This document provides an overview of social search optimization strategies. It discusses how social media content now impacts organic search engine results and how companies must incorporate social media into their SEO strategies. Key topics covered include how Google+ and Google Search Plus Your World have changed search to favor social profiles, the factors that influence placement in the Google Plus Box on search results, and best practices for social search optimization including frequently updating fresh content across social media properties.

1. Social Search Optimization (SSO)
How To Maximize Your Efforts to
Achieve Marketing Success
Power of Digital Series
Christy Belden, Vice President Media + Marketing
February 23, 2012

2. Christy Belden
2
Vice President Media + Marketing
Experience: 11 years
The Courier-Journal
University of Louisville
SEMPO-Certified
Google AdWords Individually
Certified
Christy knows marketing. PPC, SEO,
social media, email, mobile, traditional
—she’s been there and done that. She
continues to build a deep well of
experience and is always in touch with
the trends and strategies that provide
a solid return on clients’ investments.

3. LeapFrog Interactive
3
Connect with us!
Twitter: @LFI
#SSO
Facebook: www.facebook.com/LeapFrogInteractiveAgency
Google+: LeapFrog Interactive
Blog: www.leapfroginteractive.com/blog

4. Agenda
4
+ Social Media Overview
+ SEO Overview
+ SEO + Social Media
+ Google+
+ Google Search Plus Your World
+ Best Practices
+ Now what?
+ Questions

5. 5
Social Media Overview

6. Social Media
6
Social media includes web-based and mobile technologies
used to turn communication into interactive dialogue…

7. Social Media
7
Dialogue is the key. Brands use social media to create the
conversation between brand and consumer through
engagement and interaction…

8. Social Media
8
Source: http://www.briansolis.com/2008/08/introducing-conversation-prism/

9. Social Media
9
How many people are on Social Media?
Facebook?
LinkedIn?
Twitter?
Pinterest?
Google+?

10. Facebook
10
Facebook is King
+ 845 Mil active monthly
users by end of Dec 2011
+ 80% of users are outside
of US
+ 425 Mil active mobile
users by end of 2011
Source: newsroom.fb.com and Hubspot-The Social Media Data Stacks

11. Facebook
11
www.youtube.com/watch?
v=xJXOavGwAW8&feature=player_embed
ded#!

12. LinkedIn
12
LinkedIn is Professional and
Global
+ As of 2012, largest
professional network
+ Over 150 Mil users in over 200
countries
+ Only 9 years old
Source: Infographic: http://wearesocial.net/blog/2011/03/linkedin-hits-100m-user-milestone/
http://press.linkedin.com/about

13. Twitter
13
A Little Birdie Told Me…
+ Over 100 Mil monthly
active users; 50% login
everyday
+ Surpassed 250 mil
tweets/day in June of
2011
+ Link life is 2.5 hrs on
Twitter vs. Facebook’s 1
hr link life
Source: http://mashable.com/2011/10/17/twitter-costolo-stats/
http://blog.bufferapp.com/twitter-stats

14. Google +
14
That’s a Plus…
+ 90 Mil Users as of Jan
2012
+ Tagging and hashtag
features
+ Open for teens (+13)
Source: http://mashable.com/2012/02/15/everything-about-google-plus/

15. Pinterest
15
Pin-teresting Facts…
+ Over 10.4 Mil registered users
+ 97.7% are Female
+ Drives more referral traffic than
Google+, LinkedIn, and Youtube
combined
+ Users spend more time on site than
Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn
combined
Source: http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/11/pinterest-stats/

16. 16
SEO Overview

17. SEO
17
Search Engine Optimization
This means…Improving a website or page’s visibility
organically on a search engine
by updating “fresh” relevant content…

18. SEO
18
How many people know what it actually
does or how it works?

19. SEO
19
Search- “pet shops Louisville”

20. SEO
20
Why SEO is important…
+ Consumers can’t buy what they can’t find
+ 42% of all searchers click on top-ranked results
+ 62% click on a page-one result
Source: LFI Presentation on Digital Trends 2011

21. SEO
21
How Companies Implement SEO…
Onsite Activities
+ Keyword rich URLs
+ Meta content
+ Fresh, relevant content – blogs, articles, white papers
Offsite Activities
+ Link building
+ Forums
+ Social media content

22. SEO
22
How Companies Utilize SEO
+ Help increase over visibility online
+ Increase Sales
+ Increase Site Traffic
+Track Leads
Source: http://www.yourseotips.com/

23. SEO + Social Media

24. Social Search Optimization
24
What is SSO?
SSO = Social Search Optimization
This Means…optimizing content on social properties and other content
such as photos, blogs, and page descriptions
to improve organic search results.

25. Social Search Optimization
25
Impact
Social content will now affect your
company’s ranking on search
engines.
As well as display your social
media sites in conjunction with
other hits.

26. Social Search Optimization
26
Social Search Optimization
Meaning, if you want to maximize your search results…
You NEED to be involved with social media,
and the more the better.

27. Social Search Optimization
27
Social Impact
Source: Infographic Why Content for SEO?, Brafton
http://www.brafton.com/infographics/why-content-for-seo

28. Google +1

29. Google +1
29
What is Google +1?
+1 is Google’s share feature which closely resembles
Facebook’s ‘like’ or Twitters ‘retweet’ button.

30. Google +1
30

31. SEO
31
How many of you have +1 Content?

32. Google+

33. Google+
33
What is Google+?
Google+ is Google’s social media platform
that allows users to share content to specified
“circles” or publicly…

34. Google+
34
Features…
+ Can share pictures, videos, links, and posts
+ Users can own pages  much like Brand/Company pages
+ Hang-out feature allows users to interact via video conferencing
+ Has featured games
+ Links to gmail accounts
+ “Plus one” action (similar to Facebook’s ‘like’) used as a ranking system

35. That’s a Plus
35
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=sVf3UaZePC8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=bo390-3ohW4&NR=1&feature=endscree
n

36. That’s a Plus
36
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=sVf3UaZePC8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=bo390-3ohW4&NR=1&feature=endscree
n

37. Google+
37

38. Google+
38
How Often are you updating your Google+ page, if at all?
Daily?
Weekly?
Monthly?
I was supposed to update that thing?

39. Google+
39
Fresh content matters…
Google+ profiles with no posts in the last 72 hours don’t
show up in the “Related people/pages” or “plus box” in
Google search results
Source: http://searchengineland.com/two-google-seo-guides-you-should-read-111703

40. Google+
40
But…
Updating content is not enough. You must laser-target your audience by
sharing content that will get “+1’s” and shares. The object is to get users
to your static site from your social page in a deep search manner
Source: http://www.stateofsearch.com/googles-search-plus-your-world-getting-over-the-shock/

41. Google Search Plus Your World

42. Search Plus Your World
42
Announcement
Google announced in January of 2012 that they
would be integrating their social posts into
Google.com’s query results.

43. Search Plus Your World
43
Why this changed the game…
Now content, brands, people, and companies that are on Google+
will be favored in Google searches…when a user is logged into
Google

44. Google Search Plus Your World
44
Personal Search
+ Opt-in search option that shows personal and public search results
+ Shows privately shared content from friends and family
+ Users can switch between personalized and un-personalized searches
Source: Via-Seachengineland.com

45. Google Search Plus Your World
45
Old Search-
“flowers”

46. Search Plus Your World
46
Search-”LeapFrog Interactive”
+ When logged into Google,
Google suggests searches for
you

47. Google Search Plus Your World
47
UnPersonalized
Personalized

48. Google Search Plus Your World
48
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=8Z9TTBxarbs&feature=player_embedded

49. Google Search Plus Your World
49
Common Concerns…
+ Privacy
+ Google+ favoritism
+ Not linked with Facebook or
Twitter content
+ Not much different than Google “suggestions” for certain content

50. Google Search Plus Your World
50
How Search Plus Your World Affects SEO
+ Priority on search list
+ Social content is the new link building
+ You want your company to be in circles of
people in your industry to increase chances of
sharing
+ Increase Google+ page promotion vs. tradational
Source: http://seo-hacker.com/google-search-world-affects-seo/

51. Search Plus Your World
51
Newest Addition…
+ Just this WEEK Google added its newest feature to the home page to ensure
Google+ will succeed
+ You can now share straight from the Google homepage
+ Search meets share
Source: http://marketingland.com/google-home-page-gets-share-box-6408

52. Google Search Plus Box

53. Plus Box
53

54. Plus Box
54
Factors that affect Plus Box placement…
+ Circle membership
+ Number of posts (frequency)
+ “+1” per post
+ Re-shares per post
+ Freshness

55. Plus Box
55
Plus Box Research Project
A case study conducted by Ian Lurie in February of 2012 to help solidify
what variables affect placement on the “Plus Box” in the new Search
Plus Your World feature…
Source: http://www.conversationmarketing.com/2012/02/google-plus-box-ranking-factors-report.htm

56. Plus Box
56
Reach…
+ Circle
membership of
those who put you
in their circles.
+ Higher
reach=more
interaction
Source: http://www.conversationmarketing.com/2012/02/google-plus-box-ranking-factors-report.htm

57. Plus Box
57
Take Aways….
+ Only certain searches show the “plus box”
+ Plus Box results often rotate
+ Ranking of attributes from most important to least…
Reach
Circle Membership
Freshness
Post Frequency
Average +1’s per post
Re-shares and Replies (comments) per posts

58. Bringing it All Together

59. Bringing it All Together
59
What this means for Social Search Optimization…
Your social content is more important than ever.
It now becomes a part of your
SEO strategy, not just your over all brand image.
Source: http://www.conversationmarketing.com/2012/02/google-plus-box-ranking-factors-report.htm

60. Bringing it All Together
60
What this means for SEO…
Companies now must look at their SEO strategy and analyze them from
both a owned site and non-owned site perspective. It will require an SEO
strategy to incorporate social media outlets.

61. Bringing it All Together
61
Best Practices…
+ Use keywords in your descriptions
+ Use the +1 button
+ Post and share great content
+ Optimize your posts on all social
properties (Twiter, FB, etc…)
+ Update all social content frequently
Source: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/page-authority
http://www.blindfiveyearold.com/google-plus-seo

62. What Can You Do Today?

63. What Can You Do Today?
63
Take Action…
+ Look at your bios, about us pages on social media properties and make sure
they are using keywords within each section
+ View your upcoming posts and do they include keywords and links to your
website
+ Is the content you are created optimized for search and are you distributing the
content on social media sites
+ Start a Google+ page

64. Questions?
64

65. 65
Thank You!