Damas - Advertising Super Forum

Earned Media and SEO

CORE CONCEPTS BEHIND SEARCH ENGINE VISIBILITY

FindabilityRelevancyCredibility

Credibility• Search traffic is ultimately “earned” by the successes of the

whole package (products, services, branding, messaging, etc.)• We need to push our clients to do things that deserve this

treatment• Search engines use the quantity and quality of external links

pointing to a site as the main sign of “credibility”• Sites with many good links performed better in search engines• Now social signals such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google+

also matter

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Building “credibility” is a goal of work we do for our clients

How Has It Always Worked: Like CurrencyA really good website: “earns” $3,000

Links

Other Website: Now has $1,000

Other Website: Now has $1,000

Other Website: Now has $1,000

Webmasters are all Librarians• If You Have a Website, and• If People Link to YOUR Website, then• You have power to sculpt Google search results

• This blog post is not only directly endorsing/showcasing Cory Buckner Architects, it’s also passing link value (“currency”) to the Cory Buckner website, increasing their visibility on thousands of search queries.

• Other sites endorsed in the sidebar see similar benefit

• Increased lifetime traffic from search due to this blog post will be far greater than traffic from the post itself

We Want Our Clients’ Customers To Love Them

• Until Google’s recent Panda Update, Apple had a high ranking for “laptop” even though they refuse to use that terminology on the site

• Why? Because 36 million different websites link to them

• What if our clients’ brands aren’t as beloved?7

Cheating the System

Search Results Have Always Been Sculpted by User Endorsements

The 2011 Ecosystem

• Things are different• Data around sentiment is being trapped in

new ways• Only a small number of people have blogs or

websites, but almost everybody has:

There’s a lot of content on the web• Why not have two ways of surfacing it?• This means everyone has different results• We need to encourage clients to target both types of journeys

Algorithmically

A somewhat scientific process picks the most relevant and trustworthy content

Socially

People you know or have chosen to follow on social networks are likely to surface things of interest to you

Facebook Like Button

• So far only impacting Bing• (They’re in a bit of a war with Google)

Google+

• +1 Buttons unveiled in March 2011• Google+ unveiled in June 2011• Impact is still unknown, but it is unquestionable that Google’s

move into social is to have greater access to social-based credibility signals to power their search algorithm

A Fundamental Shift• The linking ecosystem that has powered

search results for over a decade was based on the “open” web

• Initiatives such as Google+/+1 are a move towards a “closed” ecosystem without transparency

• The only real certainty is that customer loyalty will continue to translate even more into organic search engine traffic for our clients

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Other 2011 Developments

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What Does This All Mean?

• Sharers are Influencers• We need to work with our clients to create

websites, messaging, promotions, and experiences that are worth sharing

• Experiences That Educate, Surprise, or Innovate are shared more often

• Sites about weird/unusual topics, smaller/new brands and products are at an advantage

The 2011 Role of SEO

• Why does SEO still exist?• SEO is becoming even more central to your

branding and marketing• In-House or Agency-Side?

– The answer might be both: in-house to project manage and “evangelize,” agency-side for strategy and additional heavy-lifting

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Challenges

• You achieve progress outside of traditional marketing channels

• SEO change can be massive, but slow• Marketers are often uncomfortable with the

need to adjust messaging to suit users• Creatives can be unhappy that SEO

compromises their vision• The C-Suite doesn’t like the lack of control

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Ownership

• It takes a village– Agency-side: account managers, SEO strategists

(both senior and junior)– In-house:

• C-suite• Marketing• Content• Technology• Product

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Thank You

Jason Damas

Twitter: Labelscar

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/jasondamas