02/06/2026
A month after BrightonSEO, here are the takeaways our newly promoted Senior SEO & AI Search Manager, Darren, is still thinking about.
I headed down to Brighton with Jake, our Paid Media Manager, partly to prep for our upcoming Trio Presents event and partly because there's nowhere quite like BrightonSEO for connecting with and learning from peers.
These are a few takeaways that stuck with me:
✅ The industry seems to be settling on the acronym GEO rather than AEO for now... although that'll probably have changed by the time you read this.
✅ Entity SEO was everywhere. The focus is shifting towards helping search engines and AI systems understand who you are, what you do, and why you're a trusted source. It's becoming less about keywords and more about authority, relevance and brand connections.
✅ LinkedIn is playing a bigger role in AI visibility than many people realise. It repeatedly came up in many talks and discussions around AI citations, AI Overviews and how LLMs are sourcing trusted brand and author signals from beyond traditional websites.
✅ The crossover between SEO and PPC was impossible to ignore. Attending with Jake, our Paid Media Manager, made those connections even more obvious, especially as we were preparing to return and deliver a talk on exactly that topic.
Seeing both disciplines discussed side by side, and having those conversations with colleagues and industry peers, added a different layer of value to the event.
The 'SEO is dead' jokes were still doing the rounds, as expected, but if anything, the event reinforced the opposite."
✍🏼 Darren, Senior SEO & AI Search Manager
