ZoomDay 2023: lessons from the past for the challenges of the future

Trivial, perhaps, but looking back on the day of October 27, we realized that a latent concept emerged strongly, namely the importance of “looking back to be prepared for what lies ahead,” from an SEO perspective and beyond. Because indeed, ZoomDay 2023 in Naples took us through an intense day, full of practical insights on interventions to be applied to sites to gain the coveted visibility on Google and many moments of meeting and discussion with our users and friends. But, above all, between the speeches and the location we really took a plunge into the past, with an eye to the present, to take a step towards the future: the Agora Morelli fascinated the participants and snatched many “wows” of wonder, and the final tour in the Galleria Borbonica literally took us inside the history (also hard and painful) of Naples.

The topics of ZoomDay 2023

So the day of October 27 brought us to remember the past in order to understand and take back the lessons learned, so that we can face the present with awareness and be able to cast our eyes toward the future challenges of SEO and beyond.

Since the first talk, which featured Ivano Di Biasi, Giuseppe Liguori, and Gennaro Mancini, we have reknotted the threads of the discourse we had opened with ZoomDay 2022 in Naples. We then experimented with a format in which, starting from the latest news in Google’s house – from core updates to the debut of INP, up to the Search Generative Experience novelties and the rumors coming from the big antitrust trial that Big G is facing in the United States – we proposed a “practical” key to interpretation, commenting on their possible impact on sites, the challenges they open up and the advice to avoid being unprepared.

Then there was no shortage of small windows on the future – near and not so near – in SEOZoom’s house: the event in Naples has always been a bit more special for us than the other appointments we have around Italy, and so this was the perfect opportunity to announce some of the big news that await our software and its users, starting with the release of the app version or new APIs.

A journey through the past, present and future of SEO and beyond

Somehow, a jump back in time was also made by the technical talk of our CTO Giuseppe Liguori, who told about how important it is to work on SEO from day zero of a site, designing from the very beginning a site that can please Google. With this in mind, SEO should not be a repair operation, but an intrinsic process in the design of a website, to ensure its optimal visibility from launch.

Our CEO, Ivano Di Biasi, also showed us a connection between the past, present and future of SEO: his speech on trending topics research was useful not only to learn “how to ride the wave of news,” also thanks to the very recent SEOZoom features designed to help identify and exploit the trending topics of the moment, but also to discover how some old optimization tactics can still bear real fruit and help us stay one step ahead of the competition.

A lesson from the past – even the distant past – then came from Gennaro Mancini with his overview of Generative Artificial Intelligence: like other disruptive technologies throughout human history, e.g., writing, printing or television, in fact, the debut of ChatGPT et similia also provoked a “fear of the new.” And while indeed some fears seem to be real, there is nevertheless a possible way to use AI profitably, so as to save time for some tasks, such as content creation, as long as we guide and direct it correctly, to avoid falling into some “epic failures” such as those of U.S. attorney Steven A. Schwartz.

Elisa Contessotto, on the other hand, taught us how to play poker with website content, to “observe, calculate and bluff when needed”: for our expert and trainer, the website is like a poker game and a good player must know how to select the best hands (content with interest and opportunities) to gain a competitive advantage, without forgetting to observe and plan the moves of others and make thoughtful decisions to maximize the probability of success. Taking a cue from the game metaphor, he then revealed how to optimize existing website content by defining key case studies with practical examples and operational flows.

Then, at the end of the day, the SEO Cube Agency team analyzed 4 websites proposed as case studies by as many event participants, identifying issues, mistakes and possible improvements using SEOZoom tools, in a decidedly practice-oriented session that served to give some background on how to apply the theories to the specific needs of a project.

ZoomDay 2023: lessons from the past, strategies for the future

The extra time of the visit to the Bourbon Tunnel was a concentration of sensations and emotions, leading us to reflect on the past and the “weight” of certain passages of our not-so-distant history. Starting from the tunnel designed and built in 1853 by the great architect Enrico Alvino on behalf of King Ferdinand of Bourbon (practically perfect, and without even a shred of contemporary technology!), we descended inside spaces that provided shelter and salvation to thousands of people during World War II, with all the load of suggestions that this entailed.

In short, another step along what as mentioned has been somewhat the common thread of this ZoomDay 2023: a lesson in the value of history and the importance of not forgetting or neglecting the past, so that we can face the present with awareness and determination and try to cast a glance into the future, ready to embrace the new challenges that technology, digital and SEO will put before us.