Let social media help your SEO
This guest post was written by Norm Elrod, a contributor to Search Engine Watch, producers of the Search Engine Strategies New York Conference & Expo. Norm is also a digital media consultant who blogs about his employment experiences at Jobless and Less.
Search is dead. Long live social media. This seems to be the rallying cry of late. And social media does show lots of promise for marketers. But discussions like this seem to miss the point. Both search and social media are weapons in a smart marketer’s armory. And used together, they can help to better target consumers.
In Marketing Sherpa’s recent Social Media Marketing Benchmark Survey, only 32% of respondents found integrating Social Media with SEO very effective. Fifty-four percent found it somewhat effective, and 14% not effective at all. Presumably, these are people who have tried to integrate — a small fraction of those engaged in social media. These statistics are surprising. Search is about figuring out what people are looking for when they enter keywords into their favorite search engine. Social media is what people are actually saying to each other; they’re telling us what they’re looking for. We, as marketers, should be able to fit it all together pretty nicely.
Are you leaving Search keywords on the table? You probably are. A recent Search Engine Watch post laid out many of the privacy issues related to social media. But consumers willingly offer a wealth of information about themselves in various Social Media outlets all the time. And much of it can help you further optimize your site and improve your search rankings. Consumers are helping you to help them.
What are people saying about your company or product? And how are they saying it? It’s time to find out. Look at all the tweets related to your Twitter hashtag and follow the conversations. Search Twitter using your current keywords and see what other words people are using in the discussion. Click through to Web sites and blogs. Visit Facebook Fan pages and individual pages if you can. But you don’t need me to run through all the social media options, especially since one in particular provides most of the chatter.
My point is simple: Use social media outlets as a keyword suggestion tool.
Social media research should yield long-tail keywords appropriate for deeper pages on your site. The incremental traffic these pages attract is likely the most targeted and potentially the most valuable. And you never know. Maybe a sea change among consumers is bubbling under. Such research conducted in real time (at least more real time than last month’s analytics) will help you plan for it and keep you out ahead of it.
The whole exercise is worth performing for your competitors and the industry as a whole. In a perfect world, there would be someone on staff dedicated to following the appropriate social media conversations everyday. And in a perfect world, we’d all be rich and drink martinis on the beach everyday. Most companies can’t afford to dedicate an employee as office Internet monitor. Still, the exercise is worth repeating whenever you re-examine keywords.
Tomorrow’s keywords are out there to be found, courtesy of social media. And when they become today’s, you’ll be well-positioned to receive all the traffic. Social media wants to help in your search efforts. Let it.
Image credit, jpa1999, via iStock
Posted by Tim on March 5th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
I to find the results not just surprising but staggering – social and search – are like man and wife! That's probably a bad analogy but you get what I mean. I laugh at people who want to argue one over the other – if you sit down and let each side present the argument then rationally you realise if you did both you'd be a much better marketer.
Posted by roy morejon on March 5th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
A great point: Use social media outlets as a keyword suggestion tool.
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Posted by obilon on March 5th, 2010 at 8:36 pm
Very cool. I mentioned using Real Time Search to compliment your SEO efforts in my blog post: http://lonscohen.com/blog/2010/01/ways-real-time-…
Posted by Erin Read Ruddick on March 5th, 2010 at 9:39 pm
Good piece! John Cass recenty offered some tools for validating keywords researched through social media, and reminds marketers to use the year in the query so you get current trends.
http://pr.typepad.com/pr_communications/2010/03/t…
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Posted by Let social media help your SEO | SmartBlog On Social Media « Heorj's Search Engine Optimization Blog on March 5th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
[...] Read the rest here: Let social media help your SEO | SmartBlog On Social Media [...]
Posted by Allyn on March 6th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
Pretty much everyone misses the point when combining social media with SEO.
If my client the local plumber hires me, I take over and dominate 100% of the search listings on the first page of the SERPS by using SEO and social media together.
I rank his site #1 for every keyword, his Twitter account #2 for every keyword, his Facebook page #3, etc etc, and I also dominate the vid results for every keyword.
THAT is how you integrate the two.
AL
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Posted by PR Communications on March 6th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
Using SEO Search To Develop Content For Social Media Influencers…
Rob Birgfeld writes a post encouraging digital marketers to connect the dots between social and SEO. I found Rob Birgfeld’s post because I have an alert set up for my name. Yes, I keep tabs on who talks about me,……
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[...] Let social media help your SEO [...]
Posted by Planner Reads » Blog Archive » Using SEO Search To Develop Content For Social Media Influencers on March 7th, 2010 at 11:24 pm
[...] found Rob Birgfeld's post because I have an alert set up for my name. Yes, I keep tabs on who talks about me, using keyword [...]
Posted by What is unemployment anyway? » Odd Jobless on March 14th, 2010 at 11:01 pm
[...] Let social media help your SEO [...]
Posted by Laissez les médias sociaux soutenir votre référencement | Bulle Interactive | Agence web Montreal on March 17th, 2010 at 5:39 am
[...] Article original de Norm Elrod librement traduit de l’anglais | Let social media help your SEO [...]
Posted by Helena@GGT on March 21st, 2010 at 3:59 pm
Usually social media helps to go viral with your posts quickly; unfortunately rarely anyone takes the time to link back to your article after reading about it on their favorite SN. SEO really is a long term traffic investment that will ensure that visitors keep coming even between the surges of traffic you receive from Twitter, Facebook & Co.
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Posted by Getting started with integrating search and social media | SmartBlog On Social Media on March 22nd, 2010 at 4:57 am
[...] status updates. Social media is a great keyword suggestion tool, as I stressed in my recent post “Let social media help your SEO.” And these days, it’s critical to use the right keywords with every tweet and status update. [...]
Posted by Weekly round-up | Bluewire Media Web Design Blog on March 25th, 2010 at 10:08 pm
[...] Let social media help your SEO — Smart Blogs [...]
Posted by Pi Blog» Blog Archive » The Collision of Real-Time Search and Social Media on March 26th, 2010 at 2:57 am
[...] Get more information on this topic here. [...]
Posted by @multimediadiva on April 25th, 2010 at 5:38 am
Seo and Social Media work hand in hand just as offline an online marketing does. Seo and Socialmedia both have their advantages , however SEO is the fundamental vehicle for Website success and Social Media as a Strategy is a great support base for traffic .
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Posted by willie on April 26th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
how does this work
Posted by wayneb77 on June 28th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Hey there – great post. I have been using social media to get keyword ideas for a while now. There are a number of ways of finding keyword in places you wouldn't always think of – YouTube, Googles Wonder Wheel, Constellations, Twitter search…a bloke on the street….use your imagination
Posted by Jon Ochs on July 14th, 2010 at 12:40 am
I am a long time SEO and PPC marketer that has been converted to Social Media over the past year or so. It takes a bit more time to get the traffic flowing, but once it does, it continues to grow…. all without the cost and volatility of PPC and Search traffic.
My recent post Stop Trying To Make Money In Social Media And Start Building Relationships
Posted by Stacey Cavanagh on July 14th, 2010 at 9:27 am
"Tomorrow’s keywords are out there to be found, courtesy of social media. And when they become today’s, you’ll be well-positioned to receive all the traffic. Social media wants to help in your search efforts. Let it."
That is such a good point. Whenever I hear people talking about search and social, it's generally complaints that social media links are so often "no-follow." This is fantastic resource to point people back to explain why that really doesnt matter!!
SEO really isn't limited to links… networking and more core white-hat integration with communities of sites, just as social networking promotes, it absolutely crucial… and far more sustainable than the "buy links," style campaigns out there.
Thanks for this.
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Posted by @abnormalmarket on July 22nd, 2010 at 1:54 pm
I think social media effects your SEO whether you track it or not. It's best to monitor it, and manage it, so that it works in your favour.
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Posted by Dave Saunders on August 16th, 2010 at 11:15 am
Even Twitter hash tags are a form of SEO. It seems like a lot of social media purists don't entirely understand the relevance of SEO as they accidentally put it to use while trash-talking it.
With Twitter now serving more searches that Bing and Yahoo combined, it seems only logical that it would also be a great source of keyword research, as long as it's done and applied correctly.
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Posted by LKelly on August 29th, 2010 at 8:17 am
I use keyword searches all the time for my clients using Twitter – it is more helpful that they realize! But there are other ways to be effective with social media and your Twitter! Check out this blog article I found.
http://jsncafe.com/2010/06/how-to-be-effective-on…
Posted by bedrijfsfotografie on September 6th, 2010 at 1:32 am
Would peolpe search in the future with social media? There is a opportunity I guess.
Posted by optimind298 on September 16th, 2010 at 8:27 pm
No doubt social media has a large influence on SEO. Social media marketing is becoming increasingly standard in online marketing campaigns due to its known ability to build website traffic and inbound links.
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Posted by The SEO Dentist on September 19th, 2010 at 1:18 pm
It's a shame to see so many people not jumping on the Social Media bandwagon. Those that don't embrace the social networking revolution will miss out on engaging with their core users and the additional SEO benefits that Twitter / Facebook etc provide.
I believe the main problem is that businesses and companies see social media as a waste of time, or just don't understand the principles behind it. I guess it keeps us in business.
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Posted by Jake Coventry on November 26th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
Really interesting angle to take on SM and SEO. I think this is a big struggle for many SEO experts, especially when it comes to justifying it to clients.
Posted by stuart on January 11th, 2011 at 4:16 am
Great advice in here, thanks. We offer social media solutions and are often discussing similar issues. You can find us at http://www.strictlysocial.co.uk.
Posted by Gibraltar Web Design on February 4th, 2011 at 6:19 am
What I see is that a lot of SEO consultants and google gurus are in denial. They don't want to admin that social media has changed the face of the internet. And I think it's a fact.
As you mentioned, smart marketers make use of both seo and social marketing. A fusion of the methods leveraging both area can and should be considered by any marketing professionals who want to compete in the present market.
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Posted by Social Media Agentur on June 5th, 2011 at 8:08 am
Do you recommend any particular tool to do the "social" keyword research?
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Posted by jstanchak on June 6th, 2011 at 7:25 am
The three Google tools mentioned in this post are a great place to start: http://smartblogs.com/socialmedia/2011/05/31/from…
Posted by Social Media Agentur on June 7th, 2011 at 5:08 pm
what about social media monitoring tools?
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Posted by tomretterbush on June 14th, 2011 at 10:59 pm
Social media has become so important that Google has begun using Twitter, Facebook and other social media when configuring its search engine results.
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