BrightonSEO. The jewel of the Search Marketer’s calendar. This event is so much more than the commandeering of excellent swag bags (although we did pick up more Tee’s and totes than ever before, as well as chocolate and beer). It’s also where the rules of visibility online get rewritten, and discussed in thorough detail. This year, our team walked away buzzing with insights on everything from AI-driven results to the rise of Reddit, localisation, and what trust really means in the age of machine summaries.
Leading the change: Daphne’s talk on domain migration
Our very own Daphne Monro took to the stage on Friday last week to share how hosting.com successfully migrated from the A2Hosting domain to hosting.com without losing the precious search authority or visibility that had been built up over the years.
It was a data-driven deep dive into technical SEO, planning, and precision. With smart redirects, careful internal linking, and constant monitoring, the migration maintained rankings and trust across the board.
The takeaway? Migrations don’t have to mean mayhem. With the right prep and process, you can preserve performance and even come out stronger. Find out more about Daphne's talk here.
The new search landscape: “The #1 spot is gone”
Tamara Novitovic’s session landed hard: the top spot isn’t what it used to be.
For years, the holy grail of SEO was the number-one organic position. Today, that top spot doesn’t guarantee visibility because it’s no longer at the top. Modern search results pages (SERPs) are crowded with AI overviews, featured snippets, image packs, video carousels, news modules, sponsored results, “People also ask” boxes, and site-link clusters, all of which appearing before the first organic listing.
Even when you technically rank first, your result can sit halfway down the page.
Then there’s the rise of AI overviews. These summaries appear above everything else, pulling in key points, stats, and context directly from multiple sources. If your content isn’t structured, cited, and trustworthy, you won’t be included, no matter how strong your traditional SEO is. The new goal isn’t just ranking high in terms of organic listing, it’s being referenced inside those summaries. That’s where authority now lives.
Meanwhile, the SERP itself has become an ecosystem of trust signals. Platforms like Reddit, Wikipedia, and YouTube dominate top results because people value community insight and lived experience over polished brand copy. Reddit offers authentic discussions, Wikipedia delivers neutral facts, and YouTube satisfies the growing demand for visual, how-to explanations. It’s not that brand content doesn’t matter it’s that users now want proof, peers, and perspective before they buy into what a company says.
All of this means search visibility is now distributed, not owned. To stay relevant, brands need to:
Create structured content that’s easy for AI to cite and summarise.
Repurpose guides into visual or short-form formats that surface in multiple result types.
Build a credible presence across community platforms (not just on their own domain).
In short: the number-one ranking isn’t the finish line anymore. It’s one piece of a much bigger visibility puzzle. One that rewards authenticity, authority, and adaptability more than ever.
Localisation, not just translation
Silvi Nuñez highlighted that localisation is about culture, tone, and context, not just language and translation. The way people search, read, and react online is shaped by language, humour, and even body language. A word or gesture that feels natural in one region can feel awkward, confusing, or even offensive in another.
Even within the same language, differences matter. US and UK English share words but not always meaning: a “jumper” in London isn’t the same as a “jumper” in New York. Idioms like “hit it out of the park” or “a sticky wicket” make perfect sense locally but fall flat elsewhere. And when content doesn’t quite resonate, people click away, fast.
Even minor translation errors can change meaning, impact credibility, and cost conversions. AI can support the process, but humans keep it real. And your bilingual colleague? It’s a lot to ask them to keep translating pages/copy for you. They have their own work to do. Professional translators put in a lot more work than just rewriting copy in another language. Context, research and time is all important when translating. So even if you’re not translating your copy, you should still localise it. Use region-specific examples, adjust your tone for local expectations, and make sure your humor, idioms, and imagery actually land with the audience you’re trying to reach.
That’s why localisation is key for SEO. Search engines increasingly reward content that feels native to the reader, not copied and pasted from another market. When your tone, phrasing, and examples sound familiar, your content earns trust, and that trust drives engagement, backlinks, and visibility.
Her advice for global brands:
Research the meaning behind gestures, idioms, and humour before going live.
Use native translators, not just bilingual colleagues or AI tools.
Prioritise content based on audience need, not word-for-word replication.
What are we searching for now? (Insights from Simon Wiley)
Simon Wiley’s session zoomed in on how AI, trust, and digestibility are reshaping search behaviour.
When everything online starts to sound and look the same, people look for clarity and credibility. Quick takeaways, summaries, and content that’s easy to skim. These formats perform better in AI overviews, because they’re structured, factual, and easier for machines (and humans) to understand. Remember the rise of the listicle article style? It's because human beings crave structure and
TL;DR: Digestible content = visible content.
Wiley’s data showed that AI overview frequency varies massively by industry. Health and science dominate with the highest proportion of AI-generated summaries, while food, drink, entertainment, and shopping lag far behind meaning human storytelling and creativity still rule in those spaces.
The bigger shift? Search engines don’t want you to leave anymore. AI overviews, featured snippets, and knowledge panels now keep users on the SERP answering their questions before they ever click through. Meanwhile, social platforms prioritise in-app scrolling, and Reddit has become the go-to hub for community-driven answers.
The implication for brands is simple but seismic:
Trust is the new SEO currency.
Digestibility is visibility.
Real expertise beats empty optimisation.
The bigger picture: AI, TikTok, and the zero-click era
We’ve officially entered the zero-click era. A search landscape where users get their answers before they ever need to click a link or (sometimes) even type a question. Instead of driving traffic straight to websites, search engines now serve instant answers through AI overviews, featured snippets, and knowledge panels. These summaries are designed to keep users on the search results page, delivering everything from definitions and product comparisons to how-to guides and reviews in a single glance.
For brands, that changes the game. Success is no longer just about ranking high, it’s about being the trusted source behind those summaries in order to be granted that ever coveted citation link. Structured, factual, and well-optimised content now has a better chance of being cited by Google’s AI systems or surfaced in “People also ask” results. The key is to create content that’s digestible, data-backed, and easy for machines to interpret without losing the human voice that builds trust.
In short: visibility today isn’t measured by clicks alone. It’s about owning the answer, wherever and however it’s shown. AI is rewriting the rules of discovery. From TikTok search trends to AI summaries that predict what we’ll ask next, we’re entering a zero-click world.
In summary, that means focusing on the fundamentals:
Keep your content structured and factual.
Make it easy to cite, scan, and share.
Build genuine authority across platforms.
Our Brighton SEO takeaway
BrightonSEO 2025 proved what we already believe at hosting.com: the search landscape is changing but the brands who lead with expertise, empathy, and evidence will always rise to the top.
Whether it’s domain migrations, localised SEO, or AI-optimised content, one truth remains: the internet still rewards clarity, credibility, and the human touch.
Find out more about our hosting options today, because great hosting keeps your brand discoverable in a world where attention is earned, not given.
