Search Engine Optimization & Social Media 1.10.2014, School of Management Fribourg Evelyn Thar, CEO Amazee Metrics Amazee Metrics AG / Förrlibuckstr. 30 / 8005 Zürich / evelyn.thar@amazeemetrics.com
Agenda 1 What Is Search Engine Optimization? 2 How Does Search Engine Optimization Work? 3 How Does Social Media Influence Search Engine Optimization?
What is Search Engine Optimization?
Why Search Engine Optimization? http://www.brightedge.com/blog/how-brands-use-organic-search-content-to-drive-traffic-and-revenue/ 4
Organic Revenue August 2014, B2B, US Market: http://www.brightedge.com/blog/how-brands-use-organic-search-content-to-drive-traffic-and-revenue/ 5
Organic vs Paid Search Results Paid Search Results: AdWords Paid Search Results: AdWords Organic Search Results: 6
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) SEO helps you to rank well within the organic results for the relevant keywords. 7
Search Engine Result Pages (SERP) Title URL Meta Description Meta Description: Too long Perfect Replaced by Google 8
Search Engine Result Pages (SERP) 2 Sitelinks Knowledge Graph / Google My Business 9
Search Engine Market Share Switzerland h"p://www.blog360.ch/marktanteile- von- suchmaschinen_396 10
How Does a Search Engine Work? 1. Crawling 2. Indexing 3. Ranking
Crawling Spiders/Bots looking for content. Goal: Find all websites in the world.
Indexing After crawling search engines index the websites and their content. Websites and their content are indexed and rated based on keywords.
Search engines compare websites and rank them based on topic and relevance. Ranking
Target Market and Language German Search Query Target Market: google.ch French Italian English Search Query Target Market: google.de German 15
How Does Search Engine Optimization Work?
SEO: Previous and Current Process Previous Process: Meta Tags Links schemes, link farms Article spinning Comment spamming Keyword stuffing Current Process: On-Site Audit: Technical audit, mobile audit, indexing audit, usability quick check Link building strategy Blogs, news Social media strategy (SEO perspective) Well written website content Optimized for Machines Black Hat SEO Optimized for Humans Content Marketing and Link Building
SEO Process 1. Step: Off-Site Analysis 2. Step: On-Site Audit 3. Step: Continuous Optimizations
1. Off-Site Analysis 1. Step: Off-Site Analysis 2. Step: On-Site Audit 3. Step: Continuous Optimizations Keyword analysis (Content SEO Check) Competitive analysis Link analysis Social media strategy International/multilingual SEO strategy Goal: Relevant SEO Keywords Definition SEO Strategy
Content SEO Check
2. On-Site Audit 1. Step: Off-Site Analysis 2. Step: On-Site Audit 3. Step: Continuous Optimizations Technical Audit Mobile Audit Indexing Audit Usability Quick Check Goal: Analysis and recommendations for technical SEO implementation
Presentation of the SEO Audits 1. Step: Off-Site Analysis 2. Step: On-Site Audit 3. Step: Continuous Optimizations Presentation SEO Results SEO Issues SEO Recommendations
3. Continuous Optimizations 1. Step: Off-Site Analysis 2. Step: On-Site Audit 3. Step: Continuous Optimizations Link-Building Technical Improvements Content Improvements Goal: Increase Ranking Positions: Sustainable SEO efforts need at least 4-6 months. The more effort invested, the faster the visible results.
How Does Social Media Influence SEO?
Are Social Media Signals a Ranking Factor? Google officially denies that Social Media signals are a ranking factor. Nevertheless Social Media activity influences traffic volume, brand awareness and online visibility of a domain. Fresh and new content is shared mostly on social media Google also wants to show new content to the users. 25
What is a Ranking Factor? Criteria to rate the topic and relevance of a website and use this to perform a ranking among the websites. 26
Ranking Factors Study Searchmetrics Study based on 10'000 information oriented keywords in Germany and the US. Which factors distinguish high ranking websites from those with lower positions in Google search results? Causality Correlation. 27
Ranking Factors 2014 for Germany http://www.searchmetrics.com/de/knowledge-base/ranking-faktoren/ 28
Most Important Ranking Factors 2014 29
Differences between Germany and the US The most important factor is the Click-Through Rate, that is new this year. This factor is even more important in the U.S. Google +1s are more important in the U.S. than in Germany. Proof Terms are less important in Germany than in the U.S. The Word Count in Anchor Texts has more significance in Germany. The Share of Backlinks from the same country has more weight in Germany. The Bounce Rate has more influence on the ranking in Germany. Pinterest is more important for the ranking in the U.S. Sitespeed has a greater impact in the U.S. While Keywords in H1 are beneficial in Germany, they are penalized in the U.S. 30
Social Ranking Factors Four social networks can be considered as ranking factors: Facebook, Google+, Twitter and Pinterest. Social Signals have still the highest correlation. Slight decrease of social signals in 2014 for the first time after 2012 and 2013. 31
Facebook as a Ranking Factor Facebook is for SEO the most important social network. Website on position 1 has the most Facebook shares, comments and likes. Websites ranking lower on Google have a lot less Facebook signals. 32
Google+ as a Ranking Factor Graph looks similar as the one for Facebook. In 2014 the +1s increased the most compared with all relevant social media networks. 33
Twitter as a Ranking Factor Number of tweets is much lower than Facebook signals and slightly lower than Google +1s. Graph looks similar as the one for Facebook and Google+. 34
Pinterest as a Ranking Factor The absolute number of social signals from Pinterest is very low. Graph looks similar as the one for the other social media networks. 35
SEO Recommendation for Social Media Check your Social Media Spread. Include as many as possible of these four Social Media networks in your Content Marketing Strategy. Social Media Spread for heg-fr.ch: 36
SEO Recommendations for 1. Facebook pages are indexed in Google. 2. Optimize your URL to match your brand or company name (no extra keywords). 3. Choose the correct category and up to 3 subcategories for your page. 4. Optimize the About section with an informative description including relevant keywords and make sure your address is correct. 5. Share high quality content there is a need for. 6. Link to your Facebook page from your website to verify the Facebook page. 37
SEO Recommendations for 1. Optimize your URL using custom Google+ page URL. 2. Use relevant keywords in your business information. 3. Use a headline for all posts: The headline will show up as title tag of your post in SERPs. 4. Use targeted sharing option in addition to "public" (add "your circles and select individuals"). This triggers a notification for users the post was shared directly with. 5. Use hashtags and invent new ones. 6. Use the publisher tag to verify your website. 38
SEO Recommendations for 1. Optimize your username (max. 15 characters). 2. Link to your real website and do not shorten the URL. 3. Optimize your Twitter bio (max. 160 characters) using relevant keywords. 4. Use a descriptive name for your Twitter profile photo. 5. Tweets should contain keywords and hashtags. 6. Use Twitter lists (make them public, use keywords, post them on the blog). 7. Use pictures and videos. 8. Link to your Twitter account from your website. 9. Use the follow button on your website. 39
SEO Recommendations for 1. Optimize your username (max. 15 characters). If your business name is already taken, use a memorable, easy-to-spell keyword related to your brand. Use the same username as for the other social media accounts. 2. Optimize the About section (max. 200 characters) Use it for keyword rich description of who, what and where. 3. Search Privacy in Settings Make sure you activated the option to make it possible for search engines to show your Pinterest profile in search results. 4. Make sure you have a strong Pin description (max. 500 characters, use hashtags). 5. Use unique titles for your boards. 6. Use descriptive image names and keywords in the alt text. 7. Verify your profile: http://sproutsocial.com/insights/how-to-verify-pinterest/ 40
Questions?