This talk is aimed at those who are already confident and competent at producing good quality content; or who have a product or service they are promoting online. The focus of this talk is to look at marketing tactics that dovetail SEO and content marketing practise to drive results.
Indexed Web Optimising Pages
What Gets Shared
Discovery Mechanics
@NicholaStott theMediaFlow
Classification Systems
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To understand the indexed web; the quirks, characteristics and how best to generate ‘signal’, we need to understand what it is that is so different and unique about it. If we underpin our knowledge of how the web is structured and navigated, then this helps us to know ‘why’ we market the way we do. It all starts with a consideration of data classification systems.
Linnaen Taxonomy
Chordata
Vertebrata
Mammalia
Primates
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Data classification systems are already very familiar to us, for example the Linnaen taxonomy of the animal kingdom.
Dewey Decimal
000-900
subdivisions
A-Z
Class
Table
“Relativ index”
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Or the Dewey Decimal system for library information systems…
Hierarchical and Familial
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However almost all data classification systems that are familiar to us follow hierarchical patterns. Like a family tree – a folder has sub-folders, which has sub-folders. As humans regardless of the labels attached to the classification, the structure is always hierarchical and familial.
“Linked data is the semantic web done right”
–
Tim Berners-Lee
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The web however; is a hot mess. The very nature of the hypertext link, which can connect any document or data item on the web, to any other document or data item circumvents the hierarchical structure with which we are familiar. We no longer have to navigate order to go from A to Z. Much like the concept of a wormhole trough space and time a link scythes through a site structure, or a server location, or an indexed page to the dark web.
@NicholaStott theMediaFlow
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To navigate this ‘hot mess’ of a structure we are almost entirely reliant on search engines, particularly Google and it’s peers with their algorithmic foundations in link based calculations, and links as the ‘mode of transport’. When we understand this structure it helps us to understand how search robots (crawlers, spiders, user agents) move, access our content, process, store and recall it (when requested by the search user).
Indexed Web Optimising Pages
What Gets Shared
Discovery Mechanics
@NicholaStott theMediaFlow
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To optimise our pages therefore, we can increase our chances by increasing the ‘transport routes’ to our page, i.e. the links pointing to it.
Neat and Tidy Site IA
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Having a well structured website can help both visitors (humans) and crawlers (robots) discover and navigate our content. However outside of our own site structure which we may ultimately control, there are a number of other places where we can contribute our knowledge and specialism. First, however we will look at what we can easily control and optimise, which is the data about the page itself.
Keywords & Mark-up
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Adwords keyword planner is one of the most useful tools for understanding the most appropriate keywords to target when optimising my content.
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For example if I was planning to open a cupcake stall and I wanted to begin with social media and content marketing for my site and brand, then this tool is a great place to start for content ideas. In this example I’ve input “cupcakes” and discovered useful data on more specific searches including monthly search volume.
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I can drill down into this for example “red velvet cupcakes” and see that February is a popular month for this search. Presumably related to valentines day.
Know Your SERP
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Once I’ve identified a topic or theme for my content piece, it’s then a good idea to get an understanding of what a results page for that query will look like. I.e. Who are my competition?
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Newsy queries will generate a very different style of results page, with greater emphasis on recency of results
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Celebrity queries are more image driven including social media results and knowledge graph stats.
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Food query SERPs are very much recipe driven; highly image based and also contain a lot of rich snippets.
• Title tag • URL • Meta description (emphasis by Google) • Image
Results Snippet
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Most search results snippets (i.e. the data that is displayed to help the user evaluate the suitability of the result to meet their needs) are composed of a title, description and URL. On occasion any inage on the page may show in a thumbnail as per this example. Notice that the keyword appears in bold where it is found in the URL and description.
Rich Snippet
• TDUI PLUS… • Star ratings • Cooking time • Calories
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In addition – using semantic mark-up we can improve our snippet so that we have additional informative and eye catching information; which is called a Rich Snipppet. In this case we have a rating, cooking time and calories.
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Most cases the title that appears in your snippet, is generated by the title tag. Most sites and CMS will allow you to edit and control these data elements.
Title Tag
• Front load (the keyword) • Limited to 512 pixels • Around 55 characters • Avoid weird symbols • Brand name at the end • Drop brand name for long keywords • Use Yoast SEO Plugin for Wordpress
URL
• Only the keyword • No noise words • Brief • Use hyphen to separate/avoid weird
symbols
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Most cases the description that appears in your snippet, is generated by the meta description tag. Most sites and CMS will allow you to edit and control these data elements too.
Description
• Incorporate (the keyword) • Entice the reader • Write naturally, but snappy (ad copy) • Around 155 characters • Not a ranking factor • Impacts CTR
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Just cake. Because… cake.
Image Optimisation
• Descriptive filename (use KW) • Optimise the image title • Alt text (assistive technologies)
Semantic Data
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Semantic data mark-up helps robots understand the data entity and properties that may be attached to it. Semantic mark-up helps explain meaning. For example if I say meet at 10:00,… you understand that 10:00 is a value that represents an appointed meeting time. A robot may see a series of symbols. Using mark-up we can explain the meaning of the data.
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If we think of rating systems, as intelligent humans we understand that talk of stars does not always apply to sci-fi or astronomy. This is a commonly used convention to rate product and media.
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There’s all kind of markup we can use to describe food, video, people and products which may all generate a richer search result.
Semantic Mark-up
• RDFa, Microformats • Schema (protocol and convention) • Schema.org • Data highlighter tool (Google only) • Search “Google data highlighter”
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Examples here using recipe schema and music schema
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In this example we can see product ratings and also a time, which is driven by Recipe Schema
Recipe Schema
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The class values cookTime, prepTime and totalTime describe the stages of making this dish, with the totalTime value 40M appearing in our snippet.
Indexed Web Optimising Pages
What Gets Shared
Discovery Mechanics
@NicholaStott theMediaFlow
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Now that we know how to optimise a page, let’s look at finding an angle to make our content shareworthy.
1.Social Currency 2.Triggers 3.Emotion 4.Public 5.Practical Value 6.Stories
@NicholaStott theMediaFlow
Resonate
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To distil the common features of the most shareworthy content, concepts and campaigns we find that content has to resonate. Not everything has to resonate with everybody as the most important aspect of this is audience specific. Finding the right audience and community for your content immediately increases your chances of hitting the spot with your message.
Indexed Web Optimising Pages
What Gets Shared
Discovery Mechanics
@NicholaStott theMediaFlow
Finding & Sharing
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For every topic, niche, passion and interest there is a forum somewhere to discuss it.
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Or social media communities who talk about and share content about it.
Advanced Query Operators
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Using advanced search operators we can narrow down the most suitable forum and social media site(s) for us to engage and participate in order to grow our own communities, expand our knowledge and promote our content.
site:
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Using the site operator I can limit my results to one site.
“search term”
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By adding quotation marks around my keyword I can request only results with the exact phrase in the exact order.
- And +
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I can also add filter criteria. For example red velvet is pretty much a chocolate and vanilla sponge, but with red food colouring. A lot of discussion around this type of cake centres around a lot of disappointment and surprise about that. Therefore if I want to find content about red velvet cupcakes, which is not just a discussion on the surprise ingredient, then I can add –chocolate.
Combo
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However, combining my query operators allows me to refine a very specific set of results.
• Content ideas • Places to engage • Questions to
answer
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Becoming familiar with this method of advanced web searching can help me generate content ideas, find an angle for my recipe and most importantly find some places for me to engage and help others by answering their genuine questions. In this case I could join Mumsnet and offer my extpertise as a cupcake maker and share my tips on perfect bitter icing!
Twitter
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I can even apply my search techniques to help on social media websites.
Instagram
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Twitter also allows for the use of advanced query operators within its’ search facility. Here I’ve used a query which would help me immediately determine a list of relevant people to follow and engage with.
Sharing
Tips Before Sharing
• Observe • Interact • Be useful • Use hashtags • Be consistent • Measure
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In the same way you wouldn’t walk into a party and broadcast to everyone about how awesome you are, you cannot expect to get anything out of social media until you put something in first.
