QuadrophenAI – Takeaways from BrightonSEO 2026

BrightonSEO is back, and so are we. For the second year running, AxonPoint made the trip down to the coast to soak up the insights, grab a complimentary treat or two, and get a feel for where the industry is heading. If you missed insights of our travels last time, have a skim through here. Callum, our 2-time attendee, chose a free raffle ticket over his ticket to the Forest Villa semi-final, proving our thirst for knowledge knows no bounds. If last year felt like the dawn of the AI era in search, this year felt like we’re firmly in the middle of it, and the conversation has matured considerably.

Here are our main takeaways from BrightonSEO 2026.

Call It What You Want; It’s All the Same Thing

GEO. AIEO. AEO. Prompt optimisation. The alphabet soup of AI-adjacent SEO acronyms was in full flow at this year’s event, and more than a few eyebrows were raised at how many different names people have come up with for what is, at its core, the same idea: how do we get our content to perform well in AI-driven search?

Whatever your preferred term, the conversation has clearly moved on from “is AI search a thing?” to “how do we actually work with it?” The broad consensus is that good SEO fundamentals and good GEO/AEO practices are closely related but they’re not identical twins. Strong technical foundations, quality content, and genuine authority still matter enormously. But optimising for AI search layers on some additional considerations: how well does your content answer a specific question? Does your site answer a question the AI can’t easily get from elsewhere? How easily can an AI surface a clean, citable response from your page? These aren’t replacements for traditional SEO; they’re an extension of it. The two are interlocked, but never quite the same.

Less “Here’s AI” – More “Here’s How to Adapt.”

One noticeable shift from previous years was the tone of the AI conversations. In 2024, a lot of time was spent explaining what AI tools are and what they can do. This year, speakers seemed to take that as read and moved on to the more practical question: how do we update our content and marketing strategies to actually perform better in AI-driven algorithms?

That’s a healthier place to be. The focus was on things like content structure, directness of answers, and demonstrating genuine expertise – all things that make content more likely to be cited or referenced in AI-generated responses. There was also a useful thread running through several talks about uniqueness: both for your human audience and for AI search. If your content says the same thing as everyone else’s, there’s no reason for an AI to pull yours specifically. Differentiation and genuine insight matter more now, not less.

Traffic Is Down. However, Don’t Write Off Search

The elephant in the room that several speakers addressed head-on: organic traffic is down across the board for many sites, and AI overviews are widely seen as a contributing factor. When users get an answer served directly in the search results, fewer clicks make it through to the underlying pages.

That said, the message wasn’t doom and gloom. Search engines remain as relevant as ever in terms of shaping what people discover and trust. The volume of searches isn’t falling. If anything, people are searching more. The challenge is adapting to a landscape where the nature of a “successful” search result is changing. Getting into an AI Overview or being cited by an AI response is becoming its own form of visibility, even if it doesn’t always translate to a direct click in the traditional sense. Measuring that influence and the overall impact is going to be one of the bigger challenges for the industry over the next couple of years.

Reporting Needs a Rethink

Speaking of measurement, one of the most practically useful threads at this year’s event was around analytics and reporting. It’s one we’ve thought a lot about at AxonPoint. Marketing reports are famously full of fluff and misdirects and one thing we continue to strive towards is being better than that. With this in mind, the core question at the heart of many talks raised was a good one: does your reporting actually tell a story, or does it just dump numbers on a page?

As traffic patterns shift and attribution becomes more complex, the old dashboards don’t always cut it. There was a real push for reporting that helps clients and stakeholders understand what is happening and why, rather than just presenting metrics in isolation. What does a dip in organic traffic actually mean in the context of AI Overviews growing? How do you show the value of SEO when some of that value now lives outside the click? These are questions the industry is still working through, but the consensus was clear: simpler, narrative-driven reporting is the direction of travel.

Bing Having a Moment?

A name that came up more than you might expect: Bing. With Microsoft’s deep integration of AI into its search product via Copilot, there’s a growing argument that Bing is worth taking more seriously; particularly for AI-assisted searches and prompt-style queries. It’s still nowhere near Google in terms of raw volume, but as a proving ground for AI search behaviour and a platform where AI-driven responses are more prominent, it’s getting more attention from marketers who want to stay ahead of the curve.

Worth keeping an eye on, even if it’s not time to rewrite your entire strategy around it just yet.

AI Search Is Growing… But Not Fully Grown

It wouldn’t be BrightonSEO without a reality check, and this year’s was a useful one. Yes, AI search is growing. Yes, it’s changing user behaviour. But it is still a long way behind Google in terms of actual usage, and even further behind the top social platforms in terms of where people spend their attention. The sky is not falling. Google is still Google.

What’s changing is the nature of how search works, not whether search matters. The focus should be on adapting thoughtfully rather than chasing every new development in a panic.

The QR Code Slide Situation

One final note from me: there seems to be an assumption among a good number of presenters that everyone in the audience has the ability to instantly scan a QR code while also paying attention to a fast-moving slide deck. Whether they think we’ve all upgraded to Google Glass or whether they’ve simply never tried to do it from a mid-auditorium seat, we’re not sure. But if you’re presenting at an event any time soon and want to routinely refer to your ‘super special, solve all of your problems’ guide (which I’m sure is brilliant), maybe give people a chance to actually get it down. 

A More Serious Note

On a more serious note, Brighton SEO also made something increasingly apparent. Across both journeys, to and from Brighton, the journey was impacted by people attempting to take their own lives on the tracks. This has become an unfortunately familiar part of travel in the last few years but with numbers continuing to increase, it’s a reminder to reach out to those around us and keep checking in. For more information, please visit https://railsuicideprevention.co.uk/about/ 

BrightonSEO 2026 felt like a more grounded event than last year in some ways. The excitement around AI is still very much there, but it’s being channelled into more practical, actionable thinking. The industry is asking better questions: not just “what is AI doing to search?” but “how do we make our work genuinely useful in this new environment?”

The through-line for us remains the same as ever: produce content that’s actually good. Unique, human, specific, trustworthy, and well-structured. That’s what gets you in front of people, and increasingly, what gets you cited by the machines too.

We’re already taking this year’s learnings into our work. As always, if you’d like to chat through what any of this means for your own digital marketing strategy, feel free to get in touch via LinkedIn or our contact form; we’d love to hear from you.

Lights, Camera, Data Insight!

Nottingham Digital Summit 2025 – Key Takeaways by Dalton Smith

Lights, camera, insight! The Nottingham Digital Summit 2025 rolled out the red carpet for a focused day of marketing brilliance at the iconic Broadway Cinema. Expertly hosted by Hallam – hats off to them for producing such a blockbuster event for the Midlands marketing scene.

At Axon Point, supporting independent businesses and startups, as the Rebel Alliance, we face the challenge of cutting through the digital noise. The Summit highlighted common pitfalls: repetitive content, overlooked PR, and uninspiring B2B approaches that fail to engage.

Sara Galbiati – The head of content at Hallam, gave advice on repurposing assets – turning one webinar into multi-channel formats like blogs, infographics, and videos to reinforce messages. She stressed digital PR for credibility and AI visibility, plus leading with upfront value for memorability.

Meg Garfield and Ben McKinney of Copy or Die, noted the value of leveraging trusted networks and pre-built relationships – “nepotism is your friend” – to extend reach, aligning with our Nottinghamshire community ties.

Barry Adams in True Barry Adams fashion called domain authority “Bulls***’. He also recommended fresh content, tool-independent testing on hobby sites, and a focus on people over algorithms.

Wensy Antoli championed video in B2B, with 154 billion LinkedIn views annually; key elements are cultural references, authentic stories, vivid aesthetics, expert insights, and imaginative customer narratives. B2B sites should prioritise visual appeal, and ads that don’t look like ads perform best.

Leala Jackson framed pitches as stories: hook with a bold opener, introduce the problem, present ideas with examples and data, then end with benefits and an urgent call to action.

Ben Wood’s urged bold differentiation: tap emotional impulses with visuals, zigging when competitors zag to stand out. This will help to get onto your customers day 1 list and they will have you in mind before they have even started searching.

In the spirit of Broadway Cinema’s silver screen, the curtains closed on this cinematic gathering with the Avengers assembling. Thanks again, Hallam!

SEO By The Seaside – Takeaways from BrightonSEO

BrightonSEO is one of the most recognisable SEO and marketing events on the planet and certainly the biggest in the UK and for the first time, AxonPoint was well represented at both days of the event. Callum managed to win a ticket for Friday in the infamous opening ballots and then Leila snagged a ticket later on for Thursday so we got to experience the full shebang from open to close. 

As always, there was plenty to learn and take in but with this being the most chaotic digital marketing has been in many years, it was a great chance to learn about all the crazy developments happening, particularly in regards to the rapid advance of AI. With so much to see and explore, it’s a good job we were there to provide our main takeaways from the event and what we can see shaping the future of SEO and marketing in general moving forward.

Before we dive into the meat of the insights, let’s address the most important observation of the day: free ice cream is much more popular after lunch. Also, we now have it on good authority that not every screen in the crowd is busy taking notes. We definitely noticed the odd game of chess here and there!

Now, onto the real takeaways.

AI is here to stay

AI was definitely a large part of BrightonSEO this year as it continues to dominate the conversation and shape the landscape of search for the foreseeable future (see a picturesque example below). It’s been true for a while but AI is very much at the forefront of the game and most of the talks included some mention of AI; whether that be software to make your life/job easier or ways you can use AI tools to maximise output and generate better responses. We always try to be cautiously supportive of AI (if it’s going to be here anyway, we might as well be using it in the right ways) so it was pleasing to see most speakers referring to AI as a supporting player rather than a replacement. AI is brilliant for improving efficiency and reducing work load but it still needs that experience and know-how to drive it and get the best out of it. 

Of particular note for AI was the growth of AEO or Answer Engine Optimisation, a rapidly growing branch of digital marketing designed at targeting AI Overviews and other AI search engines as we continue to see that expansion. To be honest, the core tenants of AEO are mostly included in a strong SEO strategy these days anyway; good quality, user-focused content structured in a skimmable way aiming to answer the query that user is having. However, it is still interesting to see more and more SEOs gravitating towards the idea of optimising for AI readers and that’ll certainly continue to shape the type of content we all interact with.

Can we still tell the difference with AI?

What was quite interesting was a talk on whether humans can tell the difference between AI and human. Anyone who has read a decent amount of GPT content knows that there is a general flow and structure to that content and certain words can be a dead giveaway. Image content still has an inorganic quality to it that stands out quite clearly, particularly when using humans. Still, that gap is clearly closing and AI content generally performs just as well as compared to human content, partially due to the emotional aspects connected with art and content in general. Used in the right ways to cultivate the feelings you want, AI content can be effective but we would always warn against over-reliance on AI content and a human review process is still key to ensure tone of voice and language is right as well as a proper fact check. AI can still lie and it does it frequently. 

Trust Is Still King

The importance of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) isn’t going anywhere. In fact, it’s arguably more important than ever. Search engines are leaning harder into surfacing trustworthy, high-quality content—especially as misinformation spreads quickly and users look for reassurance that what they’re seeing is accurate.

Video content and social media are playing a bigger role in this. They’re tools not just for visibility but for demonstrating expertise and authenticity. Adding a human face to your content can go a long way in building the kind of trust that algorithms (and people) value.

The Evolution of Search

Search continues to evolve at a breakneck pace, but one thing was made clear throughout BrightonSEO; traditional SEO is still the foundation. What’s changing is everything being layered on top. We’re now operating in a world where social media platforms need to be treated as search engines in their own right—especially as video content from platforms like TikTok and Instagram increasingly finds its way into search engine results pages (SERPs).

The singular focus approach to digital marketing is no longer optional. Brand, UX, AI, data, and paid media now all intersect with SEO. Each plays a role in the search experience and can’t be ignored anymore. The future of SEO is integrated, and success will come from agencies that understand how all the parts move together.

FAST Content

As mentioned above with AI, content is more important than ever in how it shapes your digital marketing strategy. With AI tools like ChatGPT and Google’s SGE (Search Generative Experience) pushing search toward more conversational experiences, the way people interact with content is changing. We’re not just optimising for queries anymore; we’re optimising for intent, tone, and even emotion.

One standout framework that cropped up was FAST content—First-person, Authentic, Social, and Trusted. This reflects a shift in how content needs to perform. It’s no longer just about keywords and backlinks. The best-performing content is grounded in real experience, shows social proof, is clearly purposeful, and builds trust with the audience.

People are becoming savvier, and the content that resonates most is the content that feels human. As we’ve said, it’s that emotive element that people react to. Audiences want to hear from people, not brands. They want clarity, relatability, and substance over fluff. Whether you’re writing blog posts, recording a podcast, or creating a TikTok, these principles are becoming non-negotiable.

Everyone hates GA4 (but it can be better)

Perhaps the most personally useful section of the day was a round of talks on Google Analytics 4. Like most digital marketing agencies, we’ve had our frustrations in migrating from Universal Analytics to GA4. While the tool looks far nicer with the sleek modern UI and it has a lot more user protection functionality (a major positive overall), there’s been plenty of teething problems, particularly in terms of how it tracks data and actually groups it (the dreaded unassigned/direct problem has plagued many a user for example).

Given how packed the session was and the knowing laughs that arose anytime a particular pain point was mentioned, this is still clearly a major obstacle for many agencies and marketers. It was therefore a relief to gain a lot of very good tips and tricks during this session. In particular, there was a lot of discussion around monitoring and auditing the data and getting most value out of blog posts and established content. We are big into data-driven marketing here at AxonPoint and refreshing old blog posts is something that we do regularly so we definitely pick up some useful pointers to help refine and optimise that process.

Representation Matters

Something that’s becoming increasingly important is website accessibility. Basic accessibility has always mattered, but with the incoming European Accessibility Act, it’s about to become a legal obligation for many businesses. If you trade within the EU, you’ll need to comply with accessibility standards or risk fines, legal action, and reputation damage. The act comes into force on June 28, 2025, and we highly recommend reading up on the requirements and ensuring your site is compliant.

Accessibility came up in several of the talks, such as writing better and user-friendly alt tags, making sites more accessible for keyboard users and making CTAs more accessible and easily translatable. This is something that we have been conscious of for a while, particularly in the case of alt tags so it was good to get a load of transferable insight and examples that we will definitely take forward.

BrightonSEO 2024 was a whirlwind of insight, innovation, and ice cream. At AxonPoint, we’re already taking these lessons forward into our work. While AI is definitely shaking up the game, the overall goal is still the same. Make relevant content that people want and you’ll be on the right path. 

With that big marketing event out of the way, we’ll be back in more familiar waters over the next few weeks and months at events around Nottingham and Derby, saying hello and enjoying a peruse of the complimentary buffet. If you fancy a chat, our door is always open so feel free to get in touch on LinkedIn or via our contact form. We look forward to hearing from you!

Community networking…

At AxonPoint, we believe that the best way to grow our business and widen our horizons is to get out there. It’s what fuels our choice of clients, our marketing strategies and our networking. Wednesday 11th May saw a big day for the company as JJ went to his first solo networking event at Clean Cut Kitchen in Nottingham hosted by KuKu Connect while Jave and myself headed off to the wacky world of Manchester to watch the FA Youth Cup Final from the Theatre of Dreams, Old Trafford as well as attend an art exhibition!

For JJ, a first networking event on his own was a bit daunting but after some encouragement and the promise of some high quality grub, he decided to venture out. KuKu Connect is a networking group where we have made strong connections in the past and as a small local business, these sorts of events are crucial to our growth as well as building relationships. As our junior outreach consultant, JJ is steadily becoming more involved in this area and despite his earlier trepidation, he did well on his own and helped build our base of connections while also strengthening our current contacts. JJ also took on board some of the training we received at the hands of Pam Edwards, a connection we made through this community, who has been coaching us on our networking skills which you can find out about in another upcoming blog post. All in all, it was a successful first event for JJ and with future events on the horizon, it’s promising to be a busy few weeks for the newest member of our team!

For myself and Jave, the destination was further afield to Jave’s second home of Manchester for an art expo in the afternoon and then the football match in the evening. The trip also gave us a chance to catch up with Simone, our social media and google ads manager, who is based in Manchester. The art exhibition was held in Elliot House by the Chamber of Commerce showcasing the work of Ghislaine Howard.

Ghislaine Howard is well known for her work showcasing the human condition through a variety of different expressive forms with an iconic blurred style as showcased by this image of Victor Moses during his time at Stoke City. Ghislaine’s style is one that I find quite interesting and it was nice to be able to see her work up close and personal and take in some of the nuance that is hard to notice in photographs. There was also free champagne and peroni so y’know. When in Rome and all that…

Going to the art exhibition provided us with the opportunity to explore a sort of networking event in a different environment and with new faces which is so useful as being a local business, you can often fall into the trap of relying on the same few connections. Those connections are always useful and valuable but it’s good to expand where possible. 

After leaving the event and bumping into Man United legend and controversial pundit Gary Neville, we headed down to the match, my first proper away match and Jave’s first time in the United away end. After walking up the iconic steps, like United legends Roy Keane and Marcos Rojo before us, we settled in for the match of the under 18s, representing two of the most well-regarded academies in world football. The match was a close one until a rash tackle from Forest on the edge of the box led to an incorrect penalty call and a red card, which paved the way for the United team to storm to a 3-1 victory. Both sides can be proud of their accomplishments this season and the Forest side were applauded for their efforts by the incredible away support. The overall attendance set an incredible record of 67,000 fans with around 6,000 forest fans making the trip up. It was a great time and an enjoyable match despite the result.

All in all, it made for a jam-packed but solid day out and one that was quite useful from a work and social point of view. It’s good to get away from the office from time to time, to see new faces and to get some time to really reflect on the business. It also reflects what we want to be as a business. We don’t want to be another agency firm, full of people in suits whose only purpose is to drive sales. We want to be active in our community and to experience new things and meet new people.