Website & Tickets: View Official Website
Ahrefs Evolve San Diego 2026 is a two-day in-person conference for SEO and marketing professionals focused on modern search, AEO, GEO, AI search visibility, and data-driven growth. The event is built around practical workflows, real examples, and the decisions teams are making as search changes, rather than abstract frameworks or theory.
The programme focuses on how high-performing teams are adapting across AEO, SEO, content strategy, technical SEO, brand visibility in AI answers, and the channels that influence discoverability. Sessions are designed for practitioners who already understand search fundamentals and want to learn what teams are testing, implementing, and measuring right now.
Ahrefs Evolve positions itself at the intersection of traditional SEO and newer disciplines such as Answer Engine Optimization and Generative Engine Optimization. The event explores how content can be discovered, interpreted, and referenced by AI systems across Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, voice assistants, and other AI-powered search experiences.
The conference brings together 500-600+ practitioners, including in-house SEO leads, content strategists, agency owners, heads of growth, founders, and marketing teams from startups through enterprise brands. The speaker lineup includes marketers, founders, AI leaders, search specialists, and Ahrefs team members who actively work with large sites, experiments, and modern marketing systems.
Both event days include lunch, tea and coffee breaks, and an on-site coffee cart. The schedule also includes a Day 1 happy hour with hors d’oeuvres and a Day 2 after-party with buffet-style dinner, creating space for conversations around the sessions.
The event takes place at the InterContinental San Diego, which is also the official hotel. The venue is positioned as part of the event experience, with attendee rates, waived amenity fees, parking discounts, on-site dining, a rooftop pool, and proximity to downtown, restaurants, and the airport.
This event features talks by the following speakers:
Ann Handley (Wall Street Journal Best-Selling Author, Speaker, Partner at MarketingProfs)
Ross Simmonds (Founder & CEO at Foundation Marketing, Distribution.ai)
Tim Soulo (Chief Marketing Officer at Ahrefs)
Rand Fishkin (CEO, Co-Founder at SparkToro, Alertmouse, & Snackbar Studio)
Aleyda Solis (International SEO Consultant & Founder at Orainti)
Austin Lau (Growth Marketing at Anthropic)
Tara Robertson (CMO at Bitly)
Brianna Doe (Founder & CEO, Creator at Verbatim, Stop the Scroll)
Ethan Smith (CEO at Graphite)
Alina Vandenberghe (Co-Founder & Co-CEO at Chili Piper)
Harry Dry (Founder at Copy // Marketing Examples)
James Brockbank (Founder & Managing Director at Digitaloft)
Dawood Bukhari (CEO at Digital Web Solutions)
Michelle Lindner (Podcast Producer, EA to CMO, Community Manager at Ahrefs)
Farzad Rashidi (Founder at Respona)
Andrei Tit (Head of Product Marketing at Ahrefs)
Noah Green (CEO at Stacker)
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