relevance
- Highlighting reviews, awards, and trust signals through schema markup
3. AI search is on everyone’s mind
One theme definitely got a lot of airtime at this year’s BrightonSEO… LLMs and AI search! AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perlexity – it’s very clear that the way people find and consume information online is changing.
Here are a few great insights from Roman Leliuk’s talk on LLM visibility:
- Facts cited in AI Overviews tend to appear on the first few sections of a page
- 1 in 3 AI citations come from comparative content, like “vs” articles or listicles
- In AI search, mentions (in text) are as influential as backlinks
- AI training bots follow robots.txt just fine for now, so there’s no need for llms.txt (this was stressed by multiple speakers)
Ben Smith from Similarweb also revealed that while AI Search drives fewer clicks, the traffic quality is far higher, because AI users are already primed to engage. That means once someone lands on your site, you have to work hard to keep them there with seamless UX.
4. Digital PR is about relevance, not just reach
One of the most memorable talks came from Luke Cope at Bottled Imagination, who shared their Final Flush campaign for Victoria Plumbing.
Using government data, the team highlighted how many public toilets have closed across the UK, predicting when they will finally become extinct! It was funny, topical, and made complete sense for the brand. The story landed plenty of national coverage and earned links back to the “money pages” i.e. the category pages.
It really showed how digital PR works best when the idea fits naturally with what the business does, rather than forcing a link between product and story.
Final Thoughts on BrightonSEO 2025?
Overall, it sounds as if the October round of BrightonSEO 2025 was a brilliant few days of learning. Thanks to all the speakers and trainers for sharing their own data and insights!
We’ll be putting these learnings to good use back here at our agency. If you’re keen to improve your website’s SEO, we’d be happy to chat about a strategy built on this latest industry know-how.
