Social Media And Seo

24 February 2009

Social Mediaand SEO

Social Media & SEO

What Is Social Media?

• Social media are primarily Internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings.

-Wikipedia (so it must be true)

Social Media Categories:

News Sharing Networking Bookmarking

Social Media & SEO

How do I use social media for SEO benefit?

• Should I use 3rd party social media sites?

• Should we build our own social media community?

SEO & Social Media

3rd Party Social Media Sites…

SEO & 3rd Party Social Media Sites

3rd Party Social Media site stats:• Youtube has 258 Million Users – at least 50% of them log in

weekly.• Facebook has over 100 Million Users – at least 50% of them

log in DAILY!• Five of the top 10 fastest-growing Web brands are user-

generated content sites.• Forty-five percent of adult Internet users have created

content online.

Source: Ron Jones, “Social Media Marketing 101”

Search Engine Watch.

SEO Benefits of 3rd Party Social Media sites:

Benefit #1: Link-Building

• News & Bookmarking Sites (digg, reddit, delicio.us, etc): – These are typically direct links to your site from domains

with strong page rank.– These links usually pass search engine value on to your

site.

SEO Benefits of 3rd Party Social Media sites:

Benefit #1: Link-Building

• Sharing Sites: (youtube, flickr): – Each item submitted to these sites can have a link in the

description field.– Most of these also let users link out to their own sites

from their profile pages.– Often these links are “nofollow,” meaning they pass little

to no search engine value.

SEO Benefits of 3rd Party Social Media sites:

Benefit #1: Link-Building

• Networking Sites (facebook, myspace, twitter): – Most social networking sites allow you to place a link to

your website(s) from you profile page• One link from one social media page won’t make

much impact.• A link or few from each of your employees can add

up.– Often these links are also “nofollow.”

SEO Benefits of 3rd Party Social Media sites:

Benefit #1: Link-Building

• Which sites do pass search engine value through their links?Here are a few:

1. Digg2. Propeller3. Flickr4. Kirtsy5. LinkedIn6. Current7. PostonFire8. BloggingZoom9. CoRank10. Technorati

Source: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/social-bookmarking-sites-which-dont-use-nofollow-bookmarks-and-search-engines/5985/

.

SEO Benefits of 3rd Party Social Media sites:

Benefit #2:

3rd Party Social Media Pages can sometimes rank where your website cannot.

Optimizing Social Media for Popular or Competitive Terms

SEO Benefits of 3rd Party Social Media sites:

How do you do that?• Use targeted keywords when building titles, and

submissions for these sites.

– Good: “Permanent Life Insurance vs Term Life Insurance”

– Bad: “You should really read this interesting article”

• Participate in these communities beyond shameless self promotion (don’t be a social spammer).

• Ask your friends, family, neighbors, cousins, neighbor’s cousins for diggs (or at least everyone in your office).

SEO & Social Media

Branded Social Media Sites…

SEO & Social Media

SEO Benefits of having your own Social Media Network

• User Generated Content gives you large volume of content.– More content = more chances to show up in search

engines.– The content is free.

• Active users are likely to link back to their profiles.• More control over links, navigation, funneling people back to

your main site.

Building a “branded” social media site:

Nike+Online community for runners

that allows users to connect with other runners in their area, share stats, running maps, etc.

• SEO Stats:– 3,152 Pages indexed.– 29,985 inbound links

• Each page on Nike+ links to nike.com, and the store locator.

Building a “branded” social media site:

Should you build a branded social media site?

• What is my goal?– Community– Education & Information– Feedback– Search Engine Rankings

• Would my customers gain value out of this site?• Do I have an audience large enough to justify the

investment?

Building a “branded” social media site:

I really want my own branded social network, but I can’t afford it…

Building a “branded” social media site:

There are some great cost-effective Alternatives to building full-fledged “networks” for your brand:

• User Forums allow your users to share insights about your products, tips, advice etc.– Great compliment to tech-support (or sometimes a

plausible replacement for tech support).– Forum posts often rank well on long-tail keywords

• i.e. “how do I sync my calendar with my Samsung instinct?”

– Typically low cost of entry, minimal tech resources to maintain.

Building a “branded” social media site:

Alternatives to building full-fledged “networks” for your brand:

Ning.com• An “out of the box” social network with user profiles, photos,

“friends.”– Organize events, discussion boards, etc.– Entry level is free, premium services are very

inexpensive.– Ning pages do pass search engine value through links.

John Grudnowski’s Favorite Ning:

Social Media & SEO

• Please share examples of brands using social media!– Who is doing it right?– Who is doing/has done it wrong?

Questions? Comments?