search, social, so what? presentation at conductor's roadtoc3 by grant simmons vp search...
TRANSCRIPT
Search. Social. So What?“Why can’t we all just get along?”
Grant SimmonsVP of Search Marketing, Homes.com
@simmonet
Grant SimmonsVP of Search Marketing, Homes.com
@simmonet
• Established 1993 • 4th Largest Real Estate
portal in US • 20+M Visitors a Month
@simmonet
#RoadtoC3
#RoadtoC3
Social Experiment#RoadtoC3
Instructions:• Get your mobile device out • Take a photo • Post it on your preferred social channel • Tag #RoadtoC3
Ready??
@simmonet
#DESum15 #RoadtoC3
Me
Not me
What can’t we all just get along?Search. Social. And Silos.
@simmonet
3 Things to Learn
1. Search & Social need to work together
2. There are lots of signals to the algorithm
3. Everything is content AWESOME content!
Introductions#RoadtoC3
@simmonet
Meet Sally Search• Search geek • LOVES Star Trek TOS • Reads Moz Blog • Has poster of Rand on
her wall • Never missed episode of
Game of Thrones. EVER.
Meet Sam Social• Social butterfly! • English major • Tweets his meals • Loves Starbucks • Takes pictures of
misspelled names on cups, and posts them to Instagram
Sally and Sam work in silos
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But they’re much happier together
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Why?
Sam Read A Book…“Social signals are correlated to rankings, so *my* social efforts are causing us to rank better.”
“In fact the search team should be buying my lunch and daily triple, venti, soy, no foam latte.”
@simmonet Umm No. Google says…
…we don't currently have any signals like that in our web search ranking algorithms.
~ Matt Cutts, Google
But… Social Can Help SEO• Research / Testing • Discovery / Visibility • Branding / Authority • Content
Social + SearchResearch & Testing
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Social Keywords / ResearchData mine conversations: • Queries • Industry terms • Natural language • Synonyms • Semantically-related
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Research Tools• Semantic<>Link • Omgili • Topsy • Keywordtool.io • Buzzsumo
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Social Testing for Search• Headlines • Images • Engagement
Did it ‘click’?
Social TestingThere is a fine balance between click bait and search optimized titles. Social gives ideas & Social let’s you test.
Fun [Social] Fact
What % of online adults use social networking sites?
Fun [Social] Fact
And… YouTube now reaches more U.S. adults aged 18-34 than any cable network.
~ Moz
72%
Social + SearchDiscoverability / Visibility
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Discovery / VisibilityTwitter Firehose = Visibility in Google
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Discovery / Visibility
Google+ is still relevant as an ID & connector • Posts are indexed • Visible to circles • Signal to Google to look
Martin Shervington http://www.agorapulse.com/blog/google-plus-social-seo
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Discovery / Visibility“If people are loving you, if you’re getting all kinds of social support from people and they love you, you know what, that’s a signal to us that maybe we should be ranking you higher.”
~ Duane Forrester, Bing
@simmonet
your site
Social + SearchBranding / Authority
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Social for Branding for SearchGoogle Loves Brands! • Social signals can
help identify entities as brands.
• Big data: • Search volume / clicks • Session relationships • Virility • Engagement
Brand BoostBrands tend to rank higher in organic search or get away with more issues, errors & ‘games’ “Brands are the exception
to many rules” ~ Marcus Tober Rank Correlation Study
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But Not Always…
Oops
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Social vs. Display AdvertisingDo social impressions have value?
Yes!
Social vs. Display AdvertisingIf you pay for branding campaigns… … 19c CPM isn’t too bad J
Fun [Paid] Fact
What is the average advertising CPM in the Home & Architecture sector?
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Fun [Paid] Fact
$3.68 That was the average cost of a gallon of gas on June 30th 2014
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Social + SearchContent
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Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing Content Marketing
Content Is King
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Content Is EVERYTHING!
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Authority Content
Social Content
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Social Content
• Click / link bait • Timely • User inspired • User inspiring • User Generated • “Fluff” • Shareable • Multi-media
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Authority Content
• Evergreen • Informational • Topic-focused • Query-driven • Optimized • On crawl path • Shareable
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Authority Content is Not as Cool
Social for Traffic
Facebook is estimated at 1.8 to 3.6 billion referrals
Per Day!
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Fun [Social] Fact
If you stacked 3.6 billion one dollar bills, how high would it reach?
Fun [Social] Fact
Approximately 200 miles high
8x
Content in Search & Social“We should be thinking about social and search with… a unified approach, because the best content should appeal to both channels and the cross-over benefits / economies of scale are potentially huge.”
~ Will Critchlow
There’s More…Social Links • Most nofollowed BUT they have
value… and they potentially drive traffic… and are links!
Engagement • Bing & Google both look at
engagement signals to understand search click satisfaction!
So…
@simmonet
Social Does Help SEO• Research / Testing • Discovery / Visibility • Branding / Authority • Content for:
• Traffic • Links • Engagement Signals
As Search Marketers…
Do we like social media for what it can do for search?
like
3 Things Learned
1. Search & Social need to work together
3 Things Learned
1. Search & Social need to work together
2. Social affects search visibility & traffic
3 Things Learned
1. Search & Social need to work together
2. Social affects search visibility & traffic
3. AWESOME content is the bridge of social / search
3 Things Learned
1. Search & Social need to work together
2. Social affects search visibility & traffic
3. AWESOME content is the bridge of social / search
Search. Social. So What?
Thank you!
Questions?
Grant SimmonsVP of Search Marketing, Homes.com
@simmonet
Grant SimmonsVP of Search Marketing, Homes.com
@simmonet