how to create a dynamic social keyword strategy

How to Create a Social Keyword Strategy

Francis Skipper EVP of Digital Marketing

617.259.1605

francis@451marketing.com

linkedin.com/in/francisskipper

@fskip

• State of Search Marketing – Overview

– Google Hummingbird

– Social signaling

• Social Keyword Strategy

– Defining keywords

– Executing keyword strategy

– Content marketing

Agenda

STATE OF

SEARCH

5,134,000,000 Per Day

Worldwide, 1,873,910,000,000 searches

conducted on Google last year.

Paid Results

Organic Results

Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

Search Query

• 75% don’t go beyond the first page

of results (positions 1-10)*

• Over 40% of users click the

first ranking site on search engines*

• 39% of customers come from a

search engine**

Search Engine User Behavior

* http://ipoint-tech.com/surprising-seo-statistics-2013/ ** http://www.marketingcharts.com/direct/search-engines-growing-source-of-customers-for-online- merchants-21781/

. . . is Constantly Changing

circa 2000

circa 2010

Today

Use

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atu

res

Maj

or

Alg

ori

thm

C

han

ges

PANDA Feb 2011

PENGUIN April 2012

HUMMINGBIRD September 2013

Fulfill complex search requests through semantic search

Rank of “Low-Quality” or “Thin” links

Rank of “High-Quality” links

Rank of websites violating Google’s Webmaster Guidelines

Semantic Search

“Real” or “Conversational” search queries

Semantic Search

Semantic Search

Pomegranate vs cranberry juice

Semantic Search

“We do use Twitter and Facebook links in ranking as we always have in our web search rankings”

-Matt Cutts

December 2010 . . .

YOUR BRAND

YOUR BRAND

YOUR BRAND

YOUR BRAND

Concept: Digital Shelf Space

YOUR BRAND

YOUR BRAND

YOUR BRAND

YOUR BRAND

YOUR BRAND

YOUR BRAND

YOUR BRAND

YOUR BRAND

YOUR BRAND

YOUR BRAND

Digital Shelf Space: Maximized

Likes, Shares, Follows

Social Media

Search Traffic

Queries Indirect

Social Media

Search Results

SEO Direct

Social Media

Page Ranking

Social Signals

Pre-2010

2010

Today

Evolution of Search and Social

“Sike! Suckers…”

-Matt Cutts

A few months ago . . .

But we’ve seen the correlation

Content Quality & Accessibility

Keyword Research & Targeting

Link Building

Traditional Ranking Factors

Content Quality & Accessibility

Keyword Research & Targeting

Link Building

Social

New Social Ranking Factors

• How many social followers/fans you have

• How many re-tweets, likes, shares, +1s, embeds

• Who is sharing your content: their authority, their reputation

• Popularity and quality of content

• Timeliness and “trust” of content

• Patterns

Social Ranking Factors

There is no silver bullet.

With Semantic Search and Social Signals in mind …

OPTIMIZE ALL POSTS

ENCOURAGE USE

PORTABLE CONTENT

CHOOSE THE

RIGHT KEYWORDS

SOCIAL KEYWORD STRATEGY

• Come up with a list of 10 keywords that

includes: • 5 static terms you would like to rank

for throughout the year • 5 flexible terms that change with the

content on your site or blog.

• Start this process by checking your Google Analytics account and finding your top keywords

• Round off your list with “must win” keywords. These are terms you would like to consistently rank higher.

Google’s Keyword Tool has been replaced by Keyword Planner.

With Keyword Planner, we research keywords as well as get performance statistics and traffic estimates

• Before you solidify your list, you should enter your keywords into the Google Trends tool.

• If the graph shows very little activity for “head” terms, you may want to reconsider using them.

• Low activity on “long tail” terms may be an avenue of opportunity

Choosing Social Keywords

Pag

e R

anki

ng

Level of Effort

“Low-hanging fruit”

How to ID “LHF”

34

*Optional – tag keywords as LHF and watch growth

Send these to social!!

Optimize Blogs

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Rewarding Social Sharing

• Informational Queries

• Answers • How to’s • Top 5’s

“Ride the News” – Trending Topics

But be careful…

Links to social properties on website

Share buttons with content

Case Study: Pine Cone Hill

• Pine Cone Hill featured “matelassé” “quilts” in content throughout early summer across multiple social platforms

• Kwd -specific posts were promoted through mid-August and resulted in social shares

• September 1st –keywords see an increase in rankings

• Incremental Sales Increase during this period

Matelassé Quilts

Case Study: Pine Cone Hill

• Despite Google’s constant changes, strong social signals and content marketing can create tangible business value

• Having and implementing a relevant and social keyword strategy to enhance search efforts makes sense

• Focus on content that provide solutions to your customer’s questions and needs.

• Always be optimizing. Constantly be using your social keyword

strategy, as well as updating your flexible keywords based on trends

Takeaways:

Questions?

Francis Skipper EVP of Digital Marketing

617.259.1605

francis@451marketing.com

linkedin.com/in/francisskipper

@fskip

How to Create a Dynamic Keyword Strategy