Search Central Live Poland 2024 Recap

April 24 2024 marked the date of the first ever Search Central Live Event in Poland. I was among the 200 attendees, who managed to grab an invitation. Below I will share a brief summary of the event.

Key takeaways from the event:

For those who came only for the meat.

• SEO is not dead
• focus on a page and it’s purpose vs domain
• do not bother with crawl budget unless you are really big or you are a media outlet
• JS SEO still can pose a problem, but it’s becoming more of an edge case, with the majority of heavy JS dependent website done right and not having issues
• DO NOT BUY LINKS
• Do not disavow links, they are adamant, that bad links won’t hurt you.
• Merchant Center is a big thing.
• They don’t use the term „ranking factors” instead they refer to „ranking signals” that are assigned to different stages of the „SEO process”
• There is no such thing as „sandbox” or fresh site bonus, besides those two are contradictory by definition, so how would this even work?
• Ai does not pose a threat for SEO
• SEO is here to stay, it will evolve and it will adapt. In one form or another, people will be looking for answers.
• As SEOs we do not pay enough attention to changes in trends and user behaviors that can be the underlying reason for rank drops. We tend to see the reasons in optimization, tech and backlinks - but not with the fact that the intent could have changed over time and our website does not fit the target audience anymore.

That’s what they said.

Going to the event

The day(?) started early for me, in order to catch my flight to Warsaw I had to get up at 03:50 AM. I knew by then that the day will be intense. After a short flight and meeting a fellow SEO from Wrocław at the airport, we set out for our destination.

The location

The event was held at Google for Startups Campus Warsaw at plac Konesera 10. A truly inspiring place found in a revitalized industrial complex, now serving a modern purpose. Google has been here since 2015 but the place still looks fresh and has that positive vibe to it.

We arrived there at 08:30 so we had to wait until 9:00 for the gates to open, despite the cold weather, we used our time to catch up with others and look around the location for a moment.

At 9:00 the gates were opened and the registration process began. Everything went smooth and after a few minutes we were inside leaving our stuff in the spacious cloakroom and grabbing coffee and snacks.

The event started at 10:00 with a short welcoming speech by local high ranking Googlers. The key takeaway here was that there were almost 1000 application for the 200 seats available. The Polish SEO community really wanted to participate in the event and I think it’s great.

The agenda

09:00 - 10:00 Registration and networking
10:00 - 10:15 Opening
10:15 - 10:30 Welcoming
10:30 - 11:00 How Search works
11:00 - 11:30 What's new in Search
11:30 - 12:00 Search and AI
12:00 - 12:30 Analysing traffic drops
12:30 - 13:30 Lunch & networking
13:30 - 14:00 Mythbusting
14:00 - 14:30 SEO for videos & images
14:30 - 15:00 Fact check structured data
15:00 - 15:30 Coffee break
15:00 - 15:20 Search trends & seasonal narratives
15:30 - 16:00 Best practices for e-commerce
16:00 - 16:10 Preparing for the end of third-party cookies
16:10 - 16:55 Q&A / Panel discussion
16:55 - 17:05 Closing & picture
17:05 - 18:05 Apero

The event

At first, during the ‌ How Search works segment we were introduced by Martin to some core concepts of SEO, plus we went through the process of SEO in detail from Google discovering an URL to ranking it and showing it on the search results page. Then the stage was taken over by John and some info about What's new in Search where we learned about the mind boggling amount of tests and changes that Google makes. John also talked about the latest core and spam updates and the one that is coming early May 2024. Back to Martin and Search and AI where we went a little bit deeper into how to work with Ai content, how Google perceives it and some general directions for the future of search and SEO. The one main element is that we should always double check what Ai has created as it can be really creative (to say the least). Analysing traffic drops was next and John emphasized the seasonality of queries and the fact that the best way to look at changes is to compare two periods of time. Unless, of course the drop was to zero in an instant in which case you should check the technical layer of your website as well as GSC. Basically GSC is your best friend, and you should definitely visit this course. After that, we had our first networking brake. During that time those two poor Googlers were swamped by SEOs from Poland :-) Selfies were taken, problems were discussed.
Mythbusting was next, Martin engaged the audience in busting some established SEO myths. It was fun and kept the audience going. During SEO for videos & images John guided us though the ins and outs of making sure that your images are delivered in a SEO friendly manner. More on that here. Next one, Fact check structured data came as a little surprise for me. I have to admit, I was oblivious to the matter, But right after I found out how much work Google puts into fact checking, I became a staunch supporter of these activities. Especially if we take into account the level of disinformation that currently exists on the Internet. Any actions trying to organize information and combat fake news are extremely valuable. Search trends & seasonal narratives was an eye opener, with the amount of search query data Google has they are able to create mind bending analyses of trends and the influence of external factors when it comes to human search behavior. I would love to lay my hands of all that data. Best practices for e-commerce - to sum up: USE IT :-) More on the topic here. The final block ‌ Preparing for the end of third-party cookies was not really too much SEO related, but as marketers, we ought to be in the loop, especially when the changes are affecting such a vital element of the ecosystem. After a few closing remarks and a photo session the event ended for me. Others could enjoy cocktails during the Apero

The hosts

I need to emphasize the charisma of both main hosts. Especially Martin, who even though said he was a „developer” seemed more like a stage animal. Both were prepared, knew why they where there a focused on delivering good speeches.

Networking

Networking was a big part of the event we had two long breaks and an apero session, which sadly I couldn’t attend due to my train home.

I had a chance to take a photo with Martin, whom I also ask if he was aware that he and John remind me of Tenacious D.

How would I rate the organization?

The overall organization was excellent, we were running according to the schedule, the drinks, snacks and other elements were extraordinary.

Summary

I think that attending the event was a great idea (and luck). I would recommend it to anyone, but hearing that we already had around 1000 registrations I am certain that any future sessions will also be immensely popular. I would attend again if I had the chance.