The document discusses how social media and search engine optimization (SEO) intersect. It notes that getting links from social media sites like Digg can provide hundreds of backlinks. It also shows data on leading UK news sites' social media followings and traffic from social platforms. The document advocates building a social media culture among readers to attract them from these sites and create a snowball effect for more traffic. It provides tips for SEO like using short, shareable URLs and being first to publish on breaking news to get a boost from Google.

1. Where social media meets SEO
Where Social Media Meets SEO
Patrick Altoft
Director of Search at Branded3
www.blogstorm.co.uk
www.branded3.com
twitter.com/patrickaltoft

2. Where social media meets SEO
Search engine optimisation
• Getting as many visitors from Google as possible

3. Where social media meets SEO
Search engine optimisation
• Getting as many visitors from Google as possible

4. Where social media meets SEO
Who has the most links?
Title ABCe Links
Telegraph 27,708,274 7,162,873
Guardian 26,238,539 15,746,185
Mail Online 23,768,358 7,872,097
Times Online 21,614,273 7,696,714
The Sun 21,248,552 2,140,491
Independent 10,034,148 4,967,593
Mirror Group 7,138,013 1,242,733
16,000,000
14,000,000
12,000,000
10,000,000
8,000,000
6,000,000
4,000,000
2,000,000
0
0 5,000,000 10,000,000 15,000,000 20,000,000 25,000,000 30,000,000

5. Where social media meets SEO
Social sites = links
• Getting on Digg gives an average of 300 links

6. Where social media meets SEO

7. Where social media meets SEO
Creators
• Make content that appeals to the right people

8. Where social media meets SEO
Creators

9. Where social media meets SEO
Participation is rising
Data from Forrester Research Technographics surveys, 2008. For further details on the Social Technographics profile, see
groundswell.forrester.com

10. Where social media meets SEO
UK lags behind the US
Data from Forrester Research Technographics surveys, 2008. For further details on the Social Technographics profile, see
groundswell.forrester.com

11. Where social media meets SEO
Young people are more active
Data from Forrester Research Technographics surveys, 2008. For further details on the Social Technographics profile, see
groundswell.forrester.com

12. Where social media meets SEO
Social media is male dominated
Data from Forrester Research Technographics surveys, 2008. For further details on the Social Technographics profile, see
groundswell.forrester.com

13. Where social media meets SEO
The gender gap is wider in the UK than the US
Data from Forrester Research Technographics surveys, 2008. For further details on the Social Technographics profile, see
groundswell.forrester.com

14. Where social media meets SEO
• 27,708,274 unique users in March 2009 (ABCe)
• 8% of traffic from social sites (2.2m per month or 75k per day)
• 30% of traffic from search (8.3m per month or 277k per day)

15. Where social media meets SEO
• Build a social media culture amongst your readers
• Attract readers from social sites
• Snowball effect

16. Where social media meets SEO
What about Twitter?

17. Where social media meets SEO
@cnnbrk 1,427,971 followers 28,559 visitors per tweet
@nytimes 833,374 followers 16,667 visitors per tweet
@time 549,980 followers 11,000 visitors per tweet
@bbcclick 574,377 followers 11,488 visitors per tweet
@guardiantech 515,181 followers 10,304 visitors per tweet
Based on an average CTR of 2%

18. Where social media meets SEO

19. Where social media meets SEO
How to win at SEO

20. Where social media meets SEO

21. Where social media meets SEO
URL Structure
• Long URLs break in emails
• Long URLs can’t easily be sent via Twitter
• Long URLs get less clicks in the search results
http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2009/05/11/katie-price-and-peter-andre-announce-they-have-split-up-115875-21350342/
http://www.mirror.co.uk/katie-price-peter-andre-to-split/

22. Where social media meets SEO
Query Deserves Freshness
• For breaking news Google gives brand new stories a boost
• Whoever publishes first gets the advantage – ping Google

23. Where social media meets SEO
Trend Watching
• Pick hot topics & write about them

24. Where social media meets SEO
Content publication strategy
• Integrate SEO & social media into your content strategy
Research Create
Promote Optimise

25. Where social media meets SEO
Build a promotion network
• An automated method of promoting content
• RSS
• Twitter
• Email subscriptions
• Google News
• First 30 minutes is critical

26. Where social media meets SEO
Questions