Leverage Social Media Signals to Boost SEO Rankings

Social Media for More Traffic &
Better SEO
How to leverage the channels of social media marketing
to earn direct traffic and higher search engine rankings

Social Media Strategy Summit
Amsterdam 19-21 May

Herwin Wevers
Director
Posicionarpaginaweb.org
Webboomm.com
May 2011

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

“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

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

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

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

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 data
1999 - 2002: PageRank + On-page
2002 - 2005: Anchor text + Domain
name + PageRank + On-Page
2005 - 2010: Domain authority +
Diversity of linking domains + Topic
modeling + Anchor text + Domain
Rand Fishkin, the Cofounder SEOMoz name + PageRank + On-Page
2010 - ….: Inclusion of Social Media
signals

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

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.

…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

…businesses point of view
• Channels are aligning with marketing objectives:
search for customer social as the brand and
acquisition and rapid communication channel
conversion and as a brand influencer

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

…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

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


How SM metrics correlate with higher
rankings in Google´s SERPS
Social Metrics are Well
Correlated with Higher Rankings
Shares Might Be More
Valuable than Likes
How to Earn Facebook
Shares?
Twitter May Be Less
Powerful

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

….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.

….with Twitter

UK

NL
SP

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

….with Twitter
Google and Twitter Integration

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

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

Combined result: The
website result, links linking
to your friend's profile and
a time stamp that redirects
to the original
recommendation
Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2064902/The-Social-Evolution-of-Search-Engine-Result-Pages

….with Twitter
Getting Tweeted to Rank

Page A Page B
646 links from 36 root domains 1 link from 1 root domain
2 tweets 522 tweets

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

….with Twitter
Getting Tweeted to Rank
Page B – the
tweeted version –
ranks #1!
Page A Page B
646 links from 36 root domains 1 link from 1 root domain
2 tweets 522 tweets

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

….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

….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.

….with FACEBOOK

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

….with FACEBOOK
• Bings integration with Facebook
Classic result: Bing´s organic
result for a keyword search
pointing to a website.

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

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

….with FACEBOOK
• 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

….with FACEBOOK
• 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


….with FACEBOOK
• 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


….with FACEBOOK
• Link juice from FB Page Wall:
1. “Likes” are do-follow
2. Page name should contain your main keyword
3. 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 8 3.
1. Page name 2. PR 0
3.

….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

….syndicate to content sharing´s sites

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

….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 Wevers
herwin@posicionarpaginaweb.org
Seo_barcelona
/in/webboomm
/webboomm

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 Followers
2. Increase Facebook Fans
3. 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 site
3. Social media integration –blog posts as a talking point for all social
interactions
4. Blog integration and marketing – Interact with other relevant blogs

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

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.

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


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.


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