The Global Search Central Virtual Unconference 2022 is a wrap!
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Monday, May 23, 2022
The Search Central Virtual Unconference 2022 took place on April 27 this year. This is the third event of this kind.
With over 450 registrants, it’s clear that there is interest in a different format for virtual events.
There was representation from 44 countries.
This was the first time we opened the event to facilitators from the community.
Since there was so much demand for the proposed sessions, we decided to host a total of 25 breakout sessions for the 127 total attendees.
We got a lot of positive feedback about the size of the discussion groups.
Another aspect that got mentioned in the feedback was that the decision to give space to discussions by
not recording the sessions and limiting the number of attendees helped to make sure everyone is heard and included.
Some learnings from the sessions
Our facilitators took notes during their sessions and here are the conclusions:
In the ecommerce session, the discussion noted that dealing with product variations is a challenge.
Also dealing with faceted navigation can be a challenge as the amount of pages to index and the right combinations of facets vary on a case-by-case basis.
The International SEO session concluded that internationalization and localization are hard and should not be left for later stages of development.
The organic and paid growth collaborations sessions found that often both organic and paid marketers work towards the same goal,
so teams should look at the bigger picture to build better content and relationships together.
Real product reviews from blogs and community sites seem to be a great solution to drive conversions and get new customers at the start of the funnel.
The community around SEO and digital marketing is alive and well: the community seems to be becoming more supportive of one another and sharing more helpful content with each other.
Images still often provide a great way to quickly improve website speed by serving modern formats and the appropriate quality to different devices.
Feedback from our participants
Our post-event survey showed that participants were pleased with the event overall rating it 4.65 out of 5.
This is a motivation to look into repeating this kind of event in the future.
Participants also left us feedback like the following one, which shows that these events definitely
provide value to the participants and the community in making voices heard that we usually don't get to hear:
"Even though I was one of the more inexperienced participants, I really felt like a part of the discussions,
got to ask questions and truly learnt a lot in a short time. More than I have ever learnt at a conference before."
So, what's next?
There will be more Search Central Unconferences in the future.
We had our first non-English Virtual Unconference in Japan in April and we hope to bring more events like this to Japan and to other languages both online or offline in the future. Stay tuned for the future events on Twitter or our event page!
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eThe Search Central Virtual Unconference 2022, held on April 27th, brought together over 127 attendees from 44 countries to discuss diverse SEO topics in small breakout sessions.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eKey session takeaways included the rising importance of video SEO, challenges in ecommerce SEO like product variations and faceted navigation, the significance of early internationalization, and the power of organic and paid marketing collaborations.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAttendees praised the Unconference format for its focus on discussion and inclusivity, with an average rating of 4.65 out of 5 and positive feedback highlighting the learning opportunities and welcoming environment.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFuture Search Central Unconferences are planned, including expanding to non-English speaking regions based on the success of the first Japanese Unconference.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eStay updated on upcoming Search Central events through the official \u003ca href=\"/search/events\"\u003eevent page\u003c/a\u003e or by following \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/googlesearchc\"\u003eGoogle Search Central on Twitter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["The Search Central Virtual Unconference 2022, the third of its kind, hosted 25 breakout sessions for 127 attendees from 44 countries. Facilitators from the community led discussions on topics including video SEO, product variations, international SEO, and organic/paid growth collaborations. Key takeaways included the importance of video optimization, challenges with product variations and faceted navigation, and the benefits of community-driven product reviews. Participants rated the event highly, highlighting the value of inclusive discussions. Future unconferences, including non-English events, are planned.\n"],null,["| It's been a while since we published this blog post. Some of the information may be outdated (for example, some images may be missing, and some links may not work anymore). For information on upcoming events, check out our new [Search Central Unconference page](/search/events/search-central-live).\n\nMonday, May 23, 2022\n\n\nThe Search Central Virtual Unconference 2022 took place on April 27 this year. This is the third event of this kind.\n\n\nWith over 450 registrants, it's clear that there is interest in a different format for virtual events.\nThere was representation from 44 countries.\n\nThis was the first time we opened the event to facilitators from the community.\nSince there was so much demand for the proposed sessions, we decided to host a total of 25 breakout sessions for the 127 total attendees.\nWe got a lot of positive feedback about the size of the discussion groups.\nAnother aspect that got mentioned in the feedback was that the decision to give space to discussions by\nnot recording the sessions and limiting the number of attendees helped to make sure everyone is heard and included.\n\nSome learnings from the sessions\n\n\nOur facilitators took notes during their sessions and here are the conclusions:\n\n- **Video SEO** is a newer topic for content and marketing teams and was a well-received session. For those looking to make the most out of their video content, the [existing video best practices documentation](/search/docs/appearance/video) has more insights. There also is [documentation on schema markup for getting videos on Google](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/video).\n- In the ecommerce session, the discussion noted that dealing with **product variations** is a challenge. Also dealing with **faceted navigation** can be a challenge as the amount of pages to index and the right combinations of facets vary on a case-by-case basis.\n- The **International SEO** session concluded that internationalization and localization are hard and should not be left for later stages of development.\n- The **organic and paid growth collaborations** sessions found that often both organic and paid marketers work towards the same goal, so teams should look at the bigger picture to build better content and relationships together.\n- Real **product reviews** from blogs and community sites seem to be a great solution to drive conversions and get new customers at the start of the funnel.\n- The **community around SEO and digital marketing** is alive and well: the community seems to be becoming more supportive of one another and sharing more helpful content with each other.\n- **Images** still often provide a great way to quickly improve website speed by serving modern formats and the appropriate quality to different devices.\n\nFeedback from our participants\n\n\nOur post-event survey showed that participants were pleased with the event overall rating it 4.65 out of 5.\nThis is a motivation to look into repeating this kind of event in the future.\n\n\nParticipants also left us feedback like the following one, which shows that these events definitely\nprovide value to the participants and the community in making voices heard that we usually don't get to hear:\n\u003e \"Even though I was one of the more inexperienced participants, I really felt like a part of the discussions, got to ask questions and truly learnt a lot in a short time. More than I have ever learnt at a conference before.\"\n\nSo, what's next?\n\n\nThere will be more Search Central Unconferences in the future.\nWe had our first [non-English Virtual Unconference in Japan](/search/blog/2022/05/recap-search-central-unconference-japan-2022) in April and we hope to bring more events like this to Japan and to other languages both online or offline in the future. Stay tuned for the future events on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/googlesearchc) or our [event page](/search/events)!\n\nPosted by [Cherry Prommawin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/cherry-prom/) and [Martin Splitt](https://50linesofco.de) from the Search Relations team"]]
