To Sum Up - New Year Edition - Yagmur Simsek

To Sum Up: New Year EditionšŸŽ„

What a year!

Itā€™s likely to hear such a reaction from me at the end of each passing year. Especially in the last 3-4 years, what I have planned, accomplished or failed to achieve; my descents, ascents, and so on never came to an end. In fact, I can be the person who forces the algorithm of Netflix and Spotify with my irrelevant choices. I’m sure the algorithms got confused as I found myself jumping from something to another thing to beat my FOMO, control my feelings and emotions and so on.

Of course, while I think about these things, I also never forget that I am a tiny speck of dust on the whole planet, and then I usually decide to let the questions in my mind go, not question it further. Thatā€™s why this editionā€™s theme is so obvious to me; ā€œGo with the flow, be close to your heart and be a close friend of your angstā€¦ā€

Last time I shared with you the first post of this series: To Sum Up: Special Edition

Here I wanted to continue summarising the recent months starting last summer and share my sincere thoughts about my journey in the second issue. 

Conference Talks | Q3 & Q4, 2022

Search Y Paris 2022 | July 1, 2022 | Paris

I had an amazing time at the Search Y Paris conference last summer. Thanks to the event organisers, all the speaker activities were well-organized. Thus, we had the opportunity to get to know each other better before and after the conference. Most of us might meet online before, but the experience obtained in person is always very different because an inspiring conversation you get involved in or a question youā€™re randomly asked may open various doors in your mind. Plus, I had a chance to listen to very insightful talks from other speakers. My notebook was full of new to-dos and takeaways right after the conference.

Thanks to all attendees and audience who made this experience exclusiveāœØ.

Also, my sincere thanks to the Search Y Paris Team for all the support and effort in bringing this conference live and allowing me to share the stage with industry leaders in person. šŸ’« 

Other special thanks go to the Re:signal Team for their support and encouragement during this journey, as always…šŸ™ŒšŸ¼

BrightonSEO 2022 | October 5-6, 2022 | Brighton

One of my career dreams came true this year, and I had the opportunity to speak at BrightonSEO in October, just a day after my birthday; Such a birthday gift!

I have covered the importance of creating an SEO-driven content strategy for B2B startups in different niches (FinTech, HRTech, eCommerce, etc.) and explained how SEO could help companies with their organic growth. I have also shared the tried & tested methods as well as free resources that startups can get inspiration from during their growth journey. 

On the stage, I was sooooo excited and nervous, but when I started speaking, I just went with the flow as I promised myself, and I felt so relieved after the talk ended. I took it as a success as i didnā€™t fall on the floor šŸ˜€

Thanks, everyone, for attending my first #brightonSEO talk and the event team who gave me the opportunity so I could prove myself to myself šŸ™‚ It was an amazing experience for me.

Here are the links to my slides & free Google Sheet template if anyone is interested:

  • https://lnkd.in/evEMCy2U
  • https://lnkd.in/eY8kTPBz

We Love SEO 2022 | November 29, 2022 | Paris

On the 29th of November, I was at the We Love SEO Conference in Paris to attend the panel discussion where we discussed e-commerce SEO strategies, tips and best practices with Rebecca Berbel, Lidia Infante, Julien Deneuville and myself. 

So many ideas and opinions, great takeaways and networking events were thereā€¦

As always, we made the most out of it with my SEO friends and enjoyed every moment of our short trip šŸ˜‰

Thanks to the Oncrawl Team for their invite and very walm welcome.

Articles/Blog Posts | Q3 & Q4, 2022:

Exciting News & Upcoming Events | 2023

Women in Tech SEO Festival | March 3, 2023 | London

First of all, let me share one of the greatest pieces of news of this year that I received from Areej Abuali 3 months ago, which was like a ā€œvitaminā€ effect for me to get my energy and motivation back just at the time that I was moving house, dealing with mortgage paperwork and other life issues. That being said, I’m so excited to speak at the Women in Tech SEO Festival on March 3rd 2023, at Barbican Centre!

Thanks to all the #WTSFest committee and our global community for providing this exciting opportunity.

Iā€™m in the process of preparing my presentation and working on my talk at the moment, and sharing this process with my readers is a great feeling šŸ™‚ 

Another challenge awaits me; I can’t wait to get stressed, have headaches, get mixed feelings like smiling and also getting worried inside, wake up on the 3rd of March, have my first coffee, go to the Barbican Centre, stand on the stage, see the fantastic crowd, give the talk, share my insights and experiences, left the stage along with my happy tears, meet and connect with all inspiring women and enjoy our wonderful dayšŸ’«

https://www.womenintechseo.com/conference/

Re:commerce | March 10, 2023 | London

We, as Re:signal Team, are hosting a 1-day eCommerce SEO conference at the Ham Yard Hotel in London on 10th March. It is such an honour for me to be a part of the Re:signal eCommerce SEO conference and to have the chance to be one of its first speakers! šŸŒŸ What is more exciting than this is that I will share the stage with an inspiring speaker lineup. Here you can find out more details about the conference agenda and speakers: Re:commerce SEO Conference

Event LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/events/re-commerceseoconference7010533523807776768/comments/ 

UK Search Awards | 30 November, 2022 | London

UK Search Awards Night

Speaking about our team, I canā€™t skip this incredible news as we won 4x UK Search Awards on the 30th of November:

šŸ† Best use of search in eCommerce (ASICS EMEA)

šŸŽ‰ Best use of search in fashion (FatFace)

šŸ¾ Best SEO campaign (ASICS EMEA)

šŸŽ‰ Best small SEO agency (Re:signal)

So happy, so proud and looking forward to the 2023ā€™s success stories!

Side projects

Although I canā€™t mention the website name at the moment, I just wanted to share my excitement as my friend (co-founder-to-be), and I will announce our side project in January 2023 and see how our journey will go. Weā€™re dealing with everything from scratch. This is a great opportunity to improve my perspective in design, UX, business growth, entrepreneurship skills and the relationship side of things, besides my good and old friend SEO strategies (I always feel close to the entrepreneurs’ world anyway :)).

What else going on?

I will always aim to end this seasonal wrap-up post with a bit more about my life and my thoughts, in addition to career & industry news, so we can understand each other more and learn from each othersā€™ stories. 

Lately, I canā€™t seem to find my focus. It even took me two months to spare some time to publish this post. 

Why could this happen?

I was probably working more than my body and brain were expecting (itā€™s not that I was given more tasks than I could finish, itā€™s because I donā€™t know how to say no – even to myself- and always add additional responsibilities to myself such as talking at the conferences, writing additional blog posts in the industry or being active on specific SEO groups and chats, etc. At the end of this story, I think my whole presence decided to go on strike. 

What did I do to fix this?

I reduced the time I spend on SEO-related activities & gatherings, both online and in-person, so I can improve my work & life balance. I feel better now as it allows me to observe other things in my social and professional life. I touched my heart, listened to what it said and let myself go with the flow. 

I also reduced the time I spent on social media. I still share posts from time to time but not that often I believe; Trust me, I used to share a lot šŸ˜€ 

Iā€™m learning how to say ā€œnoā€ to some opportunities nowadays. Sometimes I succeed, and sometimes fail, but itā€™s still a learning process. I donā€™t have to be present at every event or online opportunity given to me. I still love those events and challenge myself with the talks and presentations. However, I need to choose them wisely as I have a life apart from SEO, and I wouldnā€™t want to miss it. The same thing applies to friend invitations for social activities as well.

So next year, you will probably see Yagmur less but hear more about her (hopefully, if the plan works :)).

Thatā€™s all I want to share for nowā€¦ Catch up soon with the new edition. Happy new year ā™”ā™”ā™”

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