social signals and seo

Pubcon Austin 2014Social Signals and SEO

Social Signals and SEO - Overview

Overview• History of Social Signals

• Google Being Vocal about Social

• Setting Up Social Media Profiles

• Sharing content properly

• Social Signals’ SEO research, studies

• Social Signals’ Future

Social Signals and SEO – History of Social Signals and SEO

History of Social Signals and SEO• Real-Time Search Launched December 2009

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-launches-latest-results-realtime-search/15290/

• Google goal: to strive to bring us “the freshest, most comprehensive and relevant search results over an ever expanding universe of content on the multitude of devices” we “use to access it.”

• Google, Circa 2009

• July 2011, TwitterFirehose ended.

Sells tickets nationally. If claim Local Listings, only rank in local Chicago area?

Social Signals and SEO – Google Has Been Vocal on Social Signals

Google Has Been Vocal on Social SignalsMatt Cutts at SES San Fran 2012 Keynote:“Google has a 10 year plan for relying on social factors as a part of the algorithm… In the short term, Google is still relying on links as an important ranking factor.”

Question: Are social signals a ranking factor?“They have to have access to the data. Some sites are blocked, Facebook, etc.. If they can’t crawl, then they won’t have the data.”


Social Signals and SEO – Google Has Been Vocal on Social Signals

Google Has Been Vocal on Social SignalsMatt Cutts at SES San Fran 2012 Keynote:

Regarding real time search:“Twitter is like a private nightclub. Fundamentally they can suspend anyone if they want. Anyone can compete with Google if they can crawl better.

Google announced last week (in 2012) that they crawl 20 billion pages a day. When the Twitter firehose deal ended, they were blocked from crawling. When Twitter went away, Google was leery about relying on that data.”(Was this when they started to change their tune about signals?)


Social Signals and SEO – What Can You Do Now?

What Can You Do Now?

• Set up social profiles

• Contribute, update regularly

• Share content

• Add friends/followers

• Be active! Every single day...


Social Signals and SEO – Setting Up Social Profiles

Setting Up Facebook Profile• Set up Business Page (Facebook.com/globerunnerseo)

• Google crawls biz pages, not personal accounts

• Promote Facebook post, even for $5

• Bing has FB personal account data

• Does anyone care about Bing rankings?

• Sorry, Duane Forrester!


Social Signals and SEO – Facebook Sponsored Post

Pubcon Austin 2014 Post Yesterday

• Wrote a post yesterday about Pubcon Austin.• Posted on blog, promoted• Only search result with

Google Authorship snippet,on page 1 for“Pubcon Austin 2014”within hours

• Facebook sponsored post• Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn



Setting Up Twitter Account• Don’t follow more than following you

• Post on your blog? Share the URL, not a short URL.

• Tweet of URL helps get URL crawled quickly.


LinkedIn• Full personal profile with good photo/avatar is good.

• Share your blog posts, articles, updates.

• “Like” contacts’ updates, they get emailed that you liked it.


Setting Up Google+• Google+ Local biz (page), verify listing, used for Publishership

• Google+ Personal Account, used for Authorship

• Google Publishership: Important for home page, content pages

• Google Authorship:

Important for blogs, sites with multiple authors

• If employee leaves company, leave authorship in tact.

Social Signals and SEO – Dominate Your Personal Brand on Google+

Optimize Your Profile on Google+• Fill Out Entire Profile, Every Field

• Summary with Interesting Facts About Yourself

• Add relevant keywords

• Get local – add location


Optimize Your Profile on Google+• Write Great Content, share Great Content

• Manage Your Contacts, Put in Circles

• Join Niche Specific Communities

• Pay Attention to Your Ripples

• Create a Visually-Rich Experience

• Use Google+ Hangouts

• Display Your Google Plus Badge on Your Site


Watch, Use Google Ripples• Watch hot posts, network with influencers based on Ripples


Adding Followers on Google+• Search for Circles “Keyword Circle” or “SEO Circle”.

• Find others who shared their circles

• Add those people all at once, move later to other circle

Social Signals and SEO – Social Promotion for SEO

Promoting Social Media on Your Site• Include Social Icons in Key Places

• Show actual number of +1s, Tweets, etc.

• +1 buttons, Tweet, LinkedIn, Facebook Like Button

• WordPress? Social Media Counters Plugin

Social Signals and SEO – Promoting Blog Posts for SEO

Promoting Posts on Social Media Sites• Post on site, get ready to promote immediately• Write alternate titles, headlines, summaries• Each social share gets unique title, headline, summary

• Network with others to help promote:- bloggers write alternative post, summary post, links to you- promote both summary posts and main post

• Promoting posts need to happen quickly: within 2 hours

• Building momentum with social shares is key


Social Signals and SEO – The future of social and SEO?

So, What Now?Matt Cutts says “Facebook and Twitter Pages Are Treated Like Any Other Web Page On the Internet”.http://searchengineland.com/googles-matt-cutts-facebook-twitter-pages-are-treated-like-any-other-web-page-on-the-internet-182370

Think of social pages, shares, and profiles as pages.• Get links from those pages.• How to get good links? Network socially with influencers.

• When you interact with influencers:Their profile links to your profile, could pass PageRank.

Social Signals and SEO – Future Social Signals for SEO

Future Social Signals for SEO?• Building up a following counts more

• Authority counts, build “Author Rank”

• History of sharing good content

• History of writing, authoring good content

• History of authoring content that gets shared.


Social Signals and SEO – So What Now?

We Know +1s, Tweets, Likes Don’t Count• Technically, we know they don’t count.• Does it matter, really? No. Keep sharing!

Studies and research:Does Facebook activity impact SEO?http://www.stonetemple.com/does-facebook-activity-impact-seo/

Measuring Google Plus Impact on Search Rankingshttp://www.stonetemple.com/measuring-google-plus-impact-on-search-rankings/

Google SEO: How Google Impacts Search Resultshttp://searchenginewatch.com/article/2307518/Google-SEO-How-Google-Impacts-Search-Results

Social Signals and SEO – Thank You

THANK YOUContact Me

Bill HartzerSenior SEO StrategistGlobe Runner SEOEmail: [email protected]: (214) 236-4378Office: (972) 538-0260 Ext. 7076Direct: (469) 645-1231

Web: http://www.globerunner.comBlog: http://www.billhartzer.comTwitter: @bhartzer

social signals and seo

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