12 SEO Meetups You Should Have On Your Radar

In my experience, this is one of the best ways to meet like-minded people and provides a more relaxed, informal atmosphere than a clamorous SEO conference. Who knows — you might make some recent friends at the meeting or even gain some recent SEO clients.

But with so many events happening all over the world, it’s impossible to list them all. Here are a few of the most popular SEO meetups that I think you should keep on your radar.

Okay – maybe I’m a little biased, but I wanted to start by sharing our Ahrefs SEO events. We’ve hosted five Beer and Snacks Meetups in Singapore. We’ve also hosted an SEO workshop and networking event the day before BrightonSEO, and we just launched our Meeting in London.

Tickets for the London Meetup sold out in a day and a half – our fastest selling ticketed event ever.

Tim Soulo, Joshua Hardwick, and Ryan Law will be speaking at our inaugural event, covering topics such as improving rankings, competitive research, and content marketing. To stay up to date on our next event, follow our events page.

The LondonSEO Meetup is an evening of networking with industry experts and leading experts. Featuring SEO speakers such as Itamar Blauer, Steph Hugman, Reina Hanada and many more.

In 2023, the larger XL event even welcomed Barry Schwartz, a renowned chronicler of search engine industry news.

Search London is a popular meetup that has been running for over a decade and has over 2,800 members.

Events are held every 8–12 weeks and feature representatives from agencies, client companies and start-ups.

The meetup is open to anyone in SEO, PPC or social media – and offers marketing professionals and emerging speakers a protected, supportive space to share industry knowledge and experiences. Search London also has an online edition and a Barcelona edition.

Search ‘n Stuff Meetups is a spirited and comprehensive community tailored to support digital marketers, startups, in-house teams, and professionals. Expect to see sharing strategies, campaigns, and other relevant SEO topics.

Neurodivergent SEO Personalities provides a protected space for neurodivergent SEO personalities to connect and learn.

The group hosts live BrightonSEO meetups in both the UK and the US, as well as monthly pub quizzes with great prizes.

If you are an SEO or marketer who identifies as neuroatypical, we invite you to join the community. You can do so by registering Here.

Search Norwich launched in 2018 as a free marketing event. It often features top industry speakers who share their knowledge, tips, and advice with the search marketing community. There are no sales pitches, bullshit, or offers at Search Norwich—just valuable insights.

SEOFOMO meetings are hosted by SEO star Aleyda Solis, a renowned SEO speaker and founder of SEO consulting firm Now. She will also be a keynote speaker at our first Ahrefs Evolve conference.

SEOFOMO is a free, intimate event perfect for learning, networking and sharing knowledge with other SEO professionals.

SEO Mastermind is a helpful, free and warm SEO community where you can develop your skills, meet like-minded people and get answers to all your organic marketing questions.

SEO Mastermind meets around eight times a year, mainly in the Netherlands and Belgium, but also occasionally holds meetings in other locations, for example in Brighton SEO and ISS in Barcelona.

Organizer Jeroen Stikkelorum told me that SEO Mastermind is on a mission to build the most valuable Dutch-speaking SEO and organic marketing community in the Netherlands and Belgium. So if you are local, give it a try.

SEO Lager Fest is a fun SEO meetup that (apart from drinking) allows you to network with like-minded SEO people. They host an SEO quiz, run case study contests, do AMAs, and even make SEO puns.

SEOnerdSwitzerland is a volunteer-run association that organizes events for SEO professionals in Switzerland and abroad.

Committed to fair opportunity and diversity, the company provides training and coaching for those looking to establish themselves as public speakers in the SEO industry.

SEOnerdSwitzerland also offers training and coaching for speakers, focusing on the diversity and inclusiveness of the group.

WebSchrona is a free monthly meeting for SEO and Internet Marketing professionals in Salzburg, Austria. They meet every other Thursday at 6:00 p.m.

There is no set agenda, so discussions are often unplanned and unplanned, often taking place over a drink.

Organizer Alexander Außermayr tells me that everyone is welcome at their SEO meetups. The goal is to provide regular, uncomplicated meetings in an open space — often in a beer garden if the weather is nice.

SEO Benelux started in 2018 as a Facebook community for Dutch and Belgian SEO professionals. The meetup has become the largest in the Benelux region, with over 3,000 members.

There are four meetings every year, two in Belgium (Ghent and Antwerp) and one in the Netherlands (mainly Amsterdam). Each meeting attracts 70-90 people and has three speakers.

If you don’t live in a gigantic city, it can be tough to find a good place to meet up, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any in your area.

Here are my tips to assist you find recent meetups in your area.

Tip 1 – Apply Google’s Advanced Search Operators to Discover Novel Meetups

Since recent meetups are popping up all the time, often without warning, it’s worth taking a closer look and seeing what’s available.

You could just do a standard Google search, but we are SEO experts, so let’s apply some advanced search operators and spice it up a bit.

In this example, I searched for “meetup” in the title, as well as my location and favorite SEO tool, and was able to find Tim’s tweet about our meeting in London.

This is just a very basic example, you can apply any website or location, but it shows how with a little research you can gain information about recent meetings.

Tip 2 – Run the SERP “Events” Feature

Searching events or events in my areayou can run the SERP Events feature. In the example below, I found some SEO-related events by adding “SEO” to the search.

Once you’ve enabled this feature, scroll down until you find an SEO meetup that catches your eye.

Tip 3 – Apply Meetup to Find an SEO Meetup

If you can’t find anything on Google, it’s worth checking out something on a specialist social media platform.

One of the most popular platforms is Meetup. It allows you to find events near your location on any topic.

I have attended many smaller meetups through this website over the years. They have always been captivating and a great way to make recent friends.

Tip 4 – No SEO Meetup Near You? Start Your Own!

In 2018, I organized my own mini WhatsApp meetup with a few former coworkers, which I gave the inventive name #seodrinks.

It all started with humble beginnings in a room in a tiny pub in London and now… Still in a room in a tiny pub — somewhere in London. (If you want an invitation, let me know is LinkedIn.)

We only organize regular meetings in London and we form a tiny group, but every meeting has to start somewhere.

If you’re looking to start your own SEO meetup, the best free places to start are platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram, but if you want a more specialized, paid option, you can try Meetup or another similar platform.

Final thoughts

You don’t always have to attend a gigantic SEO conference to meet other amazing people in the industry. Some of the smaller meetups I’ve attended have resulted in more networking than the larger conferences.

That’s why SEO meetups are one of my favorite ways to meet people who are just as interested in SEO and marketing as you are.

Did I miss an SEO meetup? Add your SEO meeting hereor let me know is LinkedIn.