Importance of Social Media Presence in SERPS

Social Media for More Traffic &

Better SEOHow to leverage the channels of social media marketing

to earn direct traffic and higher search engine rankings

Social Media Strategy SummitAmsterdam 19-21 May

Herwin WeversDirector

Posicionarpaginaweb.orgWebboomm.com

May 2011

Agenda

• Convergence of Search and Social Media• Using Social Media to Boom Rankings• Case Studies Social Marketing

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/director-of-bing-discusses-holistic-search-and-clickstream-data-whiteboard-friday

“Essentially, we've been doing the same kind of search now for over a decade, right?

It's basically anchor text and PageRank and inbound links, and that's how we've kind of decided what page is best for a particular term…

But there are signals beyond this.”

Stefan Weitz, Director for Bing Search

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/director-of-bing-discusses-holistic-search-and-clickstream-data-whiteboard-friday

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/business/media/11search.html

Matt Cutts, Head of search, Google

“One piece of advice I give to SEO masters is, don’t chase after Google’s algorithm, chase after your best interpretation of what users want, because that’s what Google’s chasing after,”

Yes, we do use Twitter as a signal. It is used as a signal in our organic and news rankings. We also use it to enhance searches by marking how many people shared an article



Rand Fishkin, the Cofounder SEOMoz

Every 3-4 years, there's a big shift or addition to the key metrics Google uses to order competitive search results.1996-1999: On-page keyword usage + meta data1999 - 2002: PageRank + On-page2002 - 2005: Anchor text + Domain name + PageRank + On-Page2005 - 2010: Domain authority + Diversity of linking domains + Topic modeling + Anchor text + Domain name + PageRank + On-Page2010 - ….: Inclusion of Social Media signals


Convergence of Search and SM….search engines point of view

• natural and logical process– social data to be used to personalize search results– social activity provide indicators what content is popular

• So a lot has happened in 2010-2011 to "socialize" search engine result pages– Google

• included social content from Twitter, Flickr, FB in SERPS• launched Google +1, allowing votes on pages

– Bing: expanded its deal with Facebook,• personalize search results• use Facebook Likes to gauge the authority of pages.

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/110401-070000

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/110224-133020

Convergence of Search and SM…users point of view

• Customers´ time spent on SM and them taking more control of the brand experience, requires integration of SEO and Social Media in overall Marketing Strategy

• Internet technologies and social innovations transformed media consumption patterns

• Requires a synced execution of marketing strategies for a consistent message and integrated experience

Source: Getting Engaged With Your Customers: Optimizing Search and Social to Increase Brand Exposure and Sales. Zeta Interactive 2010 pdf

Convergence of Search and SM…businesses point of view

• Channels are aligning with marketing objectives:

Source: Getting Engaged With Your Customers: Optimizing Search and Social to Increase Brand Exposure and Sales. Zeta Interactive 2010 pdf

search for customer acquisition and rapid conversion

social as the brand and communication channel and as a brand influencer

Convergence of Search and SM…businesses point of view

• And there´s a connection between search and social in terms of marketing budget spend

• search and social the top marketing tactics they plan to increase their budget for in 2011.

Using Social Media to Boom Rankings

• What does this mean for your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy? – Exploring new ways of using social media to boost your

rankings.– Traditional onsite SEO and backlinks are still fundamental. – But send search engines the right "social signals" that your

site and pages deserve to rank well.

• What signals do Google + Bing take into account?• And do they really have a large impact?


How SM metrics correlate with higher rankings in Google´s SERPS

HIGHER CORRECATIONLOWER CORRECATIONhttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/facebook-twitters-influence-google-search-rankings

How SM metrics correlate with higher rankings in Google´s SERPS

HIGHER CORRECATIONLOWER CORRECATION


Social Metrics are Well Correlated with Higher Rankings

Shares Might Be More Valuable than Likes

Twitter May Be Less Powerful

How to Earn Facebook Shares?

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/facebook-twitters-influence-google-search-rankings

Using Social Media to Boom Rankings….with Twitter

1. Tweets: Authority, KW rich, retweets and regularity• search engines monitor age of content. Tweets (keyword rich

tweets & retweets) are sending "social signals" that a site/page is currently popular

• Google and Bing have confirmed that social signals impact rankings.

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/twitter-used-by-16-4m-us-internet-users-will-growth-to-27-7m-by-2013-stats_b3682

UK

NLSP


http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/twitter-used-by-16-4m-us-internet-users-will-growth-to-27-7m-by-2013-stats_b3682


Google and Twitter Integration

Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2064902/The-Social-Evolution-of-Search-Engine-Result-Pages

Tweet result: An link to the actual tweet from friends within your social network,

Classic result: Google's organic result for a keyword search pointing to a website.

Combined result: The website result, links linking to your friend's profile and a time stamp that redirects to the original recommendation

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-do-tweets-influence-search-rankings-an-experiment-for-a-cause

Page A646 links from 36 root domains

2 tweets

Page B1 link from 1 root domain

522 tweets


Getting Tweeted to Rank



Page A646 links from 36 root domains

2 tweets

Page B1 link from 1 root domain

522 tweets


Page B – the tweeted version –

ranks #1!

Getting Tweeted to Rank


Using Social Media to Boom Rankings….with content and authority

2. Socializing Your Content - producing branded content that: – Is interesting, engaging, and entertaining– Has nothing to do with the products/services you sell.– Is still on topic/keywords to get them in Tweets/Retweets– Top 5/10 lists.– Appeals to the "influencers”– That has the potential to go viral

3. Influence Through Influencers– Google confirmed importance of tweets AND authority– Also, influencers are more likely to get retweeted

Using Social Media to Boom Rankings….with FACEBOOK

4. Be Likeable And have a social content strategy, • Bing factors in Likes and personalize search results• Google does factor Facebook Likes and shares into its SERPs,

and shares carry more weight than Likes.• Google +1 button lets users "vote up" and personalize search

results based on whether any of your Google contacts have "recommended" a page or site via +1.

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.benphoster.com/facebook-user-growth-chart-2004-2010/


http://www.benphoster.com/facebook-user-growth-chart-2004-2010/


• Bings integration with Facebook

"Liked Results": A separate module included alongside organic results

Classic result: Bing´s organic result for a keyword search pointing to a website.

Combined result: The website result with social context (friend's names and profile pictures who have liked the link).


• There are two very different methodologies involved. – Google uses inbound links link to analyze web

authority– FB as a social network uses people, connections and

their preferences • Facebook’s internal search: two methodologies

– Facebook Autosuggest • It is impossible to predict: relies on how “close” the user is

to each page

Source: Hubspot´s Facebook marketing update – How to use The Open Graph - Spring 2011


• Optimizing a Facebook Page for BOTH Facebook and Google– Page name:

• Don´t keyword stuff it. Keep it simple, targeted and brand-specific.

• Is its actual page title tag (linked part that shows up in Google and Facebook search).

– Facebook Page URL• “Vanity URLs”• can only be set once and cannot be edited



• Page Category

• Page Info– “About us” box and “Info” even more “indexable” content for

search engines.– Facebook Page notes for displaying more relevant brand related

content. Eg collect and publish Twitter testimonials aggregated from your Twitter Favorites.

• Page Wall– Your posts show up in both the Autosuggest and Advanced

Facebook search



• Link juice from FB Page Wall:1. “Likes” are do-follow2. Page name should contain your main keyword3. FB Page has a Google Page rank.

Eg Starbuck page has PR8 and their page “Likes” are PR8 links

4. One PR-1 “Like” = 10 PR-0 “Likes”

No-follow links

PR 0

PR 8

Page name1. 2. 3.3.

Using Social Media to Boom Rankings….syndicate to content sharing´s sites

5. Content sharing sites. The new “decision making engine” for 2012?– Sharing content vs Social interacting -- Digg,

StumbleUpon, Delicious and Reddit– Importance of references for purchase decisions– When a user votes it up, it gets a link on that user's

profile page. Score!!.– With enough votes, it appears on the home page. – Traffic gets pushed to your website. – Publish in other social content communities to get

valuable backlinks and get traffic

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.reddit.com/r/blog/comments/evmek/2010_we_hardly_knew_ye/

Using Social Media to Boom Rankings….syndicate to content sharing´s sites

http://www.reddit.com/r/blog/comments/evmek/2010_we_hardly_knew_ye/

Using Social Media to Boom Rankings….drawbacks

• social media offers an opportunity to get links from authoritative domains.

• drawbacks – Can't control the anchor text. – Often nofollow links or redirects, they don't always pass

link juice.• So useless? NO. The right kind of social strategy can

still pass a lot of link juice your way.• Links might not pass much juice, they do pass trust

and relevancy.

Conclusions

• How Significant is This Change for Marketers? – Retweets and mentions on Twitter, Likes on

Facebook, Vote-ups are crucial for gaining visibility in Search & SM

– When people share your content, it will show up across their social networks and in their friends' SERPs.

– Social media should be an integral part of any company's search strategy and visa versa.

Questions or want to know more?

Herwin [email protected]

Seo_barcelona/in/webboomm/webboomm

mailto:[email protected]

Case Studies Social Marketing

Case Study Hotel

• Objective:– Leveraging effect of real time social trends on multiple social media

channels for WorldQuest Orlando Resort in Orlando, FL.

• Goals: 1. Increase number of Twitter Followers2. Increase Facebook Fans3. Increase traffic to the Events Blog

• Strategy:1. Determine topic and keyword research – “Halloween in Orlando”2. Create topical content on the hotel’s blog site3. Social media integration –blog posts as a talking point for all social interactions4. Blog integration and marketing – Interact with other relevant blogs

http://blog.milestoneinternet.com/web-2/case-study-real-time-search-and-social-media/

http://www.worldquestorlando.com/

http://www.worldquestorlando.com/

http://twitter.com/MileStoneMktg

http://www.facebook.com/MilestoneInc

http://blog.milestoneinternet.com/

Case Study Hotel• Actions

– posting to various channels (Twitter, FB, Micro blogs, other blogs) several times a week including tags and references to specific events,

– Posting on other blogs (Google alerts of KW) – Interactions on Twitter, Facebook


Case Study Hotel

Results• higher level of interactions among fans and followers.• increased interest in the events posted on Hotel site• Hotel´s blog appearing on Page 1 of Google’s results for the high

volume term “Orlando Halloween kids” (over 3,880,000 results).• More fan activity on FB page during the first week than the prior

two months combined• 15% increase in Facebook fans over the month• 87% increase in Twitter followers over the month• 25 new backlinks to the three blog posts• Over 300% increase in blog traffic month over month


Cisco Online Server Intro

• Objective:– Returning question: What´s the hard business case for social media?

Proof it is cheaper and more effective than offline– launch of a new router using social media only

• Strategy:– entirely online leveraging social media, to engage network engineers

in a interactive, fun way.

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/cisco-social-media-product-launch/#more-5093


• Actions– 3D Game –network engineers learned the product as they played a 3D

game. Top scorers went on to a championship round with the winner bagging $10,000.

– YouTube – Video gets eyeballs. Cisco’s “Future of Shopping” is up to 3.3 million views and encouraging them to pass along links via social sharing.

– Social Media Widget – Cisco assembled videos, collateral and images in a widget format and embedded it into “social media” news releases and launch pages. Bloggers and others could spread the information easily with the embedded code.

– Cisco blogs – Videos and other content engaged bloggers and customers, encouraging viral pickups.

– Online forum – Cisco seeded its Networking Professionals Technology Community Forum with launch-related discussion topics and gave customers an “Ask the Expert” function.http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/cisco-social-media-product-launch/#more-5093


Results– 9,000 people attended the social media product launch

event – 90 times more attendees than in the past– Saved 42,000 gallons of gas– Nearly three times as many press articles as with

traditional outreach methods– More than 1,000 blog posts and 40 million online

impressions– A Leading Lights award for Best Marketing– One-sixth the cost of a traditional launch

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/cisco-social-media-product-launch/#more-5093

Icecream Retailer

• Objective:– increasing traffic to stores by 3% through social media while reducing

advertising spend.

• Strategy:– Monetize Facebook– Tie in with franchisees– Maintain brand consistency– Innovate with apps – Add-on apps for Facebook for eGifts and contest

voting.

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/cold-stone-transforms-the-ice-cream-social-with-facebook/#more-6389

Icecream Retailer• Actions

– send FB friends a code for an actual ice cream creation eGift• eGift shows up in the recipient’s News Feed on Facebook, so all friends can see it.• showing a printout or the code on their mobile phones.

– 2-for-$5 coupon campaign • Instantly redeem the gift at any of the retailer’s showing a printout or the code on their

mobile phones.

– Fans ‘Eat Up’ New Flavors Contest• “post creative comments of 50 words or fewer about one of three featured flavors”• all entrants could share their entries and encourage friends to vote for theirs.

– 4 - 5 key promotions throughout the year– YouTube footage from events like its annual “World’s Largest Ice

Cream Social,” which benefits social causes


Icecream Retailer

• Results– eGift Facebook feature added $10,000 in incremental

sales.– With social media, cost of about 39 cents per coupon

redeemed compared to $3.60 per redemption with print advertising.

– 66,000 new fans over an 8-week period with a flavors contest.

– Facebook coupon increased sales 1 to 1.2%.– 14% redeemed the coupon compared to .02% in the past.


Importance of Social Media Presence in SERPS

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