how to create a dynamic social keyword strategy
DESCRIPTION
When you’re planning marketing communications, it is increasingly important to optimize every outlet that might populate or affect your company’s search results or “digital shelf space.” As social signals become more and more prevalent in determining organic search results and rankings, it’s essential for companies you to create a dynamic keyword strategy for social media campaigns. In this 451 Marketing webinar, our Executive Vice President of Digital Marketing Francis Skipper outlines: - The increasing impact of social media on search engine results - How to define the top keywords for your social media campaigns - How to craft and execute your brand’s strategy to enhance posts’ rankings in search enginesTRANSCRIPT
How to Create a Social Keyword Strategy
Francis Skipper EVP of Digital Marketing
617.259.1605
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
r fe
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
linkedin.com/in/francisskipper
@fskip
How to Create a Dynamic Keyword Strategy