In 2007, Google first launched universal search. Universal search has enabled forms of digital content, other than a simple web page, to appear as a search result. As a result, search engine marketing strategies changed, too.
Four years later, on January 10, 2011, Jeff Selig of Overdrive Interactive presented on “blended search” aka “universal search” at the Boston SEO Meetup. His presentation, “Blended search: Search engine optimization for social, video, images, PDFs, and news,” discusses how blended search has changed the way users find information online and how to optimize search engine results for your content.
Jeff will be presenting these insights in greater detail at New England Direct Marketing Association’s Marketing Technologies & Tactics Summit: Accelerate Your ROI on Feb 8, 2011 at Bentley University in Waltham, MA.
SEO Crawler’s brand monitor makes it easier to quickly adjust your content marketing strategy.
Blended search impact: What makes people click?
- Universal search results yield higher click through rates (CTR)
- Video viewers are 20% more likely to make a purchase, especially when looking at results further down the page
- Images & video lead to more clicks, 84% click through rate, 12% text CTR, personalities 91% CTR
- Stocks, maps, dictionaries, definitions and answers are diminish click-through rates — searchers get the answer on the results page & move on
- Paid plus organic results together with images definiteky will raise click-through rates
Click influencers: How can you increase clicks?
- The better your description matches what searchers are looking for, the more likely searchers will click
- When the metadescription matches, you’ll see 75% CTRs
- When the title matches, you’ll see 73% CTRs
- Search engines love rich media, do whatever you can do to repurpose a whitepaper & post off-site
- Video especially boost CTRs when you’re ranking lower in search engine results
- Preview on search results pages definitely count and creates a sense of trust
- Google Instant increased video traffic 28% vs before Instant
- Have consistent messages
- Know your market & know your query space
Optimizing rich video is a worthy investment
- Create & submit video sitemap
- Markup videos with microformats to let the search engines know what they are
- On YouTube you want your starter image to be the most alluring
- When optimizing, be sure to pick a screenshot that accurately depicts the content
Photos & images are worthy of optimization too
- Bigger is better, large images are well-loved by search engines
- Benefits some sites, not all, be sure there’s a reason to keep clicking.
- Images optimize with Alt attributes
- Image properties contain and can be customized w all kinds of info
Optimize your Facebook Fan Page for search engines
- Facebook is re-indexing the web around people
- Popularity is different from authority — the “Like” button contains metadata
- Need to have facebook.com/yourcategory: Use the About to optimize your page, worth investing time & attention.
- Include links from the Info tab
- FBML use bit.ly to track clicks within Facebook
- Make “Like” button product-specific, can use to segment and message specific people
- Include “Find us on Facebook” on your webpage.
- Add YouTube videos to your page
- Bing will generate friends’ results when also logged into Facebook, as reported in Designated Editor’s SEMPO post
Facebook best practices
- Engage fans in your posts
- Have Facebook resemble your website
- Be sure to optimize your FB pages
- Ask questions, add product news, reach out to potential fans via email
- Ask for suggestions on how to maintain the product
- Generate new product accessories through user-generated content
Twitter Optimization
- Use Twitter profiles to add keywords to your brand, web address
- Pay attention to your followers
- Determine how many times they’ve been “listed” on Twitter Lists
- Tweet your keywords
- Use URL shorteners to track your influence
- Be sure you use a URL shortener service that will stay in business: When it goes, so do your links
- Remember: No-follow links still carry juice
- Popularity isn’t the same as authority, want to follow 1/3 of followers
Optimize LinkedIn
- Use a vanity URL
- Answers provide the opportunity for lots of link juice
- Check out opened-up Groups
- Be sure you are in the Services Directory
- Use keywords without stuffing, highlight your products
- LinkedIn Insights shows how you compare to your competitors
Optimize YouTube
- Maximize the About Me section
- Be sure to use HD: Google loves bigger/better.
- Add URLs to descriptions, pollinate video
- YouTube as PPC is inexpensive now
- Use autoplay on YouTube
- Label yourself as an expert
- Internally link playlists
- Transcribe your YouTube video: Can be as cheap as 10 cents/minute
More optimization tips
- Can adjust Google Alerts to monitor news, blogs, social media
- Local searches, more Yelp and Twitter coming up
- Location-based searches are playing a bigger role
- SEO and blogs: use at least 3 links per post, develop an interlinking strategy, think of how users will find you
- Tools: Pingomatic
- Be sure PDF is readable by search engines (try copy & paste) & be sure to use links
Integrate search and social, then measure ROI
Measuring social media ROI may seem intimidating to most, but according to Jeff Selig, Director of Analytics at Overdrive Interactive, it can be measured. Read on and follow along with his presentation to learn how to succeed in marketing as universal search becomes the universal norm.
Jeff presents how search and social are merging and how marketing strategies should adapt to this change. Jeff also gets into the nitty-gritty of measuring social media return on investment at NEDMA 2011.
Download Jeff Selig’s presentation.
Integrate search and social
Jeff Selig's Content and Conversation Strategy slide from his 2011 NEDMA presentation.
Social media buttons add octane to impressions
Social Media ROI Landscape presented by Jeff Selig of Overdrive Interactive at NEDMA 2011 conference
Clicks are just 1 step in the process
B2B sales conversion funnel
Attribution modeling not getting enough attention. It’s not about not first vs. last touch, but nurturing
Costs
How do you stack up against competitors?
It’s not just about how much you’re out there, but what’s your traction like, how quickly are you acquiring followers and interactions?
Fans
Benchmarking of ROI for social media
How much info, how many people, how many channels?
Social media strategy ROI
As search and social become increasingly integrated, learn how to combine them in your campaigns. Be social, be aware, and set goals for your business. If you keenly measure the behaviors of your audiences, you will be able to adapt your business strategies to their behaviors.