WTSFest 2024 Recap

September 26th, 2024 By
Areej AbuAli speaking at WTSFest 2024

WTSFest 2024 Recap

What is the Women in Tech SEO Community?

The Women in Tech SEO (WTS) community is a global platform that brings together women and nonbinary people in the field of SEO. It offers a space to share knowledge, foster connections, and empower members to excel in their SEO careers. 

It is an inclusive, supportive, and respectful environment, promoting safety and encouragement for all its members. WTS does this through their different initiatives such as mentorship cohorts, the WTS Knowledge Hub, the WTS Podcast, community interviews, the WTSNewsletter, and WTSFest.

Why is WTSFest So Important?

WTSFest plays a crucial role in creating a safe and judgment-free space for women and nonbinary individuals in SEO. The festival encourages growth, learning, and networking, helping to counter the gender disparity present in the SEO industry.

While there have been improvements, the gender gap in SEO is still an issue. Research by Lidia Infante shows that 64% of articles about SEO are written by men, with the percentage rising even higher in more technical fields like technical SEO (76%)​. By providing a platform where women and nonbinary professionals can speak, lead, and share their knowledge, WTSFest works to bridge this gap, offering more visibility and representation for underrepresented voices in SEO.

This is why it is our pleasure to have been the headline sponsor for WTSFest 2024 in Philadelphia. We’re only as good as the communities we support and admire all the hard work Areej AbuAli and her team have done for the community.

The Talks

Speakers at WTSFest 2024

WTSFest 2024 featured several insightful and practical talks from leading SEO experts. Here are some key sessions:

  • From Guidelines to Growth: Unleashing the Potential of E-E-A-T by Bianca (Binks) Anderson: Explored how to leverage Google’s E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) principles for SEO growth.
  • Crafting a Winning Formula for Holiday E-commerce Triumph by Jamie D’Alessandro: A guide to boosting e-commerce success during high-traffic holiday seasons.
  • Localizing Success: Creating a Digital Customer Journey That Drives Sales by Krystal Taing: Focused on optimizing local SEO and digital strategies for driving conversions.
  • In/credible: AI & Our Appetite for Truth by Kavi Kardos: A deep dive into the role of AI in SEO and its implications for content authenticity.
  • Make Inclusion the Default: Tips to Make Your Content Inclusive by Purna Virji: A session on how to create more inclusive, accessible SEO content.
  • SEO Testing Framework: Set Up Your SEO Test for Success by Celeste Gonzalez: Practical advice on implementing effective SEO tests to ensure long-term success.
  • PPC + SEO: How to Harness Changes to Enable Integrated Marketing by Navah Hopkins: How to unify PPC and SEO strategies for better performance.
  • This is BigQuery: Unlocking Limitless Data in the Age of Looker by Samantha Torres: Discussed the power of data analytics in SEO using BigQuery and Looker.
  • Let’s Train Our Way to a Better SEO Industry by Natasha Burtenshaw-deVries: Insights on developing skills and training for a more inclusive SEO industry.
  • Unleashing Your Authentic Self to Skyrocket Your Career by Heather Hamilton: A motivational talk on personal growth and career advancement in SEO.

For more details on each talk, Navah Hopkins wrote an amazing top takeaways from WTSFest 2024 article.

Highlights of the Day

WTSFest was filled with amazing talks, offering actionable advice for SEO professionals at all levels. Beyond the sessions, one of the biggest highlights was the networking opportunities. Attendees had the chance to connect with like-minded individuals, exchange ideas, and form valuable connections within the SEO community.

 

WTSFest 2024 proved once again to be a vital space for growth, inclusion, and empowerment in the SEO industry.

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Celeste Gonzalez

As a life-long learner, Celeste Gonzalez began her journey with SEO by doing what she loves best: learning. She created a blog about her experiences as a first-generation college student while studying at U.C. Davis to teach herself the ins and outs of SEO, content marketing, social media, and everything digital. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Managerial Economics, she joined RicketyRoo full-time as an SEO Specialist, where she continues to learn in public and share her experiences—good and bad—with the community.
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