Day: June 22, 2012

While no SEO professional would deny the importance of social signals when it comes to optimizing websites for search engines, there is still certain confusion about the strategies that need to be followed. Social signals, or the metrics that help in assessing web user behaviour on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr and a host of others are inextricably linked to traffic and link building. Let us understand how social media optimization is inextricably linked to search engine optimization. The second part of the article shall provide you with the top 10 strategies that you should use to optimize search engine ranking. How Search Engines Assess Link Credibility Search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo try their best to provide users with the most relevant and credible search results based on the search keywords. Search engines just do not trust any website that may seem relevant, and they follow their own algorithms to assess the importance of a certain webpage. The more inbound links that point towards a web page, the more credible and trustworthy it seems to search engines. Link Building and Sharing on Social Networks Link building is increasingly dependent on social networks, as people tend to share what they link. These links that are shared on social networking sites not only drive traffic but end up becoming “references” themselves, as they are thence used on blogs, or even other news websites as sources. The importance of social media is such that, instead of robots and algorithms deciding what is credible and what is not, search engines have begun to realize that what is shared most often must be more important than what is not shared on social networks. An interesting article or a good piece of content always gets shared on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms in real time. Social Signals and Search Engine Optimization Google and other search engines have realized the importance of sharing of social media, and that when something goes viral on social networks, that link has to be important and credible. The data from social signals decide the importance of a website or webpage and understanding social influence and community impact is more relevant to search engines than mechanical link building and activities that may actually work against the credibility of a website. Thus, one can say that search engine optimization (SEO) and social signals are mutually inclusive, and shall remain so in the future. The Basics of Utilizing Social Signals If you plan to optimize a website, the first step is to explore social media and gain ground. The next step is to assess social metrics and social signals to learn where your inbound links are coming from, and who is sharing and talking about you the most. The third step is to engage the identified audience, and try to use the social platforms to get other people interested in your website as well. Engagement involves actively participating with your target audience and building social relationships online. Engagement of your audience is a continuous process, and building trust is equally important. Once trust is built and you are actively participating on social networking sites, you can begin to see more inbound links from several places, most of which would be referred by people on social media. Social promotion helps you to generate natural links, which are very important in search engine optimization. A large percentage of tweets contain a URL and the more number of times a YRL is retweeted, the better it seems to search engines. Similarly, on Facebook, the more number of ‘likes’ a link generates, the more important it seems to search engines. Thus, social promotion generates natural and organic links, which are very important in SEO. Driving traffic to a blog or any published content depends on how viral a link has gone in Twitter or Facebook. Sharing links and a little part of the text ultimately leaves your followers on Facebook and LinkedIn to click on the link and visit your website or blog. The most important goal of SEO is to generate targeted traffic, and it is only possible to do so on social networking sites. Such sharing leads to a steady stream of traffic that is well targeted. If you searched for your favourite company or product on Google, it is quite possible that along with their business website, their Facebook page, Twitter profile and LinkedIn page appear too. Curiously, these appear on the first page. Thus, social networking sites rank very high in search engines and increase a company’s online brad presence. Links shared by the company on their Facebook page or on Twitter appear in search results too, in a higher degree of preference. Key Strategies in Integrating Social Media with SEO Efforts Mashable writes that there are 5 key strategies in integrating social media with your SEO plans. Identify Audience: Like we mentioned earlier, the first step is to identify the audience and understand their quirks, behaviours, what they like and dislike and how they share content and who they share it with. There are software programs available to monitor social media, and help you to identify keywords, conversations and influencers. Define Objective: Once the audience is identified, it is important to define your objective. Social media can’t be about direct marketing. While sales and marketing are very important in SEO, in social media it takes a covert role. Presence on social media must be utilized for defining and achieving objectives. They may include marketing and sales, but has to be covert. Establishing a Gameplan: The author continues to state that a combined social media and SEO effort must focus on content building and interaction. Active promotion of objective content and sharing them on social networks is very important. Tactical Mix: Lee Odden defined this as doing homework to find where your desired audience spends time interacting and sharing content. You would need to invest time and build relationships in social networks where your target