Top SEO Conferences You Can't Miss in 2026

SEO is important to every business. And with the dawn of the AI era, it's becoming more nuanced and complex than ever before.

Whether you’re creating content for clients or trying to grow your own agency, SEO conferences allow you to learn from the best in the business.

Advantages of SEO Conferences

Many of the core principles of SEO remain the same, but AI has caused a significant paradigm shift. Suddenly, businesses are optimizing for LLMs and adjusting to zero-click searches. 

Meanwhile, changes to Google’s algorithm and the rise of tools like Google Lens are also impacting content strategy for many businesses.

SEO conferences are a brilliant way of hearing from leading experts about the latest developments. Seeking out the right conference for you will also allow you to network with fellow industry professionals.

From Chiang Mai to Brighton, and with some virtual options too, there are plenty of upcoming SEO conferences that should be on your radar. I’ve put together a list of some of the key events in 2026.

Upcoming In-Person SEO Conferences 2026

Sydney SEO Conference

Billed as the largest SEO and growth event in Australia, the Sydney SEO Conference is gearing up for its 7th edition. It will take place from March 19-20, 2026 in Sydney.

Tickets cost $399 plus GST (Goods and Services Tax), while a VIP and mastermind bundle costs $999 plus tax. Tickets have sold out this close to the event, but you can still join a waiting list. 

It's an AI-heavy topic list, with talks entitled "How LLMs Really Work (And How It Affects Your Content Strategy)", "The E-Commerce Playbook for GEO: Winning in AI-Powered Search", and "What AI Means for Brands: How to Stay Visible, Relevant, and Chosen". This latter sesion will be delivered by well-known SEO pro Aleyda Solis.

Tech SEO Summit

Tech SEO Summit is a specialized technical SEO event that describes itself as a "nerd conference". It will run in Hamburg on April 23. 

You really can expect a deep dive into the weeds of technical SEO. Paul Calvano of Etsy will be speaking on "fonts and web performance", for example.

Martin Splitt, a Developer Relations Engineer at Google, will also be speaking. His talk promises to "dive into TLS, TCP/IP, HTTP/2/3, web sockets, service workers and other fun things and how they can make life better... or worse... for you and your users."

Again, demand means the event is currently sold out. But the organizers are exploring the possibility of a larger auditorium, so you should join a waitlist if you're interested. A ticket to the full conference costs €899 (~$1057) plus tax.

SEO Week

SEO Week will begin on April 27 in New York. It's a 4-day event hosted by iPullRank.

The 2026 agenda has been released, with each day following a theme: The Science, The Psychology, The Ecosystem, and The Future. Speakers are drawn from the likes of Microsoft and Wix, as well as some internal experts.

Tickets cost $599 for one-day attendance, or $1,999 for the full conference. Whole-conference passes go up in price on April 1. 

Basha Coleman of Hubspot attended last year's SEO Week. She said: "The practicality exceeded my expectations. Tangible takeaways everywhere."

BrightonSEO

Brighton, UK is home to BrightonSEO. It’s marketed as the world’s largest SEO conference, drawing over 5000 attendees.

Thousands of people will flock to the seaside location from April 30 - May 1. 

The conference has been such a hit that the “BrightonSEO” brand has branched out to the United States. The San Diego edition will be held from September 15-16.

The flagship event in Brighton is now typically held twice a year, in April and October. Targeted SEO has previously attended, describing it as an “incredible experience”.

Here’s an example talk from the October 2025 conference:

Agentic commerce was among the topics at the last October edition of BrightonSEO.

This year, there will be plenty of talks on AI in SEO. Specific topics include monitoring brand mentions, content strategy in an age of "AI slop", and topical authority/information gain for a world of AI searches.

A “Friend” ticket tier gets you access to both days of the conference. That currently costs £500 (roughly $573) plus tax, although prices rise again on April 16.

 A “BFF” ticket unlocks a better merch bag, priority seating, and a special reception. That’s currently on sale for £750 (around $1009) plus tax.

There is also a ballot for free tickets. That's now closed, although you can join a waiting list. 

Tickets for San Diego start at $600, but at time of writing, you are currently able to request free single-day tickets.

SEO Spring Training

Billing itself as a highly practical SEO conference, this year's SEO Spring Training takes place in Chandler, Arizona from April 29 - May 3. That means it clashes with BrightonSEO, but the upshot is that there are great options on both sides of the Atlantic.

The event is hosted by husband-and-wife team Terry and Elisabeth Samuels. Marketing veteran Marty Marion is among the confirmed presenters. 

A business access ticket provides access to the 3 main days of the conference, from May 1-3. That costs $1197.

A business tech package ($1897) provides access to the tech mastermind sessions on April 30. And VIP access unlocks another day of exclusive events, at a total cost of $2897.

Women in Tech SEO Festival Portland (WTSFest)

WTSFest is hosted by Women in Tech SEO. Starting out in 2019 as an online community for female SEO specialists, the group’s in-person conference in London (first held in 2020) has become a major event.

It's been such a hit that the WTSFest brand has branched out worldwide. After the UK flagship conference was held in February, the next event is in Portland on May 6.

Only open to women and those of marginalized genders, it's also an all female and non-binary speaker lineup. Highlights include Kaitlin McMichael, the Senior Product Manager of Search at AWS, and Christina Clark, Head of Product Growth at HubSpot.

Standard tickets cost $499, which include full-day access, catering, and a post-conference networking event. Once they are sold out, the price will increase to $599. 

There's another US-based WTSFest conference in Philadelphia on October 1st.

SMX Advanced

SMX is a series of conferences put on throughout the year by Search Engine Land. SMX Advanced comes to Boston from June 3-5, 2026.

The full agenda and speakers will be released in due course, but a sneak preview has confirmed Purna Virji will give the opening keynote address. She is the Principal Content Solutions Consultant  at LinkedIn, and will be speaking on how departments can fix their AI ROI.

Previous attendees include representatives from eBay, Facebook, Dell, and Coca-Cola. Last year, Nick Eubanks (VP of Owned Media at Semrush) featured on a stacked list of speakers.

You can register now at the Early Bird rate of $1445, which will be in place until June 2.

Alternatively, you can get an Expo+ pass, which is completely free. That will get you access to keyotes, clinics, sponsored sessions, and some networking events, as well as the Expo Hall.

MozCon

For those in the US, the MozCon conference will take place in New York on July 14. A UK version will be held on November 13. 

Speakers are yet to be confirmed, and you can actually pitch to speak at the New York conference. But previous speakers include Travis Tallent (Brainlabs), Lily Ray (Amsive), and Areej AbuAli (Women in Tech SEO). 

Moz’s in-house expert Dr Pete Meyers also usually speaks. You can view one of his previous slide decks online.

“Brand or Bust” was among the themes of MozCon 2024.

Early Bird tickets are currently available for $749. Once they sell out, the price will increase to $849 (and there's also a $1,299 VIP dinner and ticket bundle).

Sales for the London event recently went live as well. There's an Early Bird rate of £520 (~$700) in place.

GEO Know How

As the name suggests, GEO Know How is a dedicated Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) conference. But it's impossible to completely separate SEO from GEO, and a conference like this is a great way for practitioners to future-prood their knowledge and skills. 

Running for the first time last year, GEO Know How 2026 will be held in Berlin on October 1. It's the country's first purpose-built GEO conference, and one of just a few of its kind throughout Europe

The obvious caveat to be made here is that this is a German-language conference. But that may suit you: if it does, you'll be able to hear from an interesting array of European speakers.

Last year, that included Johannes Beus, the founder and CEO of SISTRIX. The agenda and speakers for 2026 will be confirmed in due course, but tickets are already available for 499€ plus tax. 

Chiang Mai SEO Conference

The Chiang Mai SEO Conference will be held in Thailand from November 9-13. It's usually one of the most in-demand events of the year, and pre-sale tickets have already sold out.

Founded by Matt Diggity, the most recent edition of the Chiang Mai SEO Conference involved fellow industry experts such as Tim Soulo, Greg Gifford and Craig Campbell. With 800 attendees, it's not one of the biggest events on our list, but it attracts some of the biggest names. So it's an excellent networking opportunity. 

Final tickets are set to be released soon. You can sign up to receive updates. 

Other SEO Conferences to Look Out For

You've seen the confirmed SEO conferences that I'm really excited about in 2026. But details of new conferences are always coming out.

I keep this article updated, so you can check back here to find out the latest information. For now, here are some upcoming conferences in 2026 that haven't all yet confirmed full details, but are still worth looking out for:

Tech SEO Connect

Tech SEO Connect is a specialist technical SEO conference. It ran from December 4-5 in North Carolina last year, with 2026 dates and venues still TBD.

This differs from a lot of other SEO conferences on the list. It describes itself as “the conference made for Technical SEOs by Technical SEOs”, with a total focus on back-end search engine optimization techniques.

Speakers last year included Krishna Madhavan, the Principal Product Manager of Microsoft AI and the Bing Web Data Platform. Max Prin, Global Technical SEO Director at Conde Nast, was also in attendance.

International Search Summit

The International Search Summit has actually confirmed its next date, but it's not until May 2027! Naturally, the agenda and speakers are therefore TBC, and you can apply to speak if this is your area of expertise.

It’s a specialized conference focused squarely on international SEO. Carolyn Shelby of Yoast was among the speakers at a previous edition, presenting on “hreflang” HTML tags.

The International Search Summit is a specialist conference.

The agenda for 2025 was split into four tracks: International SEO, International Content, AI Innovators, and International Paid Media. Speakers from SEOTesting and Rank Expert were among those featuring on the SEO track.

Upcoming Virtual SEO Conferences

You can learn a lot about SEO online. For instance, we’ve got a mega-list of 130 SEO statistics, while Semrush has a comprehensive suite of SEO tools.

And for many SEO specialists, virtual conferences present a more practical and budget-friendly option. Lots of online-only events still offer great speakers and a chance to learn about the latest developments in the field. Here’s a selection of what’s coming up in 2025 and 2026.

Brighton SEO

Brighton SEO is an in-person conference, but it caters for those unable to physically attend. Once the conference is over, all of the talk recordings are available to buy.

For instance, you can pre-order the video bundle for the April 2026 conference, which will go live 2 weeks after the event. The bundle is available for approximately $200.

NESS

The News and Editorial SEO Summit is dedicated specifically to SEO for news publishers. And it attracts some of the biggest names in SEO; Rand Fishkin is a former speaker.

Last year, AI big-hitter Marie Haynes was in attendance. That conference was held fully online from October 21-22, and you're still able to buy the video recordings for $299.

Dates for 2026 are yet to be confirmed, but NESS has put out a call for speakers. 

SMX Next

SMX Next is run by Search Engine Land, which also hosts the in-person Advanced conferences. But this event is entirely online.

This year, it's set to be held from November 18-19 (these are the exact same dates as last year, so watch this space to see if it changes, but that's what it is currently listed as on the SMX master schedule). Details will follow closer to the time.

Meanwhile, last year's program is available on demand until May 18, 2026. Two keynote addresses covered trends in SEO and PPC.

Marie Haynes was in attendance here as well. She was joined by Crystal Carter, the Head of AI Search and SEO Communications at Wix, and Kyle Byers, Director of Organic Search at Semrush.

Speakers for 2026 are still TBC. But the digital conference has historically been completely free of charge, making it a real must-attend in the SEO conferences calendar.

SEO Square

SEO Square hasn't confirmed any dates yet. But it's one to look out for in 2026, given that it is entirely online and completely free.

The conference attracts more than 3,000 virtual attendees, across US and French language editions. And even though 2025's event is done, you can register online to watch all of the content. 

Speakers included the VP of Marketing at SparkToro and the Principal Consultant & Global Program Manager at LinkedIn. 

Build Your Career And Your Business With SEO Conferences

There are plenty of good ways to get a deeper and more practical understanding of SEO. Semrush offers a suite of highly effective tools.

But I strongly recommend attending SEO conferences to stay at the cutting edge of how these tools are used. These events offer valuable networking opportunities for SEO and marketers, and those could be crucial as you build your business or career.

As you have seen, there’s a whole host of SEO conferences on the horizon — and check out our comprehensive lists of AI conferences and marketing conferences in 2026 as well. It’s time to start booking tickets.