Caroline Bogart
SEM Technical Writer
Areas of Specialization:
SEO
Leadership Role:
I write and edit content for our manufacturing and technology clients.
Industry Verticals:
Manufacturing, Technology
Best Thing About Working at Fathom SEO:
It’s a fun working environment where I get the opportunity to do the work that I enjoy.
Most Challenging Aspect of Your Job:
Keeping up with the ever-changing SEO industry!
Most Rewarding Aspect of Your Job:
Seeing my content recommendations positively impact our clients website rankings.
Education:
BA in Journalism from Miami University, MA in Communications Management from John Carroll University
Hobbies:
Ice skating, reading and spending time with friends and family.
Favorite Place to Eat Lunch:
Panera is always a good choice.
Favorite Quote:
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”- Dr. Seuss
Last week, Google announced that they were moving Social Search from experimental status to beta and making it available to the public. As Google’s Social Search grows in popularity, search engine marketers are starting to ask, “How do we optimize for it?â€
Before we talk about optimizing for Social Search, we’ll first talk about what it is. Google explained that they created Social Search to help users easily find content created by people in their social networks.
Right now, Social Search can only work for users signed in to Google because Google has to use their profiles to build a “social circle†of their trusted network of contacts. Users’ social circles consist primarily of people they’re connected to through social media accounts attached to their Google profile, but it also includes blogs they subscribe to in Google Reader and their Gmail chat contacts. Once Google determines a user’s social circle, it will start inserting content created by trusted contacts into search results.
So if I type “SEO†into Social Search, I may see a blog post by Danny Sullivan, a Matt Cutts Tweet about a new Google development and a Flickr album posted by my co-worker from his trip to the Social Networking Conference in Miami. I’d get these results because I subscribe to Search Engine Land in Google Reader, follow Matt Cutts on Twitter and communicate with my co-worker in Google Chat. Pretty cool, huh?
Watch this video from Google for a visual demonstration of how Social Search works.
While Google’s universal search broadened the amount of content that appears in search results, social search limits it. This function of Social Search has the potential to change the way Internet marketers think about SEO.
To optimize for Social Search, SEO professionals should start:
Establishing a strong social media presence
Simply put, the more connections you have, the more people you’ll be able to reach through Social Search. It’s not enough to set up Facebook and Twitter accounts that you never touch; you need to build a strong network by regularly posting valuable content. While this requires plenty of extra time and work, it will eventually pay off by providing you with a strong base of supporters who care about what you’re going to say.
Creating quality content
If you’re able to produce original, insightful and useful content, you’ll do well in Social Search. As you create quality content, people will start connecting with you because they’re interested in what you have to say. If your content is really good, your readers will start linking to you from their social media profiles. Pretty soon, you’ll start appearing in the Social Search results of people who have never even heard of you because one of their friends liked your content enough to link to it.
Connecting with bloggers
By convincing bloggers to talk about you, you’ll have a better chance of showing up in the Social Search of people who would not otherwise be connected to you. Try to connect with bloggers by sending them great content and ideas, not generic pitches or shameless self-promotion. Just like anything, you’ll have to give something of value to receive something of value.
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To blog or not to blog – if that is your question, then reading this post should help you find the answer.
Creating a blog for your company is an excellent way to implement SEO strategy. Many people do not realize the important connections between successful, regularly-updated blogs and SEO rankings. TopRank Blogging recently published a survey covering the “Impact of Blogging on Search Engine Optimization.†Of the 326 participants, 87.4% “successfully increased measurable SEO objectives as a direct result of blogging†and 94% “reported seeing measurable SEO benefits from blogging within 12 months.â€
Of course, all statistics need to be taken with a grain of salt, but the overall impression you get from this data is that blogging positively impacts SEO functions. The bigger question worth asking is: Why does this happen?
Those who have spent time in the industry and seen the tangible results provided by SEO-friendly blogs can attest that these information creations serve several important functions. Blogging can:
- Provide an easy way to create new, optimized content. When a company has a blog, they can create a stream of industry-relevant posts on topics that interest and inform their audience while providing supportive content for the keywords they’re targeting. New content can be posted instantly, and once readers become interested in your blog, you have a guaranteed amount of return traffic.
- Attract inbound links, cross-link and facilitate general inter-blogging networking. If you publish credible, relevant and informative posts, other reputable sites will take notice and link back to yours. It is also a good idea to provide links to other industry sites and post comments on other blogs to start developing beneficial networking relationships. In addition, you can also use your blog to cross-link to relevant pages in your own website.
- Create a communication broadcast system that is instantly indexed by Google. Blogs are the easiest way to instantly communicate information with your audience. They can be published with just a few clicks of your mouse, and Google instantly indexes them. Industry-relevant and keyword-rich information that Google immediately recognizes – what could be better?
In addition to these important benefits, blogging can also help your company communicate with target markets, establish authority in the industry, increase brand recognition, and rank for long tail terms. Blogs bring quality search traffic to your site while improving your visibility and presence in search engine results.
The benefits of blogs are many, and here at Fathom SEO we strongly encourage our clients to set up and maintain an informative, beneficial and SEO-friendly blog. As part of our Search Engine Ranking and Visibility (SERV) Program, our specialists provide blog consultation that can include everything from content and tagging suggestions to the complete establishment of a new blog.
Photo courtesy of cambodia4kidsorg on Flickr
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From the “stuff I wish I knew back then” category, let’s talk about the subtle but important differences between Facebook Fan Pages and Facebook Groups.
I’m a big fan (no pun intended) of using Facebook to broaden a project’s audience and reach out to potential customers. If you use it correctly, Facebook can be an amazing tool to probe your target market, distribute mass calls-to-action, and build brand recognition.
Notice that I said “if you use it correctly.” It’s also easy to waste a lot of time on Facebook if you don’t implement the right strategy. An important part of that is how you setup and use Facebook Fan Pages and Facebook Groups.
Here’s my suggestion in a nutshell: You should use Facebook Fan Pages for building a social community around your project and for search engine optimization. You should use Facebook Groups for calls-to-action and mass messaging.
This is stuff that I wish I knew when I started using Facebook for marketing about a year ago, because it would have saved me a lot of time and effort. Let me key you in on my reasoning.
Facebook Fan Pages
The upside of Fan Pages is that they are much more visible to people searching for your product online. Fan Pages are indexed in the search engines, and often show up in a Google search for your product. They usually inspire more interaction among members on the page wall, and are a great way for legitimate fans to communicate with each other.
And like I said, Facebook Fan Pages are great for SEO. The links you post to a Fan Page are do-follow, so they are indexed by Google, and you have the ability to feed blog posts to automatically publish to the page.
Here’s the bad thing about Facebook Fan Pages, though: if you are the Fan Page administrator, bulk messages that you send to fans do not appear in their Facebook inbox. Instead, they appear in the notification bar on the right hand side of their profile.
That’s important stuff, because it means that all messages you send to fans are going to be pretty much overlooked.
Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups, on the other hand, solve the problem of sending a visible message to every single member. As the administrator, when you send a message to all members of a Facebook Group, it goes directly into their inbox.
From a marketing standpoint, I can’t stress enough how important it is to be able to send bulk messages to all members of a Facebook Group. While groups don’t really nurture the kind of visibility and community interaction that fan pages do, they are an excellent way to get information out to your target market quickly.
Before I realized this vital bit of info, I spent weeks building up huge Fan Page memberships with the intention of marketing to them via mass inbox messaging. I wanted to kick myself when I realized that I actually couldn’t send bulk messages to fans, after all.
So, What Should You Use: Fan Pages or Groups?
Facebook Fan Pages and Facebook Groups both have an upside and a downside depending on what your goals are. If you want to let your users build a community that encourages them interact online and talk about your product with minimal work on your part, then a Fan Page is probably the best choice.
Groups, on the other hand, are a better option if you want to reach out and deliver frequent calls-to-action to everyone who joins. One common-sense tip, though: don’t send out messages to your Facebook Group members too often, or they are likely to ignore you or leave the group.
Do you have any experiences you’d like to share about Facebook or social media marketing? Please leave a comment below and let us know. In the future I’ll be focusing more on tactics that will help grow your fans and group members, so be sure to subscribe to the Fathom SEO Blog RSS Feed to keep up-to-date.
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Kevin Lewalk
Web Designer / Graphic Designer
Areas of Specialization:
Web Design and Layout
Leadership Role:
I create user friendly and SEO friendly web pages. I also create Logo designs and branding.
Best Thing About Working at Fathom SEO:
The atmosphere is very energetic and uplifting. The people here are a great bunch of co-workers. They are always helpful and supportive to each other.
Most Challenging Aspect of Your Job:
Keep up with best practices within the SEO world of web design
Most Rewarding Aspect of Your Job:
Conquering, keeping up with the best practices of SEO and the design falls together.
Education:
Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Akron University
Hobbies:
Hiking, Camping, Restoring Muscle Cars, Kayaking
Favorite Place to Eat Lunch:
Reddi’s Pizza – great small Italian restaurant
Favorite Quote:
For now it’s “don’t waste your time….EMBRACE IT….and then you’ll know yourself”
