Social Websites And Seo Social Dev Camp Chicago2008 By John Fairley

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Social Websites and SEO

How Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be used to drive targeted visitors to social media websites in order to:– Attract new members– Increase content views– Make finding social media more efficient for users

By:

John FairleyDirector of Web Services

WalkerSands Communicationshttp://twitter.com/johnfairley

http://twitter.com/johnfairley

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Agenda

What is SEO, and Why Practice it? Social Media Website SEO Comparison

– Compare Search and non-search traffic statistics– Identify Key SEO Factors– Analyze & Rate Sample Websites– Best Practices

Recommendations

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What is SEO?

“SEO is the study of the factors related to inclusion and ranking in search engine results pages.”

What can be done to make sure that web content makes it into search engine indexes; and that it ranks well for given search queries, in as short a time as possible.

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What is SEO?

“SEO is the study of the factors related to inclusion and ranking in search engine results pages.”

What can be done to make sure that web content makes it into search engine indexes; and that it ranks well for given search queries, in as short a time as possible.

Goal:Make

it here

Yikes!

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Why does SEO matter?

Majority of people are using search– 65% of people turn to search engines to discover new

topics– 52% of people turn to search engines to begin

researching topics they are already aware of

Majority of clicks on a search engine results page are in the top 4 natural results

Sources: Marketing Sherpa/Enquiro B2B Survey 2007 AOL Leaked Search Data 2006

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Search Long TailP

opul

arity

Variety

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Search Long Tail (Broad vs. Niche)P

opul

arity

Divorce

Divorce Attorney

Divorce Attorney Illinois

Divorce Attorney Chicago

Divorce Attorney Skokie

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Should You SEO?

SEO is an accelerator (increased traffic, faster) SEO can attract more/new users interested in

the social website’s topics Won’t magically make a “bad” site “good”

– Isn’t a substitute for value– Website still needs to be designed to convert visitors

into members/buyers/etc.

SEO may be less important if:– The vast majority of your site content is hidden behind

registration/login.– Content meant to remain private

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Best Practices & Pitfalls for Social Media Website SEO Compare & rate SEO for 3 social media websites

– StumbleUpon– Digg– Twitter

Examine what’s working and not working

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Monthly Visits for Social Media Sites

Twitter StumbleUpon Digg

Note: Digg is approx: 4x Twitter, and 8x StumbleUpon

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Social Media Website Stats

Metric StumbleUpon Digg Twitter

Pages in Search Engine 9,500,000 10,400,000 6,100,000

Back Links 160,000,000 240,000,000 41,000,000

All Visits/month 8,000,000 66,000,000 17,000,000

Search Engine Referrals/month*

680,000 3,600,000 280,000

Sources: Pages (google.com) Site wide back links (yahoo.com) – external to the domain Visits, SE Referrals & Keyword Phrases (compete.com)

Note: Data collected August, 2008 – Sample data is used to calculate totals, actual data likely higher.

1st 2nd 3rd

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Social Media Website Stats


Pages in Search Engine 9,500,000 10,400,000 6,100,000

Back Links 160,000,000 240,000,000 41,000,000

All Visits/month 8,000,000 66,000,000 17,000,000

Search Engine Referrals/month*

680,000 3,600,000 280,000

Sources: Pages (google.com) Site wide back links (yahoo.com) – external to the domain Visits, SE Referrals & Keyword Phrases (compete.com)

Note: Data collected August, 2008 – Sample data is used to calculate totals, actual data likely higher.

*Digg is the clear Search Engine referral winner(More than 4x StumbleUpon; More than 10x Twitter)

1st 2nd 3rd

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Search Phrases & Google Rankings


Rank #1 1,693 16,961 1,490

Rank on First Page 46,914 286,706 33,103

Rank on Second Page 60,664 362,149 40,661

Total Phrases (on pages 1&2)

107,578 648,855 73,764

Source: SEO DiggerNote: Data collected June-August, 2008 – Based upon 60,000,000 search phrases checked in

Google

1st 2nd 3rd

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Search Phrases & Google Rankings


Rank #1* 1,693 16,961 1,490

Rank on First Page 46,914 286,706 33,103

Rank on Second Page 60,664 362,149 40,661

Total Phrases (on pages 1&2)

107,578 648,855 73,764

Source: SEO DiggerNote: Data collected June-August, 2008 – Based upon 60,000,000 search phrases checked in

Google

Digg is the clear ranking winner [all categories]*(10x StumbleUpon & Twitter for #1 phrases)

1st 2nd 3rd

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Key Ranking Factors Matrix


Homepage PageRank

Homepage Back Links

Homepage PR fan out

Category page PR fan out

User Profile link juice fan out

User Profile (likelihood for external back links)

User Generated Content(on page SEO)

RSS Promotion Channels

APIs

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Homepage: Google PageRank & Back Links

PageRank: 8

BL: 1,400,000

PageRank: 8

BL: 17,800,000

PageRank 8

1,300,000

PageRank is same for all. However, it’s displayed as an integer, but is probably a decimal.

(Might be 8.5 for Digg and 8.0 for StumbleUpon)

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Homepage: Google PageRank & Back Links

PageRank: 8

BL: 1,400,000

PageRank: 8

BL: 17,800,000

PageRank 8

1,300,000

Digg has the most back links. (Widespread use of Social Media Buttons)

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Key Ranking Factors


Homepage PageRank

Homepage Back Links

Homepage PR fan out






APIs

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PageRank Fan Out

Homepage

Category Pages

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PageRank Fan Out

Homepage

Category Pages

User Content Pages

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Homepage PR Fan Out

How PageRank is distributed/leveraged from the homepage down to the user generated content pages.

22 category links

5 user content links

15 user profile links

72 category links


15 user profiles

0 category links


0 user profiles

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Digg: 59 Category Links on Every Page

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Digg: +13 More Category-Like Links (homepage)

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Key Ranking Factors


Homepage PageRank

Homepage Back Links

Homepage PR fan out






APIs

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Category Page PR Fan Out

How PageRank is distributed/leveraged from the category pages down to the “user generated” content pages.


30/45 category links

25/8 user profile links


13 category links


No category pages

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Category Page Rank Fan out – (30 Deep Links on to user generated content)

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Key Ranking Factors


Homepage PageRank

Homepage Back Links

Homepage PR fan out

Category PR fan out





APIs

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User Profile Page – Link Juice Fan Out





7 category links



0 category links


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User Profile Page – Link Juice Fan Out

Not only is it important to link to user generated content, but links containing keywords are the most valuable.





7 category links



0 category links


“123 reviews” - stumbleupon “2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony (Photos)” - digg

“01:33 AM August 06, 2008“ - twitter

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Key Ranking Factors


Homepage PageRank

Homepage Back Links

Homepage PR fan out






APIs

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User Profile Page – Likelihood of external back links (other domains)

Yopp

23 back links

Mr. BabyMan

1,024 back links

Robert Scoble

14,587 back links

Twitter is a micro-blogging tool. Others tend to link to it like it’s a user’s blog

Data Source: Yahoo

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Key Ranking Factors


Homepage PageRank

Homepage Back Links

Homepage PR fan out






APIs

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User Content Page – On Page SEO (Use of Keywords)


Title

Description

Headings

Body Content

URL

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User Content Page – On Page SEO (Use of Keywords) Practices: Title Good

– “Create Ringtones for free with just iTunes”– “VMware joins Linux Foundation”

Bad– None– “Twitter / Michael Arrington: Apple Considers

Streaming M...”

– “Spices May Protect Against Conseque... - StumbleUpon”

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User Content Page – On Page SEO (Use of Keywords) Practices: Title Good“There are a few different ways to create ringtones for your

brand new, shiny iPhone. While some bystanders might find the playing of your favorite song annoying, it can quickly inform you to exactly who is calling without taking the phone out of your pocket, purse, or man-bag. For instance whenever Clint Ecker hears the song Gin and Juice, he knows”

Bad“Twitter is a free social messaging utility for staying

connected in real-time”

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User Content Page – On Page SEO (Use of Keywords) Practices: Headings Good

– “Full Screen Flash Video Demo”– “Spices May Protect Against Consequences Of High Blood

Sugar”

Bad– None– “Digg”– “Reviews of this website”

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User Content Page – On Page SEO (Use of Keywords) Practices: URL Good

– “http://digg.com/apple/Create_Ringtones_for_free_with_just_iTunes”– “http://digg.com/linux_unix/VMware_joins_Linux_Foundation”

Bad– “http://www.stumbleupon.com/url/www.sciencedaily.com/releases/

2008/08/080805153830.htm”– “http://twitter.com/TechCrunch/statuses/881894147”

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Key Ranking Factors


Homepage PageRank

Homepage Back Links

Homepage PR fan out






APIs

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RSS – Provides Opportunities for Back Links

RSS Feeds for Profile & Categories

RSS Feeds for Search & Categories

RSS Feeds for Profile & Search

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API – Provides Opportunities for Back Links

No API Multiple APIs API

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Key Ranking Factors


Homepage PageRank

Homepage Back Links

Homepage PR fan out






APIs

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Digg – Clearly Best Optimized


Homepage PageRank

Homepage Back Links

Homepage PR fan out






APIs

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Recommendations

Metric Recommendation

Homepage PR fan out Include categories; link from homepage

Category page PR fan out Link using keywords to user content


Link to user generated content using keywords of content


Allow users to create unique content that is personal to the user. Personalize look


Title 64 characters – focus on keywords;Include keywords in description Use h1, h2, h3 HTML tags w/keywordsUse keyword rich URLs

RSS Promotion Channels RSS: Search, Profile, Categories

APIs Access to categories, users and content

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Final Recommendation

Design your UI to convert Search Traffic to Users

Make it easy and obvious to become a member on deep pages of your website

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New User Sign-Up - User Content Page

Twitter: No sign-up for new users. No Branding

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Stumble: 2 Sign-up Links. Value explained

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Digg: Large call to action. Value explained

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Conclusion

Search Engines can be an effective source of traffic

SEO coupled with complementary features & design can drive large amounts of search traffic.

SEO is a long term strategy for growth

Technology

Social Websites And Seo Social Dev Camp Chicago2008 By John Fairley