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The old tricks of SEO are dead, and with them go the content farms, the scraper pirates and other unsavory characters who trafficked in sub-par content. What's being rewarded today? High quality content, strong social editorial planning and fresh detail. Here's a quick guide to better understand the changes and what you and your team need to consider for your social editorial strategy.
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Online visibility: SEO in the social era
Where do you get your news from?
Search Engines?Search
Engines?
Social connections?
Social connections?
Aggregators/curators?
Aggregators/curators?
The answer? Probably from all three sources today though social continually drives more traffic.
Then took that journalism experience in-house to help companies and organisations more effectively tell their story through social media.
I began my career as a journalist in the early ‘90s…
A journalist’s view
SEO over the years…a journalist’s perspective
1997-981997-98 19991999 20002000 20012001
LinuxLinuxYahooYahoo
Amazon.comAmazon.com IPOIPODow
10,000Dow
10,000
Nasdaq 5,000
Nasdaq 5,000
Dot-com millionaires
Dot-com millionaires
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
Hillary ClintonHillary Clinton
George W. BushGeorge W. Bush
As Web journalists in the ‘90s, we learned to keep a close eyeon the traffic logs tp see what was trending
In the last decade, SEO became a game of “crack the code”
20022002 20052005 20082008 20112011
“SEO whores”
“SEO whores”
JC Penney controvers
y
JC Penney controvers
y“Content
farms”“Content
farms”
“Scraper pirates”“Scraper pirates”
For a brief period, the #winning editorial strategy was cut-and-paste journalism
Search engine optimisation (SEO): what is it?
Prompting the NYT to call it “a dirty little secret”
In Feb 2011, Google responds with new rules
The Panda Update means “new changes impact 11.8% of our queries”
Under the new “high quality” Google search rules, What’s out?
New Google search algorithm punishes:• Low quality sites• Cluttered with ads• Unhelpful. Info does NOT point reader to what he seeks• Detail is old• Detail is not original (copied from another source)• Link to irrelevant or defunct sites or vice versa• Cheaters… Google makes 500 changes to its algorithm per
year to weed out the cheats
Gaming the system doesn’t work anymore… What does work?
Search engines reward website content that is:• Topical• Current/Timely• Relevant (are there external links?)• Social (are you sharing?)• SEO-friendly headlines• Tagged• Original in-depth content, analysis and features (i.e.:
customers share experience)• Language: clear, “mother tongue” consistent
Prioritizing “timely”: the fresher the better
Caffeine web indexing system change as of Oct. 2011 “impacts roughly 35 percent of searches”
Caffeine values “freshness”
Google will give higher placing to pages that cover:
• “Hot” trending topics • Frequent updates (think sport scores)• Recurring Events• Recent Events
And what about on…
Facebook SEO: more visibility for your fanpage
o Don’t Conceal Your Brand Or Business Name in Title, URL
o Get Links From Multiple Sources (Links = Recommendations)
o Search engines index down to wall posts. Make them clear, relevant, timely.
o The more Likes, the more visible (particularly on Bing)
o If your content is gated off for members only, it will not be indexed
o Say it with pics, videos. More people respond to multimedia and search engines prefer this kind of content when indexing.
o Run your page well. Poorly run pages get overlooked.
And what about on…
The power of #hashtags
Taking a page from Twitter, Google’s Caffeine now prioritizes trending topics in search results.
The power of #hashtags
#Fukushima effect: to keep the public informed of breaking developments
#Genoa response tactic: enlist influential private citizens to help get out word pre- and post-event
#Berlusconi bombshell: tune in to trending hashtags and monitor what’s hot/what’s not
#Dutchmeanbusiness pre-emptive strike: coordinate upcoming event coverage, even for those who cannot attend, by telling press, bloggers, influencers in advance the hashtag you plan to use.
Why “Social”?
Visibility (SEO juice)
“Unpaid/earned” media
Build a following/community
Feedback
Start a dialogue
Share your expertise
Provide a forum to recount their experience
The public wants to see your “human” side
How it works in practice: Case Study - The Vatican
Custom Communication works with Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi to build visibility for its Jospers online community of pilgrims
Jospers secret weapon? It had great stories to tell
So we started unlocking the narrative
We went underground… for in-depth blog reports
We climbed to the top of St. Peter’s before dawn.. to live-tweet
We joined 1.5 mln pilgrims in piazza to film/photograph a global event
… and to bring to life Jospers’ story and community
How did we do it? Journalism + social media
Post daily messages/respond to queries from our community about ORP initiatives and encourage their participation in events and initiatives.
Publish multiple weekly articles on ORP/Josp initiatives including GMG and iPod tours of San Giovanni Laterano.
Similar to Facebook. Post messages multiple times each wk and re-tweet news pertinent to our followers.
Our creative channel: to show in pictures ORP events and who Jospers are and where they travel.
Another creative channel. This is channel that continues to grow as we make more use of ORP video material.
Consistent, Relevant Content = Visibility
Jospers today dominates Page 1 of Google thanks to an social editorial strategy we developed a year ago.
Think Like an Editor: Traffic spikes when you have good stories to tell; “news” stories.
SEO tips for success
Search engines reward website content that is:• Topical• Current/Timely• Relevant (are there external links?)• Social (are you sharing?)• SEO-friendly headlines• Tagged• Original in-depth content, analysis and features (i.e.:
customers share experience)• Language: clear, “mother tongue” consistent
In conclusion: The golden rules of social SEO visibility
• Think like an editor/journalist: go big on editorial coverage• The public thinks in terms of news stories/events, you must
also• Ask: Who are my readers? What is my story?• “interesting” doesn’t work; You want “newsworthy”• Respect copyright• Get executive level buy-in• Include all parts of the organisation for news-gathering• Commit the necessary resources• Do NOT outsource your expertise
[email protected]://socialmediainfluence.com/training/consulting/http://www.twitter.com/socialinfluencehttp://www.twitter.com/bernhardwarner
