This presentation answers the question how Social Media does influence SEO.

1. Amazee Metrics AG / Förrlibuckstr. 30 / 8005 Zürich / evelyn.thar@amazeemetrics.com
Search Engine Optimization
& Social Media
1.10.2014, School of Management Fribourg
Evelyn Thar, CEO Amazee Metrics

2. Agenda
1
2
3
What Is Search Engine Optimization?
How Does Social Media Influence Search Engine Optimization?
How Does Search Engine Optimization Work?

3. What is Search Engine
Optimization?

4. Why Search Engine Optimization?
4
http://www.brightedge.com/blog/how-brands-use-organic-search-content-to-drive-traffic-and-revenue/

5. Organic Revenue
5
August 2014, B2B, US Market:
http://www.brightedge.com/blog/how-brands-use-organic-search-content-to-drive-traffic-and-revenue/

6. Organic vs Paid Search Results
6
Paid Search
Results:
AdWords
Paid Search
Results:
AdWords
Organic
Search Results:

7. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
7
SEO helps you
to rank well
within the
organic results
for the
relevant
keywords.

8. Search Engine Result Pages (SERP)
8
Title
URL
Meta
Description
Too long
Perfect
Replaced by
Google
Meta
Description:

9. Search Engine Result Pages (SERP) 2
9
Sitelinks Knowledge Graph /
Google My Business

10. Search Engine Market Share Switzerland
10
h"p://www.blog360.ch/marktanteile-­‐von-­‐suchmaschinen_396

11. How Does a Search Engine Work?
1. Crawling
2. Indexing
3. Ranking

12. Crawling
• Spiders/Bots looking for
content.
• Goal: Find all websites in
the world.

13. Indexing
• After crawling search engines index
the websites and their content.
• Websites and their content are
indexed and rated based on
keywords.

14. Ranking
• Search engines compare
websites and rank them based
on topic and relevance.

15. Target Market and Language
15
Search Query Target Market:
google.ch
German
French
Italian
English
Search Query Target Market:
google.de
German

16. How Does Search Engine
Optimization Work?

17. SEO: Previous and Current Process
Previous Process:
• Meta Tags
• Links schemes, link farms
• Article spinning
• Comment spamming
• Keyword stuffing
Current Process:
• On-Site Audit:
Technical audit, mobile audit, indexing
audit, usability quick check
• Link building strategy
• Blogs, news
• Social media strategy (SEO perspective)
• Well written website content
Content Marketing and Link BuildingBlack Hat SEO
Optimized for Machines Optimized for Humans

18. SEO Process
1. Step:
Off-Site
Analysis
2. Step:
On-Site
Audit
3. Step:
Continuous
Optimizations

19. 1. Off-Site Analysis
• Keyword analysis (Content SEO Check)
• Competitive analysis
• Link analysis
• Social media strategy
• International/multilingual SEO strategy
1. Step:
Off-Site
Analysis
2. Step:
On-Site
Audit
3. Step:
Continuous
Optimizations
Goal:
• Relevant SEO Keywords
• Definition SEO Strategy

20. Content SEO Check

21. 2. On-Site Audit
1. Step:
Off-Site
Analysis
2. Step:
On-Site
Audit
3. Step:
Continuous
Optimizations
• Technical Audit
• Mobile Audit
• Indexing Audit
• Usability Quick Check
Goal: Analysis and recommendations for technical SEO implementation

22. Presentation of the SEO Audits
1. Step:
Off-Site
Analysis
2. Step:
On-Site
Audit
3. Step:
Continuous
Optimizations
Presentation SEO Results
• SEO Issues
• SEO Recommendations

23. 3. Continuous Optimizations
• Link-Building
• Technical Improvements
• Content Improvements
1. Step:
Off-Site
Analysis
2. Step:
On-Site
Audit
3. Step:
Continuous
Optimizations
Goal:
Increase Ranking Positions:
• Sustainable SEO efforts need at least 4 - 6 months.
• The more effort invested, the faster the visible results.

24. How Does Social Media
Influence SEO?

25. Are Social Media Signals a Ranking Factor?
25
• Google officially denies that
Social Media signals are a
ranking factor.
• Nevertheless Social Media
activity influences traffic
volume, brand awareness and
online visibility of a domain.
• Fresh and new content is
shared mostly on social media
– Google also wants to show
new content to the users.

26. What is a Ranking Factor?
Criteria to rate the topic and relevance of a website and
use this to perform a ranking among the websites.
26

27. Ranking Factors Study
• Searchmetrics Study based on 10'000 information oriented
keywords in Germany and the US.
• Which factors distinguish high ranking websites from those
with lower positions in Google search results?
• Causality ≠ Correlation.
27

28. Ranking Factors 2014 for Germany
28
http://www.searchmetrics.com/de/knowledge-base/ranking-faktoren/

29. Most Important Ranking Factors 2014
29

30. Differences between Germany and the US
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• The most important factor is the Click-Through Rate, that is new this year.
This factor is even more important in the U.S.
• Google +1s are more important in the U.S. than in Germany.
• Proof Terms are less important in Germany than in the U.S.
• The Word Count in Anchor Texts has more significance in Germany.
• The Share of Backlinks from the same country has more weight in Germany.
• The Bounce Rate has more influence on the ranking in Germany.
• Pinterest is more important for the ranking in the U.S.
• Sitespeed has a greater impact in the U.S.
• While Keywords in H1 are beneficial in Germany, they are penalized in the
U.S.

31. Social Ranking Factors
• Four social networks can be considered as ranking factors: Facebook, Google+,
Twitter and Pinterest.
• Social Signals have still the highest correlation.
• Slight decrease of social signals in 2014 for the first time after 2012 and 2013.
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32. Facebook as a Ranking Factor
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• Facebook is for SEO the most important social network.
• Website on position 1 has the most Facebook shares, comments and likes.
• Websites ranking lower on Google have a lot less Facebook signals.

33. Google+ as a Ranking Factor
33
• Graph looks similar as the one for Facebook.
• In 2014 the +1s increased the most compared with all relevant social media
networks.

34. Twitter as a Ranking Factor
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• Number of tweets is much lower than Facebook signals and slightly lower than
Google +1s.
• Graph looks similar as the one for Facebook and Google+.

35. Pinterest as a Ranking Factor
35
• The absolute number of social signals from Pinterest is very low.
• Graph looks similar as the one for the other social media networks.

36. SEO Recommendation for Social Media
• Check your Social Media Spread.
• Include as many as possible of these four Social Media networks in your Content
Marketing Strategy.
36
Social Media Spread for heg-fr.ch:

37. SEO Recommendations for
37
1. Facebook pages are indexed in Google.
2. Optimize your URL to match your brand or company name (no extra
keywords).
3. Choose the correct category and up to 3 subcategories for your page.
4. Optimize the About section with an informative description including
relevant keywords and make sure your address is correct.
5. Share high quality content there is a need for.
6. Link to your Facebook page from your website to verify the Facebook page.

38. SEO Recommendations for
1. Optimize your URL using custom Google+ page URL.
2. Use relevant keywords in your business information.
3. Use a headline for all posts: The headline will show up as title tag of your post in SERPs.
4. Use targeted sharing option in addition to "public" (add "your circles and select
individuals"). This triggers a notification for users the post was shared directly with.
5. Use hashtags and invent new ones.
6. Use the publisher tag to verify your website.
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39. SEO Recommendations for
1. Optimize your username (max. 15 characters).
2. Link to your real website and do not shorten the URL.
3. Optimize your Twitter bio (max. 160 characters) using relevant keywords.
4. Use a descriptive name for your Twitter profile photo.
5. Tweets should contain keywords and hashtags.
6. Use Twitter lists (make them public, use keywords, post them on the blog).
7. Use pictures and videos.
8. Link to your Twitter account from your website.
9. Use the follow button on your website.
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40. SEO Recommendations for
1. Optimize your username (max. 15 characters).
• If your business name is already taken, use a memorable, easy-to-spell keyword related to
your brand.
• Use the same username as for the other social media accounts.
2. Optimize the About section (max. 200 characters)
• Use it for keyword rich description of who, what and where.
3. Search Privacy in Settings
• Make sure you activated the option to make it possible for search engines to show your
Pinterest profile in search results.
4. Make sure you have a strong Pin description (max. 500 characters, use hashtags).
5. Use unique titles for your boards.
6. Use descriptive image names and keywords in the alt text.
7. Verify your profile: http://sproutsocial.com/insights/how-to-verify-pinterest/
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41. Questions?