What BrightonSEO 2026 taught us about search, discovery and retail restinations
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Our SEO Specialist & Data Analyst, Naomi Chapman, went to BrightonSEO this year to hear what’s next for search, AI and digital discovery, and came back with plenty to think about!
This year’s conference had a really strong focus on how people discover brands and businesses online right now, and a lot of it felt especially relevant for retail and leisure destinations.
One thing became very clear throughout the talks: people don’t just search on Google anymore. They move between TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, YouTube, Google Maps, AI tools like ChatGPT, and traditional search engines depending on what they’re looking for and where they are in the decision-making process.
For the brands we work with at The Content Emporium, that shift is really important. SEO is no longer just about getting a page to rank. It’s becoming much more about visibility, discoverability, trust, and making sure brands are showing up in the places people naturally go for inspiration and information.
Here are some of the biggest takeaways we brought back from BrightonSEO 2026:
People discover brands differently now
A lot of the talks focused on how search journeys have changed over the past few years. People rarely follow a simple search → click → buy journey anymore.
Instead, they bounce between platforms: someone might discover a shopping destination through a TikTok video, check reviews or recommendations on Reddit, look up restaurants on Google Maps, then visit the website directly later when they’re ready to plan a trip. For example, people usually aren’t searching for “shops” in isolation. They’re looking for somewhere to spend the day, somewhere to eat, ideas for meeting friends, family activities, recommendations, or simply inspiration for what to do at the weekend.
For instance, someone searching for a day out near London might first come across Bluewater through a creator video, a YouTube vlog, an Instagram reel or an AI-generated recommendation…before they ever search for the destination itself.
That means visibility now stretches much further than traditional Google rankings.
AI search is changing the way content gets surfaced
One topic that came up repeatedly was how AI search tools process information differently from traditional search engines.
Instead of looking at a single search query in isolation, AI tools often break queries down into smaller related questions before pulling together an answer.
So if someone asks: “What’s the best shopping destination near Cardiff?”, an AI tool may also look for information about restaurants, parking, entertainment, luxury brands, family activities or accessibility. That means content needs to go beyond being purely transactional or keyword-focused. The sites likely to perform best are the ones giving genuinely useful, detailed information that helps people make decisions.
Retail and leisure brands should build richer, genuinely useful content around dining, seasonal events, accessibility, travel advice, family experiences and local recommendations. It’s the kind of useful information people naturally look for when deciding where to spend their time, and increasingly, it’s the kind of content AI tools seem to favour too.
Technical SEO matters more than ever
One of the more interesting themes from the conference was that technical SEO has become increasingly important in AI search too.
Several speakers shared findings showing that pages with slower loading times, heavy JavaScript or crawlability issues were less likely to appear in AI-generated answers and citations. Retail websites, which often rely heavily on interactive features such as store directories, event listings, maps and filtering systems, should be auditing their technical health now more than ever. If important information sits behind heavy JavaScript or can’t easily be crawled, it becomes much harder for search engines and AI tools to understand and surface it properly.
It was a good reminder that technical SEO isn’t just a “backend” concern, and that it directly affects visibility and discoverability.
Social search is now a fully fledged part of SEO
One of the statistics mentioned during BrightonSEO was that Gen Z increasingly uses TikTok as a search engine, which makes total sense.
People use social platforms to find recommendations, compare experiences, discover places and decide what actually feels worth visiting, and are naturally drawn towards content that feels authentic, whether that’s creator videos, honest recommendations, walkthroughs, or someone casually sharing their favourite places to eat. That kind of content often feels more trustworthy and relatable than polished brand messaging, especially for younger audiences.
That doesn’t mean every brand suddenly needs to start dancing on TikTok (thankfully), but it does mean that discoverability now happens across multiple platforms, not just Google.
YouTube and Reddit are becoming more influential in AI search
Another really interesting insight was around which platforms AI tools tend to reference most often.
Reddit was mentioned a lot, which probably won’t surprise anyone who’s searched for recommendations online recently. But YouTube was also highlighted as one of the biggest sources for AI citations. Interestingly, engagement metrics like views and comments didn’t seem to matter as much as expected. Instead, AI systems appeared to favour content that was useful, clear, relevant and trustworthy. Retail and leisure brands should focus on creating content that helps people plan real experiences – shopping guides, restaurant recommendations, accessibility walkthroughs, Christmas events, travel advice and “best day out” itineraries all have the potential to support visibility far beyond traditional search results.
Brand authority and trust matter more across the whole web
EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trust) was another major theme throughout the conference, but the conversation has definitely expanded beyond just Google rankings.
AI tools pull information from all over the web, including articles, reviews, PR coverage, forums, and social platforms. This means consistency and reputation matter everywhere.
Things like community partnerships, sustainability initiatives, local events, press coverage, and creator collaborations all help build authority and visibility online.
Measuring SEO success is becoming more complicated
Thought SEO reporting was the best way to monitor success? That may be changing…
Your reports might not always tell the full story, because with AI overviews and zero-click search becoming more common, people are often getting information directly from search results without clicking through to websites. Speakers suggested paying closer attention to broader visibility metrics like branded search demand, impressions, direct traffic and even AI citations, rather than relying solely on clicks and rankings to measure performance.
Traditional attribution models don’t always capture that journey particularly well, even though SEO and discoverability still played a big role in influencing the visit.
The biggest takeaway from BrightonSEO
Probably the biggest thing BrightonSEO reinforced this year is that search is becoming much more human.
People want reassurance, recommendations, experiences, trusted opinions, and useful information. They’re not just searching for “options” anymore, they’re looking for help making decisions.
The brands that stand out are likely to be the ones offering genuinely useful experiences and content, not just the ones trying to rank for the most keywords.
SEO is becoming much broader than rankings alone. It now overlaps with content, PR, social media, UX, brand strategy and customer experience in a way that feels much more connected to how people actually discover and engage with brands online.
And that makes it a much more interesting space to be!
