iCrossing Summer Event 2011, Social Signals and Search. Royal Opera House, July 2011. Director of Natural Search, Addam Hassan

1. SOCIAL SIGNALS & SEARCH
THE CONNECTIONS & OPPORTUNITIES
ICROSSING, 22ND JULY 2011

2. TODAY’S OBJECTIVE
To show you why search engines are using
social signals to determine their
algorithms and the way they display
results
To show you what needs to happen next to
your search & social strategy to take
advantage of these changes

3. AGENDA
 About me
 Why search engines are finally taking social signals seriously
 How social media integrates with search engines
 The science bit
 Reaction & recommendations
 Panel session

4. ABOUT ME

5. Social Signals
Influencing ABOUT ME
Search Results
5

6. WHY SEARCH ENGINES ARE
TAKING SOCIAL SIGNALS
SERIOUSLY

9. LET’S FOCUS ON THESE PLATFORMS

10. TWITTER: THE 140 CHARACTER PHENOMENON
“We came across the word ‘twitter’, and it
was just perfect. The definition was a
‘short burst of inconsequential
information’, and ‘chirps from birds’ And
that’s exactly what the product was”
Jack Dorsey, Twitter Founder
200 MILLION USERS

11. FACEBOOK: MORE FRIENDS THAN TOM DREAMED OF
“People have really gotten comfortable
not only sharing more information and
different kinds, but more openly and with
more people - and that social norm is just
something that has evolved over time.”
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Founder
750 MILLION USERS

12. GOOGLE+ - THE BEST PRODUCT NAME EVER?
“People thought we were crazy – they said there was
no money to be made in search over and above a bit
of banner advertising. Fast forward to today – it feels
like we’re watching the same movie again in slow
motion. We have a tremendous new businesses being
viewed as crazy.”
Larry Page, Google co-founder
10 MILLION USERS

13. HOW SOCIAL MEDIA INTEGRATES
WITH SEARCH ENGINES

15. BING TAKING THE CHALLENGE – AND THE LEAD?
90% of people seek advice from family and friends as part
of the decision making process
Bing will surface results, which may typically have been on
page three or four, higher in its results based on stuff your
friends have liked

16. GOOGLE EVOLUTION
 ………………

17. WHO AM I CONNECTED TO
 ………………

18. THE SCIENCE BIT

19. WHAT DO PEOPLE THINK
 There is a clear correlation between
social signals (tweets and shares) and
sites ranking well
 Correlation is NOT causation though
Rand does say the correlation is high in
his opinion

20. WHAT DO PEOPLE THINK
 Can help pages get indexed via Twitter
scrape sites
 Third party sites can provide inbound
links that positively supports the
traditional ranking method of gaining
links

22. WHAT WILL HAPPEN WITH GOOGLE?

23. REACTION & RECOMMENDATIONS

24. LINK TACTICS FRAMEWORK
˃ Directories > Article submission to blog network > Internal Linking
˃ Anchor text Reconfiguration > Blogger Add-In – Zemanta > Industry links – sourcing internal gov & edu comms
> Blogger Events > Branch & store Linking opportunities
˃ Broken link reconfigurations
> Link Bait > Intern & graduate career pages
˃ Asset consolidation (domains)
> Domain purchasing > Secondary link building
˃ Free link request
> Partnerships > Question marketing
˃ Widgets
> Affiliates > News, articles & blog internal linking
˃ Video widgets
> Social Prompts > Social bookmarks
˃ Press Releases
> Competitions > Local link opportunities
˃ PR Summary
> Infographics > Link opportunity training – PR team
˃ Article Syndication
> Vouchers > Authoritative content generation
˃ Advertorials
> Competitions > Client training
˃ Text Adverts
> Quizzes > Product giveaways
˃ Blogger Outreach
> Top Tens > Group cross linking
˃ Guest Blogging > Twitter promotion campaigns linking back to > Facebook corporate pages
landing URLs
˃ Content – onsite & offsite > Hearst Properties
24

25. LINK TACTICS FRAMEWORK
˃ > Internal Linking
Directories > Article submission to blog network
˃ Anchor text Reconfiguration > Industry links – sourcing internal gov & edu comms
> Blogger Add-In – Zemanta
˃ Broken link reconfigurations > Branch & store linking/blogging
> Blogger Events
˃ Asset consolidation (domains) opportunities
> Link Bait
˃ Free link request > Intern & graduate career pages
> Domain purchasing
˃ Widgets > Secondary link building
> Partnerships
˃ Video widgets > Question marketing
> Affiliates
> Press Releases > News, articles & blog internal linking
> Social Prompts
> Social bookmarks
> PR Summary > Social Buttons
> Local link opportunities
˃ Article Syndication > Infographics > Link opportunity training – PR team
˃ Advertorials
> Vouchers > Authoritative content generation
˃ Text Adverts
> Competitions > Client training
> Blogger Outreach
> Quizzes > Product giveaways
> Guest Blogging > Top Tens > Group cross linking
> Twitter promotion campaigns > Facebook corporate pages
> Content – onsite & offsite
25 linking back to landing URLs
> Hearst Properties

26. ROADMAP RATIONALE
Site
Architecture
User data On page
signals factors
Factor strength
Search Links – paid
Social media
signals
Engine media
High Low
Visibility placement
Links –
Links –
content
online PR
strategy
Links –
outreach

27. AGENCIES OPTIMISE

28. THANK YOU
@ADDHASS