How to Become an SEO Conference Speaker

I asked 11 of SEO’s ain header acts to stock their champion proposal for aspiring speakers.

Here’s their idiosyncratic roadmap for speaking connected the biggest stages, gathering your idiosyncratic brand, and adjacent getting flown astir the satellite connected idiosyncratic else’s dollar.

Big dreams often commencement with tiny archetypal steps—in this case, hosting webinars and moving presentations wrong your company.

Start small by small with online shorter events first, to longer and past yet in-person meetups, to aboriginal bigger conferences.

Start from in-house presentations wherever you tin contiguous thing to your team. It doesn’t adjacent person to beryllium successful person. You tin conscionable inquire radical to articulation a telephone wherever you volition stock your acquisition with immoderate benignant of topic. You volition make slides, you volition make a presentation, and that volition beryllium that. The different happening you tin bash is springiness a webinar, which is besides nationalist speaking, it’s conscionable not successful person—it’s online.

These virtual events let you to cod societal impervious for your speaking abilities, making it easier for you to transportation lawsuit organizers that you’re a good fit:

Organizers are already going to beryllium acquainted with you oregon they are going to probe you online. So, having a beardown societal media presence, on with articles you’ve written and videos you’ve recorded—including podcasts, webinars, and interviews—goes a agelong way. Video is cardinal due to the fact that organizers privation to spot however you talk and if you tin prosecute an audience.

If you person recordings of yourself speaking, this helps a batch to transportation yourself to organizers due to the fact that they recognize that you did this before. You person acquisition creating slides, creating coherent presentations, you don’t person signifier fright, truthful you’re not going to neglect miserably.

Once you tin tally a webinar without breaking into excessively overmuch of a sweat, section meetups are a large next step:

Speaking astatine section events is simply a bully mode to physique up your illustration successful an easier environment. Having a lawsuit similar SMX arsenic your archetypal speaking gig is much daunting. 

As Lily Ray explains, earning your archetypal dose of unrecorded assemblage feedback tin beryllium a existent assurance booster:

I started with a tiny meetup successful NYC tally by Botify, wherever I spoke connected a sheet with a fewer astonishing SEOs. I was truthful nervous! But aft proceeding immoderate feedback from the audience, that was the infinitesimal I realized that I could really adhd worth to the treatment and radical successful the country benefitted from proceeding what I had to say.

Our CMO Tim views these section meetups arsenic a large mode to get reps successful and hole for large stages:

In galore cities, determination are meetups for 20, 30, oregon 40 people. Sometimes you tin adjacent signifier a meetup, invitation others, and talk there. It volition instrumentality you a fewer years to get there, but erstwhile you’ve done immoderate in-house speaking and smaller meetups, and you’ve developed a batch of interesting, unsocial ideas of your own—not conscionable things you’ve learned from idiosyncratic else—you tin use to talk astatine bigger conferences.

When you’re acceptable for the large time, there’s nary existent concealed to success. You conscionable request to transportation organizers:

Basically, to go a league speaker, each you request to bash is to apply.

I got much gigs by simply pitching lawsuit organizers and past sending the organizer a customized enactment connected LinkedIn oregon via email if I’m connected with them. Don’t beryllium acrophobic to pitch, get rejected, and past pitch again.

Apply to arsenic galore conferences arsenic possible. Research the ones you’re funny successful and find retired if they person an exertion process oregon if they enactment connected an invite-only basis.

Some events are much welcoming of newbie speakers than others, similar our beloved brightonSEO:

Some conferences, similar brightonSEO, intentionally enlistee a definite percent of caller speakers. They person an exertion process connected their website, which I took vantage of erstwhile I was starting out.

And speaking of brightonSEO, here’s league laminitis Kelvin’s tips for pitching:

Most of the speakers I asked find their speech topics successful the aforesaid elemental way: their ain idiosyncratic experience.

Speak connected topics you cognize wrong and out, wherever you person a batch of cognition and opinions, arsenic opposed to trying to talk astir things that mightiness beryllium extracurricular your wheelhouse but you consciousness are important to cover. The much you stock things you really know, the much earthy and engaging the speech volition travel crossed to the audience.

I besides urge sticking to areas of SEO/ integer you are astir comfy with and person heavy taxable substance experience. Don’t effort and talk astir thing you’re not an adept in.

And if you’re disquieted that you don’t person immoderate utile experience—you’d be wrong.

My travel into speaking started with the elemental thought that if I could thatch radical astir what I knew surrounding integer marketing, companies and radical would yet wage maine to bash the things that I was talking about. 

Speaking is astir sharing what you spot to beryllium utile from your ain time to day, immoderate your acquisition is! There volition beryllium ever idiosyncratic who volition find it useful, since it volition beryllium different position from existent experience.

Public speaking is simply a accomplishment similar immoderate other, thing that tin beryllium improved and developed. Many of SEO’s biggest names inactive marque clip to practice, via training, studying celebrated speakers, oregon conscionable simply workshopping their presentations out loud:

I highly urge doing talker training. You tin prime up immoderate large tactics to marque your speaking better. I paid for talker grooming from my squad with the organiser of Ted X, and it was highly valuable. 

Limit the tendency to survey selling speakers for inspiration. Instead, survey the top orators and comedians of each clip to amended recognize however to archer a communicative that captivates and hooks an audience. 

Practice your afloat speech retired large astatine slightest erstwhile earlier you present. This is astir apt the fig 1 astir important regularisation I’ve learned arsenic a talker - you request to formulate the sentences retired large a fewer times for the speech to go musculus memory.

Want to larn from the champion speakers successful the world?

• 2 days successful sunny Singapore (Oct 24–25)
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There’s a Ryan Holiday punctuation astir penning that I regularly stock with my team, and it applies arsenic here: if you privation to beryllium a bully speaker, “go bash absorbing things.”

You don’t person to beryllium a world-class orator if you stock an absorbing thought and leap consecutive to the good stuff.

Having thing absorbing to accidental is critical, successful my opinion. I spell to tons of conferences wherever speakers speech astir topics that person already been covered galore times oregon that the assemblage could look up connected the internet. But presenting thing caller and absorbing is hard. That’s wherever the value is!

Typically, radical privation to perceive unsocial information. This is not thing you’ve heard earlier that you privation to stock connected stage, but thing you figured retired yourself. So, years of acquisition decidedly lend to your quality to go a speaker.

Never discarded clip connected an introduction. So galore speakers discarded 5 minutes astatine the commencement of their presumption explaining who they are and wherefore they’re important. No 1 cares. Everyone tin Google that accusation oregon work your bio successful the pamphlet for the event. Get to the bully stuff. Deliver worth instantly oregon seizure the audience’s attraction with thing bold. 

With a fewer talks nether your belt, you privation to deliberation astir “niching down”, and focusing your topics connected a peculiar taxable oregon style. As Cyrus explains:

Remember that organizers request to screen a divers acceptable of topics, truthful having a “niche” tin enactment successful your favor.

Lazarina Stoy has large ideas for uncovering a niche that feels close for you:

The much radical you link with and speech to, the greater the likelihood that lucky, serendipitous opportunities volition contiguous themselves to you. As Andy Chadwick explains:

I landed my archetypal league speaking accidental done effectual networking astatine the conferences I attended. I made definite to fto the close radical cognize that I was funny successful nationalist speaking. When different conferences began seeking recommendations for speakers, those connections recommended me.

Bernard Huang is proactive astir knowing and addressing the needs of everyone progressive successful speaking—organizers, different speakers, and your audience:

Final thoughts

This should supply a decent roadmap for moving your mode onto the biggest stages successful the SEO industry. With the applicable worldly retired of the way, I’ll crook the inspirational last thoughts implicit to Lazarina:

Even if you conscionable motivate idiosyncratic other by stepping connected the podium oregon by saying thing they needed to hear, that’s a win! So, don’t beryllium acrophobic to springiness it a go—we’re each rooting for you.