Key Learnings from Women in Tech SEO Fest 2024

Published March 11, 2024

At the end of last week, something momentous happened. No, it wasn’t the Oscars. I’m talking about Women in Tech SEO Fest (WTSFest for short) in London.

On International Womens Day, 400+ talented, knowledgeable, and hardworking women from all over the world congregated to share expertise, contact details, and hugs.

One woman was at the centre of it all: long-time Sitebulb friend and Women in Tech SEO Founder, Areej AbuAli. So this article is all thanks to her and the fantastic speakers that shared their presentations with attendees throughout the day.

Here are a few things I took from the day.

7 things I learned at WTSFest 2024

1. PPC and SEO are twins separated at birth

Grace Frohlich, SEO Consultant at Brainlabs, started off the day by reminding us that a holistic approach to search is the route to success. PPC and SEO are not so different. In fact, we can think of them as twins separated at birth. If we reunite them and ensure they work together, we can generate the most value from search.

2. Online buying behaviour is changing

Emma Russell, Founder of Oxford Comma Digital, walked us through how much buying behaviour has changed in the past few years. Ecommerce businesses can’t afford to be complacent and should adapt their strategy based on this updated purchase funnel:

You can access Emma's slides here.

A comprehensive video strategy can help, advised Stevy Liakopoulou. Be sure to include the following types of videos:

Demos
Unboxing
Testimonial
Comparison
Lifestyle

You can find Stevy's full speaker deck here.

3. Generative AI is unfairly biased

Joyann Boyce highlighted an interesting point about AI: it’s biased. If you’ve ever asked an AI image generator to create a picture of a CEO, you might assume that all CEOs in the world are white men because that’s what you’ll be presented with. It’s true to say that the majority of CEOs are white men, so it’s understandable that AI is reflecting this. However, the data shows that in some cases, AI perpetuates bias that no longer exists in today’s world.

So, instead of allowing AI’s bias to go uncontradicted, let’s train AI to reflect the world we want, not the world we have or used to have.

Incredible talk about the implicit biases of AI generation by @joyannboyce @techseowomen #wtsfest pic.twitter.com/h5eBsHzbeB
— Angie Rooney (@AngieRoo14) March 8, 2024

4. Your <head> needs to be ordered

Long-time Sitebulb user, Sophie Gibson of StudioHawk, shared some interesting tips on how to improve your site’s core web vitals performance by correctly ordering your <head> data. Capo is an extremely helpful tool that makes this easy for developers.

Sophie Gibson doing a fab job at explaining complex tech SEO concepts and giving incredibly valuable tips on how to optimise the <head> of our websites.#WTSFest @techseowomen @sophiegibson pic.twitter.com/iNsRexCtjC
— Militsa Koleva (@Militsa_Koleva) March 8, 2024

5. Website accessibility is super important

Another lovely Sitebulb fan, Billie Geena Hyde, then went on to talk about site accessibility, and how important it is for user experience. Let’s not forget that at least 15% of the UK’s internet users have a disability, so you need to ensure they have as good an experience of your website as those without a disability.

Technical SEO for Improved Accessibility WTS FEST from BillieHyde

You can do an accessibility audit using Sitebulb - here’s how.

6. Linguistics and culture alter search behaviour

For those of us who only speak one language – and I’m guessing it’s English – Veruska Anconitano delivered a fascinating presentation about how linguistics and culture alter search behaviour. For any brands moving into international markets, it’s essential to conduct market research and use target market experts throughout the process.

Did you know there are 7000 languages spoken in the world? @i_am_veru is talking us through how languages are used differently and reflect different cultures. Handy when we think about how people use search terms #WTSFest #InternationalWomensDay pic.twitter.com/59Fe33wmPe
— Women in Tech SEO (@techseowomen) March 8, 2024

7. SEOs are about so much more than SEO

Rasida Begum, in her talk about linking technical fixes to performance milestones, had already covered in detail the communication and forecasting skills SEOs need in order to get tech SEO buy-in and fixes across the line.

Rasida gave a useful tip to get a generic keyword CTR by excluding brand keywords using GSC filters

Can’t stop taking pictures of the slides as I want to burn these into my memory! So helpful to go through this step by step. #wtsfest pic.twitter.com/GoSmUlczLY
— Michelle (@Shelliweb) March 8, 2024

Then Helen Pollitt, Head of SEO at Car & Classic, rounded off the day by reminding us all of the transferable skills SEOs possess. In times of career or job market turbulence, we would do well to remember and lean in to some of these skills, like:

Project management
Website engineering
Acquisition marketing
Brand marketing
Social media marketing
CRO
Data analysis
Product marketing

You can access Helen's slides here.

Huge thanks again to all the ladies involved in the creation, maintenance, and growth of the WTS community, and I look forward to our next IRL meetup!

Jojo is Marketing Manager at Sitebulb. She has 15 years' experience in content and SEO, with 10 of those agency-side. Jojo works closely with the SEO community, collaborating on webinars, articles, and training content that helps to upskill SEOs.

When Jojo isn’t wrestling with content, you can find her trudging through fields with her King Charles Cavalier.

by Jojo Furnival

Follow on LinkedIn

Follow on X

Tech SEO

Technical SEO Considerations for Local Businesses and Local Rankings

Amit Raj is back at Sitebulb to discuss the technical SEO considerations that need to be factored into local SEO efforts. A must-read for any local business.