The Social Media Optimisation (SMO) of SEO

I was disappointed to miss yesterday’s G+ session with Joshua Berg and Mark Traphagen on social media optimisation (SMO) and search engine optimisation (SEO), unfortunately it was on at 1am London time. However, I have caught up with the YouTube video which is embedded below. It was a great session that covered a lot of incredibly useful information including how embedding lots of links in Google+ can actually reduce your authority. There was so much good stuff I made lots of notes as I listened to the video. I thought I would blog my notes as they might be helpful for people who don’t have an hour and twenty minutes to spare to watch the video. However, I would encourage you to watch the video if you can find the time, it covered a lot of information about social signals and authority which is something I have been interested in for a while.
Social Media Optimisation (SMO) of SEO


Joshua Berg kicked off the session by saying “Social signals provide a much better way of filtering out the noise and improving the quality of search results” and “this is a trend that will continue because it is a much better way of understanding what people really want, which is one of Google’s founding principles.”


Social media and search have grown up separately and Joshua is now predicting the marriage of social media and search, which Joshua calls the SMO of SEO.


These two have needed to come together to make information and knowledge more accessible to everyone which Joshua believes is what Google+ and authorship is designed to do. Google is doing more to understand the context of content which is know as semantic search.
Google Authorship


Mark Traphagen agreed that “as the social web emerges it provides a better set of signals about what is valuable on the web.” Mark then talked through the concept of Google authorship. He explained that the best content on the web is produced by real people. If content is meaningful, real people share it and it would be useful to be able to identify the author of the content, as whenever they write it is likely to be good content. This authorship could be used as a signal in search results.


Google authorship is a means of identifying an author; making a verified connection between them and their data; and tracking how people interact with that content. Google+ is the engine through which Google can achieve this identification verification and tracking. Google+ requires you to be a real person and you need to use a real photo, Google uses facial recognition software plus manual intervention to verify this. With Google+ you can link your profile to content anywhere on the web and to incentivise people to do this they are showing author photos next to search results.


Mark doesn’t believe they have turned this on as a ranking factor yet but Google are collecting the data. Mark cautioned against using your authorship in association with low quality content because if subsequently it gets used as a ranking factor it could have a negative impact.
Social signals and authority


There were a number of questions about what is a social signal.


Signals include connections within Google+ and external connections.


The number of plus ones or number of followers are also signals but Mark believes the key to authority is interactions with higher authority individuals.


The type of links that pass authority include shares, as these become a followed link. Thus if a high authority person shares your link that passes authority to you. If you get a plus mention in the Google+ posts of a higher authority person that will also pass authority to your profile.


By being good networkers and helping people, the audience will share your content and mention you. This will build your authority. In my view this is as it should be as it helps give authority to people who are helpful.
Personalisation


Google and other search engines are moving in to the personalisation of search so that no two people necessarily see the same search results. This happens anyway but if you are logged into Google then your connections and other factors influence your search results. Thus you can influence the search results of your connections on Google+.
Why posting links can give you negative authority


Joshua explained that there are dangers in using Google+ like a bulletin, for example posting a news article every day where you provide an embedded link but don’t say much about the content. Where you do this in Google+, Joshua argues people tend to not interact with the posts. So repeatedly posting links can actually have a negative authority effect as the algorithm will see people posting outside links which people are not interacting with, thus it can’t be valuable content. Thus if you post links in many places and communities, you risk less interaction each time and risk getting negative authority feedback as a consequence.
On the positive side…


Google+ is different as it is actually easy to get noticed very quickly. You can identify people who are posting useful information, place them in influencer circles and start interacting with them in a helpful way. People start to see you are being helpful and becoming part of the community very naturally. The key is again to be helpful to people and add value, the same core lesson which Mark reiterates again and again.


Google+ offers you the opportunity to grow if you want to put in the effort.


Joshua said if you post good content you don’t need to repost or reshare yourself as others will share your content. Mark slightly disagreed with this as he has had good success with reposting the same content at different times of day as people don’t sit watching their streams all day but don’t do it until you have a larger authority. Joshua cautioned though against multiple posting unless it you already know that it is interesting to people.
Advice on posting


During the session someone asked if there is a correct way to post to a brand page and then to a personal page. Mark himself posts more to his personal profile than his brand page. He will republish it through his brand page but at a different time as many people will follow both. I think this is useful advice. You can change your settings so that posts you make to communities do not appear in your personal home stream and post to the community first and then post to your home stream at a later time. Mark also said you can post to your brand page first and then re-share from the brand page at a later time as that reinforces the brand.


Mark explained how you should find a story behind what you do and find a human connection with your content, which he told nicely through a story.


Joshua used a number of terms including relate, captivate, arouse, enjoy, share, acknowledge and contribute. Joshua said though that engagement is key more than content, as if people do not engage with him in Google+ he doesn’t really care too much about the content. It is the engagement that makes the content interesting.


Thanks guys for a great and informative session.


You can see the full video below. For more on authority see my post on content authority and content marketing.