Defining Social SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or web page in search engines’ regular search results. In plain English, it means using keywords, content, and links to get your organization or name to appear closer to the top of the page when somebody Googles your name or keywords. I tell you a lot more about that and share tips with you in Chapter 6. It’s essential to your online reputation management, so please give it your best shot. I promise it’s easy to learn and start using in less than an hour.

Social SEO, on the other hand, is a brand-new term that is sometimes referred to as social media optimization. Now that social media has become mainstream, relevant and credible news and information often break on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. This term is a new designation that’s emerging among seasoned SEO veterans, in recognition of the shift that social media is bringing to the search algorithms

Social SEO is sometimes referred to as “social media optimization.” Because relevant and credible news and information breaks in social networks, Google and the search engines now value “temporal relevance” — meaning that fresh and new information, must be more important. Therefore old content has significantly lost search value. Old websites used to rank in search engines because of old practices around keywords, content, links, and other factors. Currently that is still true, but it’s not enough. Content needs to also be continually changing, growing, and engaging. For any two otherwise equal posts, the post with more tweets or comments will rank over the other. Credibility is measured on the same factors as before but now the social networks are also taken into consideration.

News becomes more social

These days, I get as much of my news about current events via social media as I do from more traditional means like TV news or newspapers. Word travels faster than ever: They don’t call the Internet the information superhighway for nothing.

Since relevant and credible news now breaks on social networks, Google and other search engines have come to value what they call “temporal relevance.” If information is fresh and new, they reckon, it must be more important.

This is significant because it means that old content has diminished in value. Old websites used to rank highly in search engines because of the way search results were calculated — the old algorithms stressed keywords, content, links, and other factors. This is still true today, but it is not enough. Nowadays, you need to be timely, as I mentioned, but you also need to rank on social networks.

If two otherwise equivalent posts were evaluated by a search engine, and one has more tweets or comments . . . that post will rank more highly than the other. Credibility is measured on the same factors as before, but now the social networks are also taken into consideration. If you want the best standing possible, then, your online presence needs to also be continually changing, growing, and engaging.

Keeping it fresh

The Google Panda algorithm update shook up the Internet world with huge changes to Google’s process of assigning weight and value to individual factors when evaluating websites and social media content. A social profile can have just as much value as the website it links to. To be successful, an organization must cultivate a holistic relationship between your social profiles, websites, content, and engagement. You need a strategy that combines modern site architecture, targeted content, and activity-based considerations.

Targeting your content

In this chapter I show you how to identify which SEO keywords are going to work the best for getting your messages seen online. It’s important to use them in some of the following places, without making it seem like you’re loading a blog post full of the same four terms over and over again in hopes of getting search engines to rank it higher. Folks tried that a long time ago, and Google always gets wise to these kinds of tricks.

One little trick that gets caught (and penalized!) is to host a page that has SEO keywords written in the background color, over and over again. It looks invisible to people, but the search engines pick it up. Frankly, it’s a lot less trouble to just write valuable posts that happen to have your keyword phrase in them

At the top of the post, preferably the first sentence or paragraph.

In the title, if it makes sense to one of your fans reading it.

In both the top and the title, if you can make it sound natural. Your readers are much more apt to share something that is enjoyable to read and useful, and that’s more powerful than the off chance that this post will rank a little higher because you used your SEO keywords everywhere possible.

Thinking like a Panda

Since Google’s Panda update that I tell you about in the section above, it’s very wise for you to focus on more than blog posts, white papers, and articles in order to make your name more visible online. Social media activity is getting a lot more attention, so you can get a real edge over your less social media savvy competition by considering the following

Cultivating more comments on your blog posts. It’s often surprisingly effective to just ask people to share their own experiences with the topic

Posting Facebook updates that link to your blog posts

Tweeting catchy intros that link to your blog posts

Guest posting on other sites that will link back to your site via an “About the Author” section where you are featured

Optimizing your YouTube video descriptions so that they link back to your site

Linking to your site via your Pinterest profile and individual “pins” that link back to your site

Linking to your site on your LinkedIn profile and share your posts there

Customizing your Google+ profile to include a link to your site and share your posts there with an appealing introduction

Linking to your site and posting status updates on other social media profiles, such as

• Quora

• Foursquare

• Tumblr

• Podcasts

One of the smartest things you can do to boost your social search engine optimization (SEO) is to hire a qualified expert (with specific, glowing references) to optimize the linking of all your social networks and then review your settings periodically as the online landscape changes.