March UR SMUG meetingKate WardMarch UR SMUG meetingKate Ward

Social Media & Search Engine Optimization

or

SM & SEO

March UR SMUG meetingKate Ward

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo! use an algorithm to rank web sites, web pages, and social media sites.

Algorithm is very complex; however, certain practices can help your web site, web page, or social media site rank higher.

March UR SMUG meetingKate Ward

March UR SMUG meetingKate Ward

Improving SEO with social media Search engines are now ranking pages

according to: • how many people link to that page

through social media (Facebook, Twitter, digg, LinkedIn, etc.)

• the person’s authority in that channel (do they have lots of followers or just a few?)

March UR SMUG meetingKate Ward

Improving SEO with social mediaBut to improve SEO with SM, you must:1. Have good content on the website you are

promoting on your social media sites. Example

2. Want to interact with your visitors about the content you are promoting.

3. Ensure your website and social media are part of a coordinated plan to achieve measurable objectives. Don’t do it for the sake of doing it.

March UR SMUG meetingKate Ward

Top Points for SM/SEO• Keywords

Research keywords. Use keywords in web content and in social media.

• Good contentMake sure content is easily linkable. Need a good title that uses keywords!

March UR SMUG meetingKate Ward

Top Points for SM/SEO• Metadata

Social media sites grab page’s metadata when promoting the page you are talking about.

• Good web page characteristicsQuick load time, page linked to analytical programs, and URL shortener created for page.

March UR SMUG meetingKate Ward

According to Marketwire, keywords are the terms that individuals type into a search engine to indentify web destinations. You can find out what your keywords are by looking at Google AdWords or Google Trends.

#1 Keywords

March UR SMUG meetingKate Ward

The perfect pageKeywords found in:• URL• Title• Headlines• Body text (within 0-50 words)• ALT text of photos• File names• Meta Description of page

Reference: How Do I Build the Perfectly Optimized Page? SEOmoz blog:http://www.seomoz.org/blog/perfecting-keyword-targeting-on-page-optimization

March UR SMUG meetingKate Ward

#2 Good ContentSearch engine spiders reward web pages that feature strong content that is:

– Well-written (active voice, short sentences and commonly-used words.)

– Updated often– Copy on the page matches the subject listed in the title– Contains metadata

March UR SMUG meetingKate Ward

#3 MetadataMetadata is the information not “seen” on the page that helps to describe a web page’s content, and helps to organize and call up that page.

Examples include title, description, keywords, date created, subject, format, rights, etc.

March UR SMUG meetingKate Ward

Metadata can be found on web pages, PDFs, andword documents.

March UR SMUG meetingKate Ward

Social Media sites will want to pull the metadata from your description field when promoting the link to your website.

If they don’t have a description field, they will pull whatever they think is relevant from the page.

Metadata

March UR SMUG meetingKate Ward

March UR SMUG meetingKate Ward

#4 Good Webpage Characteristics• Quick load time

Google now gives slight weighting in its algorithm to pages that load faster. Do not use 3 or 4 MB pictures; optimize so they are less than 100 KB.

• Link to analytical programs

• URL shortener created for page’s SEO/SM campaignBitly.com is one of them

March UR SMUG meetingKate Ward

Coordinated SM CampaignYou have to create a plan whereby you:

1. Identify what your faculty/department/office is trying to achieve online.

2. How your website will achieve that online goal (New page? Calendar?)

3. What keywords visitors will use to locate that online information.

4. What metadata you will use.

5. What URL shortener will be created for website content.

6. What social media outlets you will use to promote new website content.

7. What key users, within that social media channel, will you target?

8. How you will measure success of your campaign? (Visits? Downloads?)

March UR SMUG meetingKate Ward

In a nutshell…SEO is simple to implement

• Your content you wish to promote in social media should be interesting and of use to your user.

• The topic/subject/campaign should allow for a two-way conversation between you and your users. This can be done by sharing, voting, commenting, linking, and bookmarking.

• Ensure your web content and navigation uses plain English in the same way your user thinks and searches (keywords).

• Complete metadata fields in the web page so social media sites pull relevant content about what your campaign is about.

March UR SMUG meetingKate Ward

SEO Online Resources

March UR SMUG meetingKate Ward

March UR SMUG meetingKate Ward

Questions?