digitalNOW Search, Social & Beyond

Who’s the speaker today?

Duane Forrester

@duaneforrester

Bing Webmaster ToolsSpeaks at shows, runs community and blog, provides guidance on new WM toolswww.bing.com/toolbox/webmasters

Does he have a clue?15+ years as an inhouse SEO; ran SEO at MSN; has helped Disney, GAP, Walmart, GM & morehttp://www.linkedin.com/in/dforrester

And this helps me how?Blogging since 2001; owns 150 domains; makes money online with his own siteshttp://twitter.com/DuaneForrester

what does duane do at bing

Data Points

Image credit: www.conducthq.com

That means, that in one week, we ingest more data into Bing than the number of webpages that existed in 2005.

Mobile will continue to influence social

The ultimate “PC”

Not just phones

9B today

25B by 2021

The Digital Universe is Expanding…

2 Billion Facebook updates per day

300 MillionFacebook photos per day

150 MillionSnapchat photos per day

400 MillionTweets per day

5 MillionFoursquare check-ins per day

• Importance is relative• Use as a guide – no item is unimportant

Where Do I Invest My Time?

Content Social User Experience Link Building SEO

Content

• Searchers seek content

• Not after “the best optimized site”

• They have a question, you supply the answer

• We watch to see how people interact with content

• This will always be #1 to us

• Wins - Quality, deep, authoritative, unique

• Loses – Duplicate, thin, low quality

There are no shortcuts – quality content requires investment

Social

• Use “hooks” and track reactions

• Signal of topical authority

• Real-time – engines want fresh content, fast

• Integrated social signals influence click actions of searchers

• Social signals remain only a few of thousands of signals for organic ranking

Social = You influencing people who in turn influence us.

http://www.kyleclouse.com/social-media-marketing/

UX

• Not sexy, but a wise investment

• Usability impresses visitors

• Invest in your platform and design

• Happy visitors are repeat visitors who share with friends

• Usability is a dedicated field – you can’t bluff your way through

I’d put money into UX before SEO, as it supports SEO

Link Building

• Build links for traffic

• Don’t buy links

• Links will always have some value – though maybe not what you think

• Don’t overlook internal link building

• If you nail Content, UX and Social, this is covered

What would you do if links had no value in the algo?

SEO

• Still valuable

• Technical SEO can make a difference

• Foundational work – no doing it? Get left behind

• Used in combination w/other tactics, you can be successful

SEO is the process of improving your website for searchers and crawlers

Search continues to evolve

New devices = new solutionsReal time signals help us understandAnything could be a search – voice, a picture, a gesture, sound – anything. 

The Secret to Success

• Build social followers & fans organically

• Wall posts/tweets with links are perceived as more credible and useful

• Get the basics of SEO covered, then focus on content

• Its worth repeating: unique, compelling content still works

Encourage more Sharing

• So you want more shares for your content, do you? Try these ideas.

• Create lists: people love to consume content in list-form. Its quick, easy and simple.

• Use hooks: ego, humor, anger, contrarian – be careful with them, but when used well, they are highly effective.

• Participate in communities: when you are valued member of a community, the community supports you.

• Share others’ information: people love when what they share gets shared itself. Share from trusted sources.

• Ask questions: your followers will love the interaction and it’ll grow your following as others engage.

Today’s Integrations

Image credit: www.conducthq.com

Today’s Integrations – You Want In?

• Twitter – be relevant, share lots, grow your followers organically – grow your brand

• LinkedIn – keep your profile clean, current and complete – be an expert

• Klout – grow your ranking – follow their suggestions and take actions that make sense

• Facebook – Manage your page, share useful content, grow your following

What makes your relevant in each space can help your appear in social annotations

There is no tool for inclusion

The algo decides what’s relevant, where and when, then pulls in data based on each query’s situation

Global Conversation

Image credit: www.conducthq.com

Image credit: www.conducthq.com

Twitter on NYE 2010

6 seconds to start a relationship

• Vine – you know it, but are you using it?

• Lowes, Kate Spade, Urban Outfitters, GE, A&W, Mailchimp and more

• Using Vine to share knowledge, entice engagement, entertain and offer behind the scene glimpses

• 6 second becomes many minutes of engagement

http://socialmediatoday.com/julie-blakley/1516266/7-brands-getting-creative-vine

New Top Level Domains (TLDs)

Keep it relevant

No immediate lift due to TLD

Like so many before, if spammed, it can hurt

Think & plan before investing

More SEO• Crawlability

– Xml sitemaps– Navigational structure– Rich media cautions– Graceful degradation– URL structure– Robots.txt

• Site Structure– Links– URL structure and keyword usage– Clean URLs – no extraneous parameters (sessions,

tracking, etc.)– HTML & XML sitemaps– Content hierarchy– Global navigation – springs form hierarchy planning +

style of nav (breadcrumb, link lists, etc.)– Rich media – don’t bury links in Javascript/flash

/silverlight/AJAX

• On-Page– Head copy

• Titles – unique, relevant, 60 characters or so long• Descriptions – unique, relevant, grammatically correct, 160 or

fewer characters (Google shows up to 160 characters)

– Body Copy• H1, H2 and other H tag usage• ALT tag importance & usage• Keyword usage within the content/text – see “Perfectly

Optimized Page” image• Anchor text – using target keywords to support other internal

pages

• Content– Build based on keyword research– Down-level experience enhances discoverability– Keep out of rich media and images– 250 words per page or more– Produce new content frequently– Make it unique – don’t reuse content from other

sources– Content management – using 301s to reclaim value

from retiring content/pages– <LINK> canonical to help engines understand which

page should be indexed and have value attributed to it– 404 error page management to help cleanse old pages

from search engine indexes

• Links– Plan for incoming & outgoing link generation– Internal & external link management– Content selection – planning where to link to– Link promotion via social spaces – direct traffic & seo

value– Managing anchor text properly– URL structure can help insert keywords where they are

needed

• Social– Build your community– Interact often– Share useful content– Be consistent and useful– Grow facebook, twitter, etc.

Webmaster Guidelines: http://www.bing.com/webmaster/help/webmaster-guidelines-30fba23a

Core StrategiesOp. Strategies Tactics

Plan … or #FAIL

Oh, and here’s a streamlining trick for ya!

• Moving forward, how to provide value and grow an asset?

• People want relevant information• People have little time to sort & sift• They want a trusted, reliable source• Picked a niche; start the plan

Trusted RSS feeds

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Copy & Paste

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Tools to get the work done

Bing Webmaster Tools – www.bing.com/webmaster (SEO reporting, link development)For Twitter

Hootsuite – www.hootsuite.com $9.99/month for PRO (I use this)Tweetbot - tapbots.com/software/tweetbot/ Echfon - www.echofon.com/

For InstagramStatigram - statigr.am/ (stats for IG)Instafriends - inst.me/ (manage friends at Instagram)

For PinterestCuralate - www.curalate.com/ (Analytics & Marketing)

Evernote – www.evernote.com (Data collection point)IFTTT – www.ifttt.com (connector of dots)Elastic.io - http://elastic.io/about.htmlZapier - https://zapier.com/#Trackur - www.trackur.com (social media analytics)Social Management Platforms

Sprinklr - www.sprinklr.com/ (enterprise level gear) Visible - www.visibletechnologies.com/ (SM monitoring, analytics & engagement)

Social Mention – www.socialmention.com – cool search engine to see stats on queries

18 Social Media Management Tools

• Alexa.com• Board Reader• Sysomos • Facebook Insights• Follower Wonk• Google Insights• How Sociable • Ice Rocket trends • Buffer

• Klout

• Peerindex

• Kred

• Mention Map

• Social Mention

• Statigram

• Twitter Counter

• Tweetreach

• Visual.ly

& Beyond…

• Next generation of local

• Mobile everywhere

• New technologies

• New marketing opportunities

• Evolve to succeed

Final Thought

• As with so many things, it’s about quality, not quantity

• Try for shortcuts, and you’ll get cut and come up short

• Build a legit social community and they will amplify your goodness for us to see

• Build for the long term

© 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

@duaneforrester