Seattle’s Top 3 Digital Marketing Conferences

A lot of people might disagree with our “Seattle’s top 3 digital marketing conferences (events)” list, but there’s simply too many tech conferences and events to detail all of them in this post. In addition to the digital marketing events, there’s also a ton of technical conferences in Seattle, Washington, and we recognize that. It’s our hope to someday highlight all of the best programming, tech cons, and artificial intelligence (AI) conferences in Seattle, but in this list, it’s exclusively about digital marketing.

If you’re coming to Seattle, or already living in the greater Seattle area and interested in the best digital marketing events, this list is for you.

We know you want to get to the meat of this article, but something worth mentioning before we get started is that finding the best digital marketing conferences can be a little bit of a challenge. Google has a new Events Search Feature that’s been around since about 2017, but it’s not perfect. Jayson DeMers describes Google’s Event schema and markup really well in this Forbes article.

Click here to go straight to Seattle’s Top 3 Digital Marketing Conferences and skip our search critique.

Why does it matter? It matters because there’s an overlap of events in the search results, and sometimes those dates are wrong. Take a look at the screenshot below. Notice how specific events overlap. One event called “Seattle Digital Marketing Conference” is listed as beginning on June 12, 2019. Its duplicate counterpart is listed as starting on the same day. That’s good, right? Not so fast.

When choosing the first result in the Google search page result for “DigiMarCon”, the markup schema fly-out shows you the option to buy the digital marketing event tickets directly from Eventbrite.

But if you choose (click on) the second option, you’ll notice that all of the links which Google provides are various websites that are promoting the digital marketing event, not necessarily offering the opportunity to purchase the tickets.

So let’s say you’re in a hurry and/or you’re using your mobile device to search for the top 3 digital marketing events in Seattle, Washington, you might mistakenly get frustrated because you’ve clicked on the wrong schema markup that Google provided you in the search results page. Bad boy Google!

Another annoying feature that Google is probably overlooking is the incorrect dates that might pop up in the search results pages for events. Take a look at the screenshot below.

Did you notice that the dates are correct for the Seattle Digital Marketing Conference to be held on Wednesday, June 12, 2019 – Thursday, June 13, 2019? That’s good, right? Again, not so fast.

Check out this next screenshot we’ve uncovered. Do you notice anything odd about the MozCon event?

The MozCon Digital Marketing Conference is listed as starting on Monday, July 15, 2019, and ending on Wednesday, July 17, 2019. But under further investigation, you will notice that there’s a second listing for the same event which states that MozCon actually starts on Sunday, July 14, 2019, and goes through until the following Wednesday. That’s a 24-hour difference!

Regardless of how you want to book your tickets for the next. huge digital marketing event in Seattle, just be aware that you might be looking at the wrong date.

We’re curious to see if bookmarking these events will notify you twice, since there are multiple listings for the same conferences. We shall see.

Our Ranking Factors for the Top Digital Marketing Events

Now, for the “main event” of this article: the top three digital marketing events in Seattle for 2019. But first, we need to inform you about how we ranked them, and how we determined who won the top spot. Even though there was a winner, all three are the best digital marketing events in Seattle. So in a way, they’re all winners; nevertheless, there are three different attributes that helped us determine our primary recommendation. Our criteria were:

1. Expertise and Authority: If anyone has been in the digital marketing world for over five years, you’ll know that authority is huge now. No one knows for sure if “authority” is a ranking factor in the SERPs, but some argue that it is. That’s why we’ve indirectly made expertise and authority our number one determining factor for Seattle’s top 3 digital marketing conferences.
2. Dates: This seems like an obvious one, and it is. The date of the event is important, right? There are some digital marketing events that come to Seattle only once every few years or so like the Digital Marketing Bootcamp that ran in the past. There are also events that have already passed this year like Digital Summit which is arguably the best digital marketing conference in the world. (They have events in other cities too so if you’re not in Seattle, then you could catch them in Phoenix, or another major city.)
3. Cost: There are a lot of digital marketing strategists, managers, and experts that are just getting started in this space and can’t afford the high cost of a major marketing event. We’ve considered that when ranking our favorite marketing events in Seattle. To all the freelance digital marketers out there, you’re welcome.

Seattle’s Digital Marketing Conference Winner: MozCon

MozCon is not the cheapest digital marketing conference in Seattle, but compare their $1,699.00 price tag to the $3,495.00 general admission for SMX Advanced and you can get a sense as to why we chose MozCon at our number one pick. Not only is it “middle-of-the-road” for pricing options, but they’ve also got major clout in the marketing space. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be part of something that a mom started, right? Of course, there are a few other reasons why we made this choice, so let’s break them down.

Click here to learn more about the conference.

• Expertise and Authority: If you’re not new to digital marketing, or Search Engine Optimization (SEO), then you’ve definitely heard of Rand Fishkin. Rand started Moz (it used to be called SEOmoz) over 10 years ago, and made a name for himself in the Seattle area, even globally. Rand has since stepped down as the CEO of Moz, but he still has a spot on the board and conducts his famous “Whiteboard Friday” videos on Moz.com. This has a HUGE factor in why we decided to make MozCon the top spot in our little online contest. In addition to Rand speaking at MozCon in 2019, there’s a host of other major speakers that have helped mature an industry (i.e. SEO) like Sarah Bird and Dr. Pete Meyers.
• Date: July 15 – 17, 2019. Seattle, WA.
• Location: Unfortunately, Moz doesn’t specify where their conference will be held! Check this out.
• Cost: $1,699.00. This is the General Admission price for a single ticket-holder and one that is not subscribed to Moz’s services. It’s a pretty penny, but not something that’s too expensive. After all, what’s the price you’re willing to pay in order to advance your career in search and digital marketing? Compared to that, it’s a small monetary commitment.

Runner-Up For The Best Digital Marketing Conference in Seattle: SMX Advanced

Seattle’s SMX Advanced Digital Marketing Summit is world-class and the people of the community should be very very thankful for hosting such an amazing event. Not only is it full of the world’s thought-leaders in this space, but it also attracts some of the largest and most successful companies of all times. If you can think of it, they’re going to be there: Microsoft, Slack, Dropbox, Twitter, etc. You get the picture, right?

Click here to learn more about the SMX conference.

• Expertise and Authority: It’s hard to compete with the lineup and event speakers that are going to be at this marketing conference. Let’s start with some of the obvious, shall we? Jessica Bowman is an enterprise-level SEO Consultant and Editor at Large for Search Engine Land. Olga Andrienko will also be there and she’s the Head of Global Marketing for SEMrush. To top it all off, Eric Enge will be there teaching one of the workshops. It doesn’t get much better than that. There’s a ton of other speakers and workshop teachers, but to list them all would take up too much time.
• Date: June 3 – 5, 2019. Seattle, WA.
• Location: Bell Harbor International Conference Center at 2211 Alaskan Way, Pier 66, Seattle, WA. 98121
• Cost: $3,495.00. Yeah, you heard that right. Holy shit huh? This isn’t for the beginner, and this was a huge factor in almost ranking this conference #3, but it came out as the runner-up because it’s so valuable. Sometimes you have to pay to play. Right?
  

Third Place Winner for Seattle’s Top 3 Digital Marketing Conferences: Digital Summit Seattle

You’re probably thinking to yourself, “Why did they include this digital marketing conference when it’s already in the past?” The answer? It’s because it’s awesome and you shouldn’t miss it next year. The Digital Summit winds its way throughout the USA each year, and it’s like a Grateful Dead show for modern hippies. It’s got huge names and marketing influencers as well as a solid, and affordable price point. (See below.) This conference hits Phoenix, Chicago, and many other large cities in the United States.

Click here to book your tickets for 2020.

• Expertise and Authority: Disney, have you ever heard of them? Yeah, we thought so. Representatives from Disney, Cisco, Evernote, Marketo, AirB&B, SalesForce, and other huge names attend this event. Not only does it provide conference-goers with some of the most valuable information in the digital marketing world, but they also prepare and execute this event for over 20,000 people. That’s incredible! If that’s not enough authority, then we don’t know what is.
• Date: February 26 – 27, 2019. Yes, we know, their time has come and gone, which is one of the reasons why this one came in third, but it was a close call between this one and SMX.
• Location: Washington State Convention Center at 705 Pike St, Seattle, WA. 98101. Of course, getting there in style is a no-brainer for some. And since you’re saving money by attending this conference, why not splurge a little with a town car rental from SeaTac? Makes sense to us ;-).
• Cost: $995.00 Yup, it’s the cheapest one out of all three of our major marketing conferences. You would think that this would boost it up in our final results, but a cheap price doesn’t always equate into value. (If you’re a marketer, especially with SEO, then you would know this already.)

Well folks, that about wraps it up for our review of Seattle’s top 3 digital marketing conferences. Make sure to check back with us soon for more interesting reviews and posts about cool stuff in Seattle. We’re always here to help.

Contact us for more info about events, food, and entertainment in the greater Seattle area. Cheers and happy marketing!