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Social Search 5 Tips to Win

Search engine optimization has been on a rapid evolution curve over the past three years. Dating back to October 2009 when Google first introduced its social search strategy, to the recent introduction of the +1 button, and now the Google+ social network, the social search ride has been fast and furious.

The New SEO is Social Search

With more than 60% market share in the search landscape, Google remains king of the hill in search. So, how does a corporate marketer achieve positive results in the search game at a time when the SEO landscape and the rules of engagement are evolving so rapidly?

Content Remains King

Despite the rapid pace of change, one thing that has remained constant and is more true than ever before is that content is still king. Google’s recent Panda update is testimony to this. Google wants the user to have a good experience in a search and the best path to a good experience is delivery of relevant content. Marketers should remain committed to producing quality content.

Content Diversity is Queen

The good news is that we have so many social media platforms at our finger tips to produce content. The bad news is that Google and Microsoft are watching for content diversity, putting more pressure on marketers to produce a diverse mix of content. Admittedly, this is no small undertaking. A traditionally SEO optimized website is no longer enough to rank well for competitive keywords. Marketers need to produce video and photo image content that is likewise optimized with the proper tags and descriptions. Delivery of downloadable content can also be indexed and therefore sends positive signals to Google and Microsoft that you are a producer of diverse content. Content across other social channels are worthy of a marketer’s focus.

Hail the +1 Button

In keeping with the “content is king” theme, the +1 button is gaining wider importance. We know that Google is using +1 clicks as a signal. But, did you know that the location of the +1 button is significant? For example, when someone clicks on the +1 button on a product page, that signals that you like that product page. However, when someone clicks the +1 button on a category page, that signals that you like the entire category. Take that one step further to clicking the +1 button on a home page, signaling that you like the entire website! Are you getting the picture? The +1 button is a bigger deal than you might have realized. Hail the +1 button!

Share the Love

Since the introduction of social search in October 2009 the sharing of content across various channels has become important. This is truer today. Google and Microsoft are tracking the extent to which your content is shared. Consequently, the social sharing buttons on your website or blog are hugely important. And so is the next point…..

The Company IS the Marketing Department

If content sharing is that important, then it’s even more important that your entire company understand this point. The larger a company, the easier it is to leverage this, not from a spam standpoint, but from a genuine sharing standpoint. Let’s say your company has 200 employees. If each employee shares your blog posts, YouTube videos, Facebook posts, LinkedIn company pages, etc., across their social networks that turns the entire company into the marketing department. I pity the company who doesn’t yet understand this and unwisely attempts to shoulder this burden entirely on the marketing department. I’ve previously written about this in the context of marketing is not a department. The most successful companies get this. It takes a company-wide culture with strong marketing leadership to execute this strategy.

Social search is here to stay. I urge marketers to embrace this. Denial is career-threatening risky.

If you’re a B2B marketer that needs further insight into how to implement a strategic social search plan, contact me at bernie (at) findandconvert (dot) com referencing this blog post.

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