Ever since Google launched the Search Plus Your World (SPYW) feature in their search results, “social signals” have become a hot buzz phrase to describe the way Google has adapted their ranking algorithm to take social media into consideration. We understand that it can be a bit confusing, all of a sudden you see pictures of your friends in the search results and wonder if Google is keeping tabs on you (and your brand) now that you have a Google+ account. The short answer is yes, and it has for a long time – Even before Google+ was even a glimmer in Larry Page’s eye. This is just the first time you have seen it so visually displayed. Don’t worry, though. They haven’t completely thrown their “Don’t Be Evil” motto out of the window. Google+ and SPYW are merely new ways to find content and info relevant to you and your brand based on what you search and what your friends like through social media. It’s about tailoring your search results (and on-page Ads) for you.

Now, let us explain what the “social signals” hoopla is all about. 

A social signal is a digital “vote” for a link. When you view social signals in this context, it is easier to understand the bigger picture of what it means for search. For example: When you +1 a sweater on the ASOS.com’s website, you are casing a vote in favor of that link. A vote cast by liking or sharing equates to authority by you of that page. You are saying to Google “this is relevant to me and this is what I like.” The next time you search for a new scarf you may see a link to ASOS.com’s scarf collection appearing in the top of the results. And, if your best friend +1-ed the Banana Republic page, you may see it listed on the first page as well (provided that you follow your best friend on Google+), because that is what he or she likes.

In a larger context, the more social signals created in favor of a website or a particular product page, the more it impacts it’s search ranking as a whole. By taking on this big picture view of how social signals are part of how Google ranks for pages, you can start to realize what Google+ is really all about. Many journalists and thought leaders in the world of search and social media pontificate about how Google+ compares to Facebook and Twitter, and whether or not it is going to be a key player in the world of social media. They are missing the point, or rather, distracting you from the real point of Google+. What is the real point, you ask? Let’s consider this quote from The B2B Social Media Book by Kipp Bodnar and Jeffery L. Cohen:

Google+ is about maintaing and expanding Google’s dominance in the search engine market. Google+ will likely not have as many users as Facebook, but that doesn’t matter. The value that Google+ holds is that it is a treasure trove of personalized signals of authority that Google owns and does not have to lease from another company that could decide to cut Google off at any moment.

What Bodnar and Cohen are saying is that Google is already competing with the likes of Facebook, Linkedin and even Salesforce.com. These social profiles offer information that is “all signal and no noise” for people plugged into these networks. These sites work like miniature search engines for people with specific questions and answers within the online community where they participate. Even though searches on social networking and blog sites are happening on a vastly smaller scale than on Google’s search engine, they are still searches that are siloed off from Google. Now that Google has married search and social with SPYW, it has the best of both worlds! Social signals are bait for Google to stay relevant in a changing search landscape. When you +1 a post, they have your vote, and have skipped past social sources where they do not have access, and where you have also shared content.

If you now ready to create a  Google+ presence and to participate in Google’s newest search ranking factor, Search Plus Your World, follow along with GPO! Our search marketing strategists have been exploring the space since its inception and have insights from our experiences. In our next article, we will explain, step-by-step, how to set up an optimized Google+ page for your brand so that you can get started.

We debate about social platforms (and their subsequent CRMs) frequently at GPO. Proper retweet etiquette, tweet automation, and incorporating Klout scores into our engagement strategy have all been items up on our morning coffee chopping block. However, one thing we can agree on is that optimizing content exposure is important and crucial to an effective social media marketing strategy. Timing and social profile choice can play a significant role in how people engage (or don’t engage) with your status updates.

The graphic above (via Breaking Copy) is a sarcastic dramatization, but it brings up an important point: Certain types of content perform better on different channels! Facebook, Google+, YouTube, and Flickr (among other media sharing sites) are great choices for images and video because your target audience will not have to navigate away from the page to view the embedded content. Also, the functionality of these social networks allow you to use your text as a call to action, yet keep focus of your status update on the image or video itself.

Has someone from your company given an important public presentation relevant to your industry recently? Post the slides on SlideShare, and use several tags to describe the content and make it easily searchable for others. Hosting your PowerPoint presentations on SlideShare is not only a good SEO strategy, it is also is a widely-shared opportunity to showcase your brand as a thought leader of your industry.

For questions, ditch the “poll” function on Facebook (for now) and ask questions directly in the status update. Now that Google is indexing comments in Facebook (note: this may change in the future), there is real SEO value in getting your keywords and focused topics to show up in the SERPS. Questions with designated hashtags are very good for Twitter as well. You can facilitate a conversation among followers and harbor it all under a searchable tag, which makes it easy for others to chime in. Finally, another great place to post an industry specific question is in a LinkedIn discussion thread.

In summary, your social media marketing goal should be to publish your content-rich status updates in networks where it is easiest and more inviting to engage. Cross promote on all channels to boost your reach, but always keep in mind the advantages and strengths of each social profile you have created for your brand. They are all different for a reason!

Have you considered adding social share buttons to your website or blog as part of your search engine marketing strategy? Although the implementation seems daunting, it is actually an excellent call-to-action for visitors to engage with your content or retail items. According to the inbound marketing big boys at Hubspot.com, “Websites that use Google’s +1 button generated 3.5 times more traffic from Google+ than websites that don’t have the button installed.” That is a compelling nugget of knowledge that is very hard to ignore.

Our search engine maketing interpretation: Out of sight, out of mind. So put yourself out there! Still on the fence? Here are 4 more reasons for you to consider installing a plugin like Socialize or DiggDigg2u on your website:

1. It offers people many ways to share your content directly - Save your readers a few steps! With multiple social share button options (like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, or even personal e-mail) they can save time and avoid any hassles in order to promote your message. If you make it easy, they are more likely to act on their impulse to share relevant content with their friends.

2. It diversifies your web presence – Niche community buttons like StumbleUpon, Digg, Tumblr, Reddit, and LinkedIn are used heavily by those who actively engage with the Tech, Fashion, and Politics communities. If your brand resonates with pop culture gurus, it is a good idea to have a wide portfolio of social buttons and ways to engage.

3. It encourages conversation about your brand or organization – Once a blog is shared via a social share button, another avenue opens up for others to continue the conversation about your blog topic or your brand. Put simply, social share buttons increase visibility. And visibility begets more opportunity for conversation.

4. Social shares become links back to your site – While they may be “no follow” link, social shares still organically increase the amount of unique page views your receive on your site. It’s another case for visibility: The more social paths you create that lead to your content, the greater chances it will be seen by others and shared through 3rd party streams.

Treat your fans like house guests. Make things more comfortable and easier for them when they visit your home[page]. Be open, be friendly and encourage conversation. And make it easier for people to amplify your message through social shares. It is a search engine marketing strategy that is getting very hard to put off!

Last month, we wrote how the combination of search marketing, social media marketing, analytics and consumer experiences can combine to tell a more complete story about how a brand uses the Internet to market products and services. Creating a unique online experience helps answer questions of why the consumer should pay attention to your business and why they should keep coming back to your website or social network. Businesses must also answer the fundamental question of how to build a long-term strategy around these platforms and who will implement and monitor them.

It’s easy to think that experiential marketing is simple. Use a recipe of creating interactive platforms for conversation via social media marketing, provide entertainment, develop funny advertisements and bingo, you will have customers practically knocking down your door. Yet, for many brands, experiential marketing is actually a difficult concept to grasp. In most companies, core competencies center on the manufacture and selling of products and services rather than marketing.

Just as major organizations use an outside advertising agency to create and develop commercials and marketing campaigns such as the E*Trade baby, the development of experiential marketing campaigns often requires experts who can help uncover the key traits of how a brand resonates with consumers. Television and radio advertisements are unidirectional methods of communication with an emphasis on branding.

Search and social media campaigns work similarly to branding; however, these mediums are more adept at translating resonance and connection with the consumer into meaningful methods of educating, entertaining and engaging an audience. Yet, taking the brand experience to the digital realm requires an expertise in facilitating and motivating two-way communications. It’s not always as simple as having an executive assistant manage a Google Adwords or YouTube video campaign.

At Get Page One, we create search and social media marketing plans with your customer in mind. Our core competencies and expertise focus on helping create the brand experience while you concentrate on developing outstanding products and services.

A little more than six years ago, a small startup video-sharing website named YouTube received its very first video upload. At the time, few would have believed that videos on YouTube would eventually receive millions of views each day, or that businesses could effectively use the Internet as a way to broadcast commercials to the public. Video taps into the consumer desire for sight and sound, an audiovisual aspect that can provide an experience that may be difficult to translate into words.

More than just a commercial feature on the Internet that a business may use to reach consumers, video also has an ability to affect organic results within search rankings. However, using web video to aid in a search marketing strategy is not quite as simple as just creating a YouTube channel and uploading a video. In that case, it is unlikely that a video will have any impact on search results. Video SEO is a comprehensive method which draws on the way Google looks at the relevance of the video.

According to a March 2010 article in TechCrunch, Google’s indexing methods can make web video more likely to rank on first page results than the traditional web page. Yet, with all of the sophistication and technology available, when it comes to the algorithms and crawlers that scour the Internet for content, the video itself is actually unseen by Google. Video SEO actually comes down to video sitemaps, robot text files, titles and keywords. In essence, it is still the written word that will factor how Google finds and ultimately ranks videos rather than the content actually contained within the video. Yet it is that content that can funnel traffic to your website.

At Get Page One, we believe video can be an integral part of an overall search marketing strategy and one that taps into the consumer desire to see and hear information that entertains, educates and engages them. If you would like to know how a Video SEO strategy could work for your business, contact us today.

While the practice of searching for local businesses used to stem from flipping through pages found in a several-pound book – now likely stashed away collecting dust somewhere – the consumer is still letting their fingers do the walking. Today, those fingers are both flipping and typing, not on paper, but rather on mobile phones and computers. While business listings in the traditional Yellow Pages and print publications do still exist, the consumer is going digital. For today’s SMB (Small and Medium-sized Business), local search in the online world has taken on even greater importance because shoppers, now more than ever, turn to the search engine and even social networking sites first to discover and buy products and services.

Local search marketing is in essence replacing the traditional Yellow Pages as a method of increasing awareness, while driving both online and foot traffic to the business. Yet, it can be easy to see how an organization may drown in a sea of millions upon millions of search result pages and competing advertisements worldwide. A local search strategy helps optimize these results adding a geographic context to products and services the consumer is actively seeking.

Nonetheless, local search marketing is more than just a business listing on Google Places, paid search advertising or a high ranking in Yahoo or Bing. This comprehensive strategy takes the Yellow Pages ad or listing to an entirely new level with social media marketing and the ability for consumers to connect and search via mobile. For example, social media sites such as YouTube extend local search reach through video, and Facebook Deals let consumers discover local businesses beyond the search engine. Link building through blogs and photo-sharing sites also help tap into the triggers that your customers are using to discover businesses online.

Local search marketing strategies can be an effective tool to attract consumers to your business. If you are unsure of how to get start implementing local search in with your marketing initiatives, Get Page One can help you find out more about this secret weapon.

It may be easy to think that to achieve favorable search results on Google, Bing or Yahoo, simply putting up a video, blogging or posting to Facebook and Twitter will get the job done. However, to achieve optimal results, the combination of search marketing, organic search engine optimization and social media necessitates a cohesive strategic vision. Moreover, this vision is not an end-game approach, but rather an ongoing and flexible process. The need for flexibility stems from the constantly shifting changes in search algorithms and consumer behavior. We are often asked at Get Page One how each of these components operates in tandem to reach results.

While the answers are not always simple, search engines begin the course of online visibility through a complex combination of factors. More than just heading tags, anchor text, backlinks and advertisements, each component in the search process works together to develop placement on search engines, where the best place is, of course, a top ranking. Ideally, through the progression of increasing views and interaction, organizations convert search results into consumer demand and new sales. In a sense, it is akin to a professional baseball team playing for a World Series title. Each element, from pitching and hitting to defense seemingly operate separately. However, these components do not win championships by operating independently. The manager must know when to bunt and steal bases and when to pull the starting pitcher and rely on the bullpen.

Likewise, search marketing, SEO and social media marketing all seemingly function as separate entities. Yet, each has its own objectives. Choosing the right keywords, effective use of ad elements such as targeting and call-to-action, engagement through social networks and measuring results are just a few pieces of the puzzle.

On the Internet, you want to be in the right place at the right time, when the consumer is looking. Each building block in the practice of search marketing helps to realize this goal. Optimal search results typically occur when each building block combines within a comprehensive strategy. Therefore, like a World Championship baseball organization, achieving top Internet ranking is a team effort.

Technological innovation between search engines and social media seems to have taken somewhat divergent paths in recent years. While search engines and social media have seen some integration, recent changes by Google adding a Google social search feature could make the blend between search and social even more relevant.

At Get Page One, we’ve monitored the evolution of search and social, and we are excited about the future prospects in technology and relevance to business. Because many organizations bring in new customers through a combination of online visibility via search marketing, SEO and word-of-mouth (or word-of-web), the latest innovation from Google can possibly be a boon to business.

Google Social Search, as reported by Mashable, feeds information from your social graph into search results. The information shown to the user stems from shared connections and shared information linked to Flickr, Quora and Twitter, social feeds with which Google integrates. In other words, if one of your Twitter friends shared a link to Get Page One, the share would show annotated below the search result.

Marketers and businesses realize the importance of how consumers share information via the social graph, including the trust they have in the recommendations of their Internet friends. Google Social Search adds an element of both visibility and word-of-web.

With the advantages come potential disadvantages. If your organization happens to be experiencing a public relations crisis, the negative publicity might not only feed the search engines, it may also feed more negativity into the social graph, snowballing when picked up in a Google search. At Get Page One, we can help you prepare for and react to an online public relations crisis via our reputation management services.

Despite any disadvantages, advancements between search and social media provide a unique opportunity for companies to extend their reach and influence.

The Future of Search has arrived. Or at least it’s arriving, according to a Google webinar held in late July.

Brian and I sort of attended. “The Future of Search” isn’t a bad name to put on the webinar, although to be honest, the material was really more about economy-driven changes to search behavior and new search tools than about some grand Metropolis-style vision of super-intelligent digital entities surfing for electronic nirvana.

We had a bunch of distractions but here’s my $.02 summary.

• consumers are using search a lot more to get better deals and coupons ‘cuz they’re poor and/or jobless
• the future of search is more intelligent web traffic, and consumers spending more time surfing (probably whilst underwear-clad and jobless)
• users are now using 2-3 keywords in their searches rather than 1, realizing that this results in more relevant results

In addition, Google has 3 new webtoys for our enjoyment:

Searchbased Keyword Tool: a cool new keyword research tool that suggests keywords and keyphrases based on the content on your site. Nice idea.

From Google’s help page on the “sktool”: “The main difference between the Search-based Keyword Tool and the Keyword Tool currently in AdWords is that the former generates keyword ideas based on your website, and identifies those currently not being used in your AdWords account. Additionally, the Search-based Keyword Tool provides more detailed data for each keyword, such as category information, suggested bid that may place the ad in the top three spots of a search results page, and ad/search share. Both tools, however, offer the option of browsing all keywords across all categories.

“You may also notice that some of the data (like such as the monthly search volume) may vary slightly between the two tools, which is due to different methods of calculation at this time.”

Website Optimizer: for super-intense conversion analysis of high-traffic pages.

With this thing, you make a zillion versions of the target page, playing with variables like calls to action, graphics, headlines, design, whatever, each at unique URLs. Website Optimizer randomly displays different versions to users. These URLs could be bookmarked by users, so after your experiment finishes, you want to keep these URLs valid. A WO “experiment” with 3 page variations will typically need around 300 conversions before drawing any conclusions.

and lastly, Google Insights for Search.

“With Google Insights for Search, you can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties. Useful for comparing different keyphrases over different regions and timeframes.”

You can hear a full recording of the Google webinar online. It does require a password, but just contact us and we’d be happy to share it with you. (We don’t want to get in trouble in case the Future of Search is copyrighted etc.) Enjoy!

Heard of Bing? It’s a new search engine by Microsoft that’s been getting a ton of attention since its recent launch, likely thanks to a huge marketing budget.

Author Seth Godin is skeptical. He pointed out that Bing is trying to be the next Google, and the problem is that the next Google is Google. “Google is not seen as broken by many people, and a hundred million dollars trying to persuade us that it is, is money poorly spent,” writes Godin in a recent blog post. “In times of change, the rule is this: Don’t try to be the ‘next’. Instead, try to be the other, the changer, the new.”

Satirical newspaper The Onion even commented on Bing — they did an American Voices feature about it, where three (fake) people were asked what they thought about Bing. “Search engines are for lazy computer users who don’t have the fortitude to type random URLs until they find what they’re looking for,” was one answer. Another was, “Bing? Interesting. I’ll have to Google that when I get home.” Great stuff.

It’s a huge risk to challenge Google, a search engine so big and powerful and a part of our everyday lives that we’ve adopted it as a synonym for “search.” I need to find a dry cleaner near my house. I’ll just Google it. So why try to compete with Google? Well, why not? Competition is a good thing. Plus, Google didn’t achieve overnight success.

Rob Pegoraro of The Washington Post wrote about the good and bad aspects of Bing in an article titled “With Bing, Microsoft Finds Some Good Web Search Ideas“:

Bing suffers from some handicaps, starting with one whose initials happen to spell out: “But It’s Not Google.” Yet it works fairly well as a general-purpose search engine, outperforms competitors in a couple of areas and makes a major contribution to mobile Web searching. There’s something to see here, and it’s not just the hype that $100 million or so of marketing can buy.

Pegoraro also reported that when searching for generic terms, Bing can seem “confused.” But when searching for a well-known topic, “Bing can present more relevant details than Google,” he says, using the example of a search for “Washington Nationals” that turned up the team schedule for the week, links to ballpark info and tickets, and the team’s record and standings. Google results, on the other hand, “offered little more than the score of the Nats’ last game.”

Today reports came out that after just a week, Bing has become the number-two most used search, beating out Yahoo. Google holds a 71% market share, and Bing now holds a 16% share. BNET warns that this could be due to the hype and marketing around the site launch, so we could see the traffic go down pretty soon if users go back to the search engine they were previously using. If traffic holds, though, that means Google potentially has a serious competitor.

Some experts say that whatever new, cool feature Bing implements, Google will come right back with something better. If that’s true, we could possibly have two search engines that are constantly one-upping each other and improving. Even if Bing winds up failing at “beating” Google, it’s a win for everyone if we’ll be getting better results for what we’re looking for.

Regardless, it’ll be interesting to watch what happens in the next few weeks.