Search & Social 101

SEARCH & SOCIAL 101  AUGUST 2011 

Deﬁning SEM  Search Engine Marketing (SEM) typically refers to pay-per-click search advertisements ran through Google AdWords or Microsoft AdCenter. In reality, SEM involves all acts associated with researching, submitting and positioning a website in search engine results, including SEO. Source: www.orbitalmarketing.ca/services.html2

Paid Search Engine Results on Google  Paid Search ResultsPaid Search Results3

Where Can You AdverGse With Paid Search?  The Google Network – 70% Share of the Search Market Keyword Targeting Contextual Targeting Image Sources: www.netbooster-agency.co.uk/4 www.quinncom.net/

Where Can You AdverGse With Paid Search?  Bing & Yahoo! – 30% Share of the Search Market Partners Search Search and Contextual Targeting5

Why Run a Paid Search Campaign?  YOU CAN EFFECTIVELY…  •  Increase Website Traﬃc  •  Build Brand Awareness  •  Drive & Track E‐Commerce Sales  •  Promote a Facebook Page  •  Market a Mobile App  •  Promote  a YouTube Channel or Video  •  Manage Brand ReputaHon & Crisis SituaHons  •  And More!  REACH SEARCH USERS THROUGH TEXT, IMAGE, VIDEO, RICH MEDIA OR MOBILE ADS 6

So That’s SEM…What’s SEO?  Search Engine Optimization (SEO): The process of improving the quality and volume of traffic to a website by employing a series of proven techniques to help the website achieve a higher “organic” ranking with major search engines.7

Organic Search Results on Google Organic Search Results8

Why Is SEO Important?  •  A recent study on search behavior showed:    94% of users tested clicked on a  ﬁrst page search result. *    Only 6% of users clicked to the  second page of search results. *    The #1 ranking result garnered  around 33% of the total clicks. *  •  A separate study showed that 39% of search  users link search ranking to company  prominence. **  •  So, ranking highly in search results has become  very important for both site traﬃc and brand  reputaHon!  Sources: * - Chitika, Inc.9 ** - JupiterResearch

What Determines Organic Search Ranking?  •  ≈200 signals are considered when Google ranks search  results. *  •  A few of the signals most heavily weighted:    Inbound Links (links to your web page)    Quality, QuanHty, Originality and Freshness of  Content     Content’s Relevancy to User’s Search Query  •  Social media is becoming more of a factor in search  ranking.  Sources: SearchEnglineLand.com10 DailyBlogTips.com

The IntegraGon of Search & Social  •  Two ways users find informaHon online:  Search & Social Networks  •  When ranking pages, search engines now count links shared on Twi_er, YouTube,  blogs, social bookmarking sites and public Facebook pages.  •  Search engines are also trying to take social authority into account.  •  Social engagement online is also important in relaHon to search:    Social media messaging containing keywords can influence search  volume around specific terms.    When the messaging spreads, users who search are then led to a page  you opHmized for those keywords.  Image Source: www.madcheapseo.com11

Sharability, Embeddability & SyndicaGon  •  Along with links, social acHons (i.e. “Likes”, retweets or + 1’s of a web page) are now  eﬀecHng search results.   •  To search engines: “Likes”, Retweets & Recommenda4ons = Popularity = Quality Content  •  So, it’s now very important to make it easy for users to share or recommend your  content.    Add bu_ons or widgets allowing for “Likes”, retweets, + 1’s and social  bookmarking.    Consider syndicaHng content to other sites through an RSS feed (can increase  links).    Provide an embed code for any videos posted, so others can repost to their  sites. 12

Sharability – Bing & Facebook  •  From search engine to recommendaHon  engine? Social’s now inﬂuencing where  searchers will click!  •  Pages “Liked” by Facebook friends are given  more weight on Bing and appear ﬁrst in search  results. 13

Sharability – Google +1  •  Similar eﬀect ‐ Google is now showing results  that have been frequently “+ 1’d” 14

Social Media OpGmizaGon (SMO)  •  Like normal web pages, social media properHes can also be opHmized…    Facebook – Including keywords in the URL, “about” box, “info” tab, photo &  video capHons, event descripHons, discussion forum and status messages.    Twi_er – Placing keywords in username, bios, pictures, tweets and  “favorited” tweets.    YouTube – InserHng keywords into video Htles, descripHons, tags, capHons,  transcripts and comments.  •  And don’t forget about engagement!    Facebook pages with more interacHon and YouTube videos with more  comments and raHngs will rank higher.  Image Source: www.optisourceblog.com15

Social Content OpGmizaGon (SCO)  •  Similar to SEO & SMO, but opHmizing all digital assets instead of just web text or  social media embassies.  •  SCO includes opHmizing:    Documents/PDFs    Images    Videos    Press Releases    Blogs    Recipes    And More!  •  SCO can involve simply tagging images with keywords or can be more complex  (e.g. Restructuring a recipe secHon so items appear in search with rich snippets).  •  See Edelman Digital’s SCO plan outlined in the following slide. 16

Content OpGmizaGon Plan 17

Structured Data  •  Consider structured data as a way to improve search visibility.  •  This is a way to markup language on the back‐end of your site to make it easier  for engines to recognize what your content’s about and provide high quality  results.  •  Structured data is rewarded and given higher priority in search results.  Recipe and Product rich snippets taken from Google. •  It has been very impacmul in improving organic search volume for companies  such as Best Buy.  •  Products, reviews and recipes can all be marked‐up to create richer search  results and increase organic traﬃc. 18

Video SEO  •  Videos now onen appear at the top of search results.  •  Get ahead of the game by opHmizing your videos.  •  Find keywords using the YouTube keyword tool.  •  Add the keywords to your scripts, video Htles, descripHons and tags, and upload  transcripts of the dialogue.  •  Engage on the site as you would any other network and encourage raHngs.  •  Link to other videos or websites in video descripHons.  •  Choose a great thumbnail image that will draw clicks. 19

SEO Meets TradiGonal Media  •  Try and opHmize press releases whenever possible.  •  Don’t use industry jargon!  •  Instead, ﬁnd high quality keywords and place them in the Htle and body of the  release  •  You can also bold keywords or strategically include them in link anchor text.  •  But don’t sacriﬁce its quality or readability!  •  Link back to your website or social media properHes in the release.  •  Drive people to search for the keywords your press release has been opHmized  for via social media. 20

SEO Tips: Making a Site Search Engine Friendly   •  Give search engines plenty of text to crawl and not just images.    FYI – Text embedded within images or logos can’t be  crawled!  •  Avoid a high adverHsement to content raHo.  •  Try to avoid using fancy features like Javascript and Flash that search  engines can have trouble crawling.  •  Make sure each page is linked to from at least one other page if you  want it indexed by search engines.   •  Don’t require users to login in order to access content. Search engines  can’t get past that login point, so they won’t see that content. 21

SEO Tips: Take Advantage of Your Digital Ecosystem  •  If you have a large number of websites and social media  embassies, then use them to your advantage!  •  More sites means more opportuniHes to build links to diﬀerent  brand pages.  •  When appropriate, you can also use all your diﬀerent social  properHes to spread the message about a product or event.  •  Take advantage of opportuniHes to increase visibility on social  networks.   (e.g. Company X has Facebook pages for brands A, B & C. Brand A  adds the pages of Brand B and C to its public list of favorites and  vice versa) 22

SEO Tips: Integrate SEO Eﬀorts With Paid Search  •  Neither a paid search nor an SEO approach is be_er than the other.  An integrated approach is best!  •  A past study done by Nielsen Research showed a 32% increase in click‐ through‐rate when a brand appeared highly in both paid and organic  results.  •  Paid search has many complimentary advantages:     It gives you an immediate presence in search results (in  case a new product launches or there’s a sudden PR crisis).    It lets you direct users to the page of your choice.    Data and key learnings can be taken from paid campaigns  and help you prioriHze where to focus your SEO.  Source: www.blizzardinternet.com23

Helpful Search Tools: Google Keyword Tool  Find keywords and search volume for brand-related queries www.adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal24

Helpful Search Tools: YouTube Keyword Tool  Find keywords for video SEO and ideas for new content https://ads.youtube.com/keyword_tool25

Helpful Search Tools: Open Site Explorer  Quickly see how many links you have to your site and who is linking to you www.opensiteexplorer.org26

SEO Checklist    Is your content indexable? (i.e. Is it in HTML format and is every page linked to?)    Is there plenty of text for search engines to crawl and figure out if your page is relevant?    Are keywords used in page Htles, URLs or in the first 250 words of each page’s content?    Are all possible linking opportuniHes being taken advantage of?    Do a www and non‐www version of your site both exist? (Check for duplicate content)    Are your assets (videos, images or press releases) opHmized for search and are they sharable?    Are you keeping search in mind when engaging on social networks? Are your embassies opHmized?    Can content be further defined through use of structured data?    Have you considered how paid search can help you achieve your business goals? 27

Glossary  Search Engine OpGmizaGon (SEO): The process of improving the quality and volume of traﬃc to a website by employing a series of proven techniques to help the website achieve  a higher “organic” ranking with major search engines.  Search Engine MarkeGng (SEM): Search engine opHmizaHon is just a part of search engine markeHng with involved all acts associated with researching, submitng and  posiHoning a website in search engine results. Typically SEM refers to paid, cost‐per‐click search adverHsements like Google AdWords ads.  Organic Search Results: The unpaid lisHngs in search engine results. Results are ranked according to a large combinaHon of relevancy factors including linkage data, original page  content, keyword usage and many more factors.  Crawling: When search engines search for pages to include in their index. When a search is performed, search engines then crawl indexed pages for relevant content and then  deliver search results.  Indexing: Aner search engines crawl your site, they will index or store your content so they can recall it at a later Hme and return it as a search result. Some things can keep your  content from being indexed such as a poor linking structure, non‐HTML text that is invisible to search engine or a require login that engines cannot surpass.  Keywords: A word or phrase which implies a certain mindset or demand that targeted prospects are likely to search for.   Inbound Links: Links coming into a website from other online sources (powerful in determining where a page ranks in search).  Social Authority: Search engines now take into account links coming to a site via social media. They also look at the user’s social authority which can include things like number of  followers or number of tweets.  Structured Data: Structuring your data in a speciﬁc way in order to be_er explain the objects on your site in more detail to search engines. Search engines have banded together  to create Schema.org, a site that provides language on how to markup your web content to meet their criteria and make it easier for them to provide high quality results. 28

http://www.edelmandigital.com	1538
http://nekid.fr	649
http://notrelienquotidien.com	358
http://www.anamatei.ro	99
http://paper.li	49
http://calebgardner.com	48
http://feeds.feedburner.com	42
http://www.twylah.com	9
http://www.curated.by	4
http://blendingthemix.tumblr.com	4
http://tweets.twylah.com	3
http://flavors.me	3
http://pigeindexer2	2
http://translate.googleusercontent.com	1

Search & Social 101

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