Search, Social, So What? Presentation at Conductor's RoadtoC3 by Grant Simmons VP Search Marketing @ Homes.com - April 2015

Search. Social. So What?“Why can’t we all just get along?”

Grant SimmonsVP of Search Marketing, Homes.com

@simmonet

Grant SimmonsVP of Search Marketing, Homes.com

@simmonet

•  Established 1993 •  4th Largest Real Estate

portal in US •  20+M Visitors a Month

@simmonet

#RoadtoC3

#RoadtoC3

Social Experiment#RoadtoC3

Instructions:•  Get your mobile device out •  Take a photo •  Post it on your preferred social channel •  Tag #RoadtoC3

Ready??

@simmonet

#DESum15 #RoadtoC3

Me

Not me

What can’t we all just get along?Search. Social. And Silos.

@simmonet

3 Things to Learn

1.  Search & Social need to work together

2.  There are lots of signals to the algorithm

3.  Everything is content AWESOME content!

Introductions#RoadtoC3

@simmonet

Meet Sally Search•  Search geek •  LOVES Star Trek TOS •  Reads Moz Blog •  Has poster of Rand on

her wall •  Never missed episode of

Game of Thrones. EVER.

Meet Sam Social•  Social butterfly! •  English major •  Tweets his meals •  Loves Starbucks •  Takes pictures of

misspelled names on cups, and posts them to Instagram

Sally and Sam work in silos

@simmonet

But they’re much happier together

@simmonet

Why?

Sam Read A Book…“Social signals are correlated to rankings, so *my* social efforts are causing us to rank better.”

“In fact the search team should be buying my lunch and daily triple, venti, soy, no foam latte.”

@simmonet Umm No. Google says…

…we don't currently have any signals like that in our web search ranking algorithms.

~ Matt Cutts, Google

But… Social Can Help SEO•  Research / Testing •  Discovery / Visibility •  Branding / Authority •  Content

Social + SearchResearch & Testing

@simmonet

Social Keywords / ResearchData mine conversations: •  Queries •  Industry terms •  Natural language •  Synonyms •  Semantically-related

@simmonet

Research Tools•  Semantic<>Link •  Omgili •  Topsy •  Keywordtool.io •  Buzzsumo

@simmonet

Social Testing for Search•  Headlines •  Images •  Engagement

Did it ‘click’?

Social TestingThere is a fine balance between click bait and search optimized titles. Social gives ideas & Social let’s you test.

Fun [Social] Fact

What % of online adults use social networking sites?

Fun [Social] Fact

And… YouTube now reaches more U.S. adults aged 18-34 than any cable network.

~ Moz

72%

Social + SearchDiscoverability / Visibility

@simmonet

Discovery / VisibilityTwitter Firehose = Visibility in Google

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Discovery / Visibility

Google+ is still relevant as an ID & connector •  Posts are indexed •  Visible to circles •  Signal to Google to look

Martin Shervington http://www.agorapulse.com/blog/google-plus-social-seo

@simmonet

Discovery / Visibility“If people are loving you, if you’re getting all kinds of social support from people and they love you, you know what, that’s a signal to us that maybe we should be ranking you higher.”

~ Duane Forrester, Bing

@simmonet

your site

Social + SearchBranding / Authority

@simmonet

Social for Branding for SearchGoogle Loves Brands! •  Social signals can

help identify entities as brands.

•  Big data: •  Search volume / clicks •  Session relationships •  Virility •  Engagement

Brand BoostBrands tend to rank higher in organic search or get away with more issues, errors & ‘games’ “Brands are the exception

to many rules” ~ Marcus Tober Rank Correlation Study

@simmonet

But Not Always…

Oops

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Social vs. Display AdvertisingDo social impressions have value?

Yes!

Social vs. Display AdvertisingIf you pay for branding campaigns… … 19c CPM isn’t too bad J

Fun [Paid] Fact

What is the average advertising CPM in the Home & Architecture sector?

@simmonet

Fun [Paid] Fact

$3.68 That was the average cost of a gallon of gas on June 30th 2014

@simmonet

Social + SearchContent

@simmonet

Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing

Content Is King

@simmonet

Content Is EVERYTHING!

@simmonet

Authority Content

Social Content

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Social Content

•  Click / link bait •  Timely •  User inspired •  User inspiring •  User Generated •  “Fluff” •  Shareable •  Multi-media

@simmonet

Authority Content

•  Evergreen •  Informational •  Topic-focused •  Query-driven •  Optimized •  On crawl path •  Shareable

@simmonet

Authority Content is Not as Cool

Social for Traffic

Facebook is estimated at 1.8 to 3.6 billion referrals

Per Day!

@simmonet

Fun [Social] Fact

If you stacked 3.6 billion one dollar bills, how high would it reach?

Fun [Social] Fact

Approximately 200 miles high

8x

Content in Search & Social“We should be thinking about social and search with… a unified approach, because the best content should appeal to both channels and the cross-over benefits / economies of scale are potentially huge.”

~ Will Critchlow

There’s More…Social Links •  Most nofollowed BUT they have

value… and they potentially drive traffic… and are links!

Engagement •  Bing & Google both look at

engagement signals to understand search click satisfaction!

So…

@simmonet

Social Does Help SEO•  Research / Testing •  Discovery / Visibility •  Branding / Authority •  Content for:

•  Traffic •  Links •  Engagement Signals

As Search Marketers…

Do we like social media for what it can do for search?

like

3 Things Learned

1.  Search & Social need to work together

3 Things Learned

1.  Search & Social need to work together

2.  Social affects search visibility & traffic

3 Things Learned

1.  Search & Social need to work together

2.  Social affects search visibility & traffic

3.  AWESOME content is the bridge of social / search

3 Things Learned

1.  Search & Social need to work together

2.  Social affects search visibility & traffic

3.  AWESOME content is the bridge of social / search

Search. Social. So What?

Thank you!

Questions?

Grant SimmonsVP of Search Marketing, Homes.com

@simmonet

Grant SimmonsVP of Search Marketing, Homes.com

@simmonet