Dana Lookadoo spoke to Heather Lloyd-Martin's SEO Copywriting Certification class to explain how to optimize sharing social content and increase audience engagement. Topics covered included the latest trends in social media, what's being shared, and how the search engines are interpreting this information to influence ranking. The use of Open Graph protocol was explained, including use of WordPress SEO to help create those tags. Other best practices addressed how to optimize sharing of content on Facebook and Google+ as well as making tweet retweetable on Twitter. Resources included access to download a spreadsheet to help plan out each post and ideas for going viral.

1. Optimizing for Social – Why & How
SEO Copywriting Certification Class
Dana Lookadoo . @lookadoo . YoYoSEO.com
March 27, 2013
@YoYoSEO

2. Agenda – Optimizing for Social
 Social Sharing Trends
 Who’s Sharing What?
 Why Social is Important to SEO
 Formatting Your Content
 With & Without Optimization
 Anatomy of a Share Snippet
 The Code Behind the Scenes
 Pro Tips & Caveats
 Resources & Inspiration
 Social Sharing Worksheet
 WordPress SEO Plug-in
 Sources for Viral Ideas
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

3. Social Sharing Trends
Who’s Sharing What?
Social is Important to SEO
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

4. Latest Trends in Social Sharing
@YoYoSEO http://www.webhostingbuzz.com/blog/2013/03/21/whos-sharing-what/ @lookadoo

5. Who’s Sharing & What?
@YoYoSEO http://www.webhostingbuzz.com/blog/2013/03/21/whos-sharing-what/ @lookadoo

6. Who’s Sharing & What?
@YoYoSEO http://www.webhostingbuzz.com/blog/2013/03/21/whos-sharing-what/ @lookadoo

7. Social Sharing & SEO - Study Published June 2012
 Social affects search.
 “Social signals from Facebook and
Twitter now correlate very strongly with
good rankings in Google’s index.”
 Sharing content on Facebook and
Twitter and “getting people to
engage with it” sends signals that
boost SEO.
@YoYoSEO http://www.searchmetrics.com/en/searchmetrics/press/ranking-factors/ @lookadoo

8. Ranking Factors – U.S. Data from February & March 2012
@YoYoSEO http://www.searchmetrics.com/en/searchmetrics/press/ranking-factors/ @lookadoo

9. Facebook in Bing SERPs - Personalized

10. Quality Content > Engaged Social > Rankings
Social is about engaging with
your customer and clientele
and having them amplify
and say that you are the
authority on a topic...
Turning this stuff on doesn’t
immediately give you a in a
boost in rankings. If people
love you and there is a real
gravity happening around
your product…and if all the
signals tell us that, then you
are going to rank well and Duane Forrester, Bing
drive traffic. SMX West 2013
The Search Police: Matt & Duane’s Excellent Search Engine Adventure
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xvdi6iluHFQ
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

11. Does Google+ Matter?
 Studies show Facebook engagement signals matter.
 Does Google+?
 If your audience is there, it does!
 What’s your % of [not provided] keywords?
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

12. SPYW (Search Plus Your World) - Personalized
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

13. Google+ in SERPs - Personalized
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

14. Google+ in SERPs – Non-Personalized
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

15. Does Google+ Matter?
Google+ is a portent of
what’s coming. It’s the
future of everything
Google is planning to do.
Adam Audette, Rimm-Kaufman Group
SMX West 2013
Leveraging Google+ Social Interactions For Radical Organic SERP Impact:
Insight From #SMX:
http://www.aimclearblog.com/2013/03/12/getting-ahead-with-google/
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

16. How Does YOUR Content Get There?
Make a good 1st impression!
@YoYoSEO http://www.flickr.com/photos/geckoam/4951244309/ @lookadoo

17. Formatting Your Content
With & Without Optimization
Anatomy of a Share Snippet
The Code Behind the Scenes
Pro Tips & Caveats
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

18. Lack of Site Optimization
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

19. Nix the Bit.ly on Google+ & Facebook
@YoYoSEO https://plus.google.com/109108273123284204690/posts/Fb4CT2nPFTc @lookadoo

20. Anatomy of a Share Snippet
 When you share a post on Facebook or Google+ (LinkedIn as
well), a snippet is generated from code in the page (B-E
below).
A
B E
C
A. Share Blurb
B. Title
D
C. Description
D. Image
E. URL (Title link)
@YoYoSEO http://www.chromeweblab.com/ @lookadoo

21. Take Control with Microdata
 Facebook Open Graph protocol and
Schema.org specify what to display for the
snippet elements.
 http://ogp.me/
 http://schema.org/
 Open Graph Tags that control the share snippet:
OG:Title OG (Open Graph)
OG:Description tags go in the <head>
OG:Image of each page.
OG:Type
OG:URL
 PRO TIP:
You don’t have to create two sets of tags!
Open Graph works for both Google and Facebook
for optimizing your snippets!
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

22. Structured Social Sharing Formula
@YoYoSEO http://www.seomoz.org/blog/rock-your-seo-with-structured-social-sharing- @lookadoo
mozcon-presentation

23. Snippet Title
<meta property="og:title" content="Web Lab" />
134 characters,
possibly more?
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

24. Snippet Description
<meta property="og:description" content="Web Lab. A
series of interactive Chrome Experiments made by Google.
See the magic of the web brought to life. Open to the world
online. Live from the Science Museum, London. Enter the
Lab." />
<=188 char.
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

25. Image Thumbnail
<meta itemprop="image" content="http://weblab-
live.appspot.com/files/images/sharing/web-lab-share-
plus.jpg">
Best: 200x200
Min.: 120px
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

26. Content/Object Type
<meta property="og:type" content="website" />
og:type values
article
profile
book
video.movie
music.song
http://ogp.me/#types
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

27. Canonical URL
<meta property="og:url"
content="http://www.chromeweblab.com"/>
Permalink
of the
post/article
Canonical URL shouldn’t contain any variables.
It should be the version of the URL that is to display,
the URL you want to rank.
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

28. http://www.seocopywriting.com/content-marketing/content-6-favorites/
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

29. red = OG attributes referenced in presentation
OG Code via Yoast WordPress SEO plug-in
<meta property='og:locale' content='en_US'/>
<meta property='og:title' content='All about content: 6 of our all-time favorites'/>
<meta property='og:description' content='From content creation to quality to marketing to strategy, 6 of our
all-time favorite guest posts around content are featured.'/>
<meta property='og:url' content='http://www.seocopywriting.com/content-marketing/content-6-favorites/'/>
<meta property='og:site_name' content='SEO Copywriting'/>
<meta property='og:type' content='article'/>
<meta property='og:image' content='http://www.seocopywriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/
All-time-Favorite-Content-Guest-Posts031913.jpg'/>
<meta property='og:image' content='http://www.seocopywriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/
Joe-Pulizzi1.jpg'/>
<meta property='og:image' content='http://www.seocopywriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/
George-Passwater-200x167.jpg'/>
<meta property='og:image' content='http://www.seocopywriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/
Angie-Nikoleychuk-200x163.jpg'/>
<meta property='og:image' content='http://www.seocopywriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/
Ian-Lurie2.jpg'/>
<meta property='og:image' content='http://www.seocopywriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/
Marjorie-Steele.jpg'/>
<meta property='og:image' content='http://www.seocopywriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/
Derek-Cromwell1.jpg'/>
@YoYoSEO http://www.seocopywriting.com/content-marketing/content-6-favorites/ @lookadoo

30. Looking Good with Multiple Images in G+
og:title linked to og:url
og:image og:image
og:description
og:image
og:image og:image og:image og:image
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

31. Default Images without OG Directives in G+
NOT og:image
NOT og:image
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

32. Facebook May Ignore OG Directives
Facebook will
show up to 10
thumbnail
choices but
prefers
images with
larger
dimensions.
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

33. Tracking for Analytics
http://www.chromeweblab.com?utm_source=google+
&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=chrome
URL Source
Medium
Campaign
URL + UTM Variables = Social Referral
Data
Google UTM Variables & Custom Campaigns:
http://support.google.com/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1033863
URL Builder:
http://support.google.com/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1033867&
topic=1032998&ctx=topic
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

34. Your Share Content
“Share what’s new” (FB) or “What’s on your mind?” (G+):
Can't wait to experience this in 3 weeks!
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

35. Your Share Blurb = <Title> Tag
 PRO TIP:
Front load keywords!
 A widely shared post with a quality title (share blurb) has a good
chance of ranking for its given keywords!
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

36. Widely Shared Posts - Rank Multiple Times?
https://plus.google.com/u/0/109412257237874861202/posts/QvXntymQAYX
https://plus.google.com/+MattCutts/posts/QvXntymQAYX
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

37. Breaking Down a Google+ Post Meta Tags
<title>Matt Cutts - Google+ - Google Play is celebrating
its birthday with a whole week…</title>
<meta name="Description" content="Google Play is
celebrating its birthday with a whole week of free and
discounted downloads.">
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

38. Google+ Posts in SERPs - Caveats
 Actual <title> tag includes “Name - Google+ - ”
prior to the words at the front of your share blurb.
 Google “reserves the right” to modify the Title
tag.
 Titles vary depending upon the search query.
 Your “share blurb” may also be repeated in the SERP
meta description if there is nothing else.
@YoYoSEO https://plus.google.com/+MattCutts/posts/QvXntymQAY @lookadoo
X

39. Optimize Google+ Status Updates
 PRO TIP:
Google+ can be used
as a place to curate
content and get more
interactions –
engagement and
discussion.
If engagement is your
goal (& it should be),
share a summary – a
few short paragraphs
with your thoughts on
the subject.
@YoYoSEO https://plus.google.com/u/0/115106448444522478339/posts @lookadoo

40. “17 Of The Most Viral
Quality Images Go Viral Facebook Photos In History”
@YoYoSEO http://www.businessinsider.com/the-20-most-popular-photos-2012-12 @lookadoo

41. Hashtags – Google+
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

42. Hashtags – Facebook
“Facebook is testing whether to follow
Twitter's lead and allow users to click
on a hashtag to pull up all posts about
similar topics or events so it can
quickly index conversations around
trending topics and build those
conversations up, giving users more
reason to stay logged in and see more
ads.”
Wall Street Journal
March 14, 2013
Until
then…
@YoYoSEO http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323393304578360651345373308.html @lookadoo

43. Hashtags – Twitter
DO NOT
OVERUSE
#
http://tagdef.com/
http://hashtags.org/
http://twubs.com/
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

44. Optimize Tweets for Twitter
1. Create bit.ly or custom short URL.
Steps
Append UTM tracking tag to end of URL
for tracking in analytics (step 6) prior to creating bit.ly.
2. Choose a single #hashtag, if any.
(2 hashtags at most)
3. Create “retweetable” tweet that won’t
be cut off if retweeted.
Size Max Characters = 140 – 5 – (LEN)@YourProfile
Latest Greatest SEO Copywriting Post Title:
Format
bit.ly.Lmt3Xlu by @YourProfile #hashtag
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

45. Resources & Inspiration
Social Sharing Worksheet
WordPress SEO Plug-in
Sources for Viral Ideas
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

46. Worksheet
Structured Social Sharing Worksheet:
http://yseo.us/sssfw
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

47. OG Tags via WordPress SEO Plug-In
 WordPress SEO plug-in by Yoast (Joost de Valk):
http://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

48. Look at What’s HOT!
@YoYoSEO http://www.buzzfeed.com/ @lookadoo

49. Look at What’s Trending
@YoYoSEO http://whatstrending.com/ @lookadoo

50. Look at What’s Trending in Real Time
@YoYoSEO http://mashable.com/ @lookadoo

51. The Result of Mastering Social Optimization…
@YoYoSEO @lookadoo

52. Dana Lookadoo
 President, SEO Consultant & Trainer
Yo! Yo! SEO
Agency focus is Word-of-Mouth SEO,
helping clients optimize their
online conversation.
dana@yoyoseo.com . YoYoSEO.com
@lookadoo . @YoYoSEO