Social Media and SEO: 5 Essential Steps to Success

by Lee Odden
CEO of TopRank Online Marketing and editor at Online Marketing Blog.

Now more than ever, company marketers are charged with improving performance with fewer resources and shifting marketing budgets from traditional to digital tactics like SEO and social media. There are significant benefits from combining search engine optimization and social media marketing tactics ranging from increased social network discovery via search to the ability to attract links for improved SEO.

Making the most out of combining SEO insights with social media marketing tactics can be accomplished with a roadmap that identifies the audience you’re after, the goals you’re trying to reach (and can measure) as well as a strategy that sets the stage for the tactics you’ll use to execute your game plan. Read on to get a better understanding of how SEO and social media complement each other and a step by step guide for creating a social media roadmap.

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The benefits of SEO and social media

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From a marketing standpoint, you can look at the benefits of SEO and social media two different ways.

First, implementing a social media marketing program without optimizing content is leaving money on the table. Useful social content (blog, video, images, audio) that cannot be discovered via search is a lost opportunity to reach an audience that is looking.

For example, The Student LoanDown, the popular blog about student loans and college financing from Wells Fargo, identifies 29 keywords in its Keyword Meta Tag and doesn’t rank in Google’s first page for 26 of them. Those that do rank are variations of the blog’s name.


While there is a generous amount of cross linking within posts, a basic blog template optimization effort leveraging keywords and other minor adjustments could improve search traffic for this site substantially – without any compromise in content quality or user experience.

Social interactions and media sharing amongst social network participants create the kind of content that can improve a brand’s visibility within search results through profiles, videos, blog posts, or other media. A good example is Stormhoek wines’ first page Google rankings including blogs, Facebook and Twitter.


On the flip side, implementing SEO programs without leveraging the content distribution and linking benefits of social web participation makes link building for SEO an uphill battle. The nature of the social web encourages participation: sharing, voting, commenting and linking. Popular social content gets exposure, traffic and can result in a substantial number of relevant inbound links.


The famous Blendtec iPhone video has attracted over 6,000 links resulting in a top ten ranking on Google for the word, “blender.”


Content + Links = Search Engine Success.

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Social media roadmap

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However you look at it, SEO and social media work well together as long as there is a framework for doing so. One way to build SEO and social media programs efficiently is to follow a social media roadmap:



1. Find the audience; understand their behaviors, preferences, methods of publishing, and sharing. Most companies that are involved with the social web in the channels where their customers spend time have a good sense of where to start. Many companies are ahead of the game by tracking their audience via social media monitoring software that identifies keywords, conversations and influencers such as those pictured in the Radian6 screen shot below.


2. Define your objectives. Objectives are often driven by marketing or sales, and SEO has long been directly accountable to substantial improvements in web sales. Social media is not direct marketing though, so different objectives and measurements apply. The role of SEO in a social media effort is to directly influence discovery of social communities or content via search. Do a search for Zappos on Google, for example, and you’ll easily find more than shoes: Twitter, Blog and a YouTube channel are all on the first page of search results.


Indirectly, social content can boost links to website content, improving search traffic and online sales.

3. Establish a game plan. The game plan for reaching objectives in a combined SEO and social media effort will often focus on content and interaction, since it is content that people discover and share. Whether a keyword-focused strategy for reaching goals means publishing new content or creating an opportunity for consumer-generated content, it must involve proactive promotion and easy sharing amongst members of the community.

4. Create a tactical mix. The tactical mix for a social media marketing effort is based on doing the homework of finding where the desired audience spends its time interacting with and sharing content. Whatever the tactical mix is, it’s an investment in time and relationships – not a short term “link dump” to promote optimized link bait. Much of the content creation and promotion for a social media marketing effort happens within the tactical mix and, of course, that means optimizing content for keywords.



Whether content is created by marketers as part of a social destination like a niche community or a promotion vehicle such as an interactive ad, keyword glossaries become useful for writing headlines, deciding on anchor text for links and outreach activities like blogger relations.

5. Measure your goals. Goals measurement should roll up to the specific objectives, both direct and indirect. Leveraging both social media monitoring services as well as web analytics can provide marketers with the insight to improve results. Radian6 and Webtrends have recently announced a partnership that will bring web analytics and social media analytics together all in one interface. In the meantime, marketers can use specific measurement tools to monitor the effect of their social web participation as well as the search engine performance of SEO efforts.

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Extend the value of your investment

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By involving SEO insight in a social media marketing effort and vice versa, marketers, public relations professionals and advertisers can extend the value of their investment. Well optimized social media content marketing efforts can attract new network participants via search. News content that experiences distribution via social news and bookmarking channels can facilitate links to company website content directly and indirectly. Advertisers that fund social media campaigns can continue to realize the traffic benefit from keyword-optimized interactive content long after the campaign has ended.

HOW TO: Use Social Media for Travel Research

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by Ben Parr

Whether you’re traveling to another city, state, or continent, putting in a few hours to do your homework can mean the difference between a great vacation and a week full of headaches. Finding great local restaurants, comfortable sleeping accomodations, and hidden gems should be on the top of your travel list, no matter if it’s a one day business trip or a permanent move to Thailand.

In the past, this type of information was exclusive to travel agents and generic travel books. However, with the rise of social media and stronger interconnectivity, you can get the real story, avoid the tourist traps, and meet real locals. This guide provides an overview of tips and tools for using social media as a travel research tool.

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Step 1. Utilize Wikis and Blogs for Travel Education

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A wealth of information and tips are available in blogs, user comments, and wiki articles. These will provide you with the information found in most travel books, but in a condensed and searchable format. Blogs and wikis have a more human element to them as well - the debates users have on these articles helps combine the best information from multiple minds, instead of relying on the opinions and advice of one or two authors. Some places to visit:

Wikipedia reviews - Wikipedia goes without saying, but make sure to read the discussion on the cities and countries you are traveling to; these reveal some great information.

Wikitravel - Wikitravel is an impressive collection of user-generated guides to destinations across the world. It covers food, hotels, events, and even the safety of different locations.

Gadling - Gadling is a popular travel blog, part of the AOL Weblogs network. It is filled with a wealth of travel information

Concierge - Concierge is a Condé Nast magazine, but also has a great series of blogs for those interested in smart traveling, learning about new destinations, or even culinary delights.


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Step 2. Scope Out Locales Using User Reviews

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Picking out the best restaurants is tough, so let others do the work for you. Social media is a great way to share reviews of restaurants, tourist destinations, and local businesses. You can pick out some top destinations beforehand or at least avoid locations with bad reputations.

The most common user review website for travelers are YelpYelp reviews, and Tripadvisor. But when you’re on the ground, be sure to use Where To? for the iPhone. Where To? connects to Google MapsGoogle Maps reviews and your GPS to find points of interest.


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Step 3. Connect With Locals

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You’ve found information on the location you’re visiting, and now you’ve read user reviews of top restaurants. Now what? It’s time to really use social media to your advantage. Make new friends in the areas you are going to visit using social networks and social media.

Social media is entirely about people and the information they have. You’d be surprised how willing they are to share their first-hand knowledge. Some useful tips:

@reply locals using TwitterTwitter reviews: Twitter is the perfect platform for open conversations about locations. Use the near:location Twitter Search command to find recent tweets near any major city. And then just introduce yourself and ask some questions.

Search your FacebookFacebook reviews friends by location: Take a look at your existing network to see if any of your current friends grew up or currently live in your destination. You would be surprised to find out how many different and unique locales your friends have lived at.

Meet up with the locals you connect with: If it’s within your comfort zone, it’s always an interesting time when you actually meet the locals you talk to. Have them show you the ins-and-outs of the city or the countryside. But do your research on the people you meet for your own safety. Read their blog, their tweets, and friend them on Facebook.

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Step 4. Share Your Travel Experience

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None of this information would be available to you if it were not for the hard work of others to put it in digital form. So return the favor and add your experiences to a wiki, tweet about the attractions you visit, and be open to answering questions about your own hometown.

Social media is a great research tool, especially for things as subjective and personal as travel destinations. Utilizing the reviews and thoughts of others can make your trip a lot more exciting and a lot less stressful. Travel to get away from the stress, not to add to it.
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Facebook May Be Traffic Driver, but Won't Reap Search Dollars

Why Social Media Is Complementary to SEM

Posted by Peter Hershberg

I'm a big believer in the notion that search marketing and social-media marketing go hand in hand with one another. I've seen firsthand how they interact on search results pages and how insights from one channel can have an impact on the marketing efforts for both. What does seem odd to me is that some marketers and observers seem to view search and social media as oppositional either-or propositions.

Now, knowing the growing impact of social media, it was only a matter of time until we started seeing headlines like the recent Ad Age article titled "Facebook Sending More Traffic Than Google to Some Sites." It's an interesting article and well worth reading, but what really got my attention right off the bat was this sub-headline, "Will Search-Marketing Dollars Also Shift to Social Media?"

The answer to that question is no, they will not -- at least in the short term. However, SEO may become a bigger factor in maximizing social media's impact in a search environment as the channel begins to mature and find a way to successful monetization through marketing.

Granted, the massive number of consumers using social media platforms presents a huge opportunity for marketers. The problem right now, however, is that most social networks currently offer advertising programs that do little, if anything, to align the interests of consumers, advertisers and the platforms themselves.

Social networks do drive huge amounts of traffic, but the campaigns we -- and many other marketers -- run typically don't involve paying a site money, largely because the paid ad programs they have offer no real incremental benefit to our clients (through data, targeting, etc.) above and beyond what we'd get for reaching out to people in a more direct fashion.

It's a phenomenon that can be seen in the latest Forrester Research report on social media. Forrester found that social media marketing budgets are currently incremental at best (though they are expected to increase substantially.) The real spend on social media occurs in places that can't be measured by looking at money coming into social platforms. Rather, it's in budget that's used to optimize brand profiles, initiate and monitor conversations, and to spread access to other assets like television ads on sites like YouTube.

To see just what I mean, I think it's illustrative to add context that tells us why some sites are benefiting from visibility on Facebook in comparison to Google. The specific sites the article highlights are PerezHilton.com, Dlisted, CafeMom, Evite and video site Tagged.com. As the article notes, there are a variety of reasons why Facebook has turned into a big traffic-driver for each of them compared to Google.

CafeMom has a Facebook fan page, which undoubtedly drives traffic back to its site. As for Evite, it seems fairly obvious that people don't typically visit a search engine like Google or Yahoo to see what events they've been invited to. More likely, Facebook is being used to bring a group of people together around a single event (there are currently 413 of them that show up when doing a search for "Evite" on Facebook events) and then clicking-through from Facebook to an Evite page to RSVP after they've learned about the event. Lastly, Tagged.com benefits from the popularity of video clip posting and sharing within Facebook – many of those users ultimately end up visiting the site where the original video was posted.

I suspect Perez Hilton and Dlisted appear on this list for similar reasons. People who are fanatical about celebrity gossip know what sites they're going to visit every day (or many times a day) for the latest news. And when they see something of interest, they're undoubtedly sharing links across Facebook, which ultimately drives some of the people they're connected to back the original site to read the full story.

In comparison, when it comes to generating organic search traffic, gossip sites suffer from the same problem as other news tabloids do -- specifically, witty headlines that resonate with users (e.g. "Life's a Beach" headline for a post about Paris Hilton and some guy named Doug Reinhardt on the beach), but mean nothing to search engines trying to determine relevant content. As a result, these stories typically struggle to rank well organically on sites like Google which in turn does not send significant volumes of visitors to these sites.

With all that in mind, if you agree that the Facebook traffic the article is referencing was primarily driven by shared links, then Facebook isn't benefiting from it in any way. There is no paid media component to talk about and therefore, no dollars currently being spent in search that could possibly go towards this effort in social media. Outside of fees that could have been paid to an agency, it's basically free traffic. I don't believe that Perez Hilton, for instance, is making media buys on Facebook, but people share links to his stories like crazy and significant traffic is being driven to his site as a result.

I would also bet that there is some percentage of traffic that was ultimately driven by Facebook, but actually originated from a search engine. In other words, someone went to Google, found a link to a Facebook profile, and then clicked on a posted link and ultimately through to a company's website. In this instance, search and social media are complimentary, not competitive.

Ultimately social media properties like Facebook and Twitter will be indexed by the major search engines on a more regular basis, filling the need for "real-time" search and offering more relevant content. As this happens, the traffic these sites drive across the web will be much, much greater than what we've seen to date. In the short term, I don't believe that will ultimately equate to media dollars being reallocated from search to social-media properties, but you could make a case that it leads to a greater investment in initiatives like SEO to tie these together in an more meaningful way.

In the long term, all of this might change as social media platforms discover ways to monetize that brings marketers and users together to the benefit of all of the parties involved.

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Peter Hershberg is managing partner at Reprise Media @hershberg on Twitter)

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