Over the past few years, I’ve been talking to SEO guys about social media’s impact on search. They tend have these assumptions.
- If you find the right algorithm you can beat search engines
- Social media is just another system to learn and program for
- Coding beats talking to people
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I explain that any human being would rather buy from someone that they know, like, and trust and nothing in optimization theories allows for people doing what they want. Eric Schmidt agrees
“Within search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be ranked higher than content without such verification, which will result in most users naturally clicking on the top (verified) results. The true cost of remaining anonymous, then, might be irrelevance.”
It is profitable to follow what Google says.
They don’t owe me a rank in their search engine or the visitors I get from them, and they have a lot more genius working to give relevant results than any huskter with a system for beating the algorithms
Social Media Impact on Search – What it means to you
In 2011, Google started pushing authorship, a way to tag posts that identified the human that wrote it. Since then I’ve seen SEO jocks go through what looks like the five steps.. ignoring this, denying it will affecting them, fighing it, bargaining, and finally accepting that their days are numbered.
great article…thanks for the content
Will you change anything from what you learned here?
Great post Warren. Authorship is something that people tend to forget about. Raising you online profile is a great way to raise your profile organically.
There are some “gotchas” in setting up the tag.
1) It’s been over complicated
2) It hasn’t changed any rankings yet
3) Pro’s in SEO are working on accounts large enough to be even more complicated.. multiple authors, catalog pages, installed base.
But worth it.. especially for any thought leader (speaker, author, consultant, trainer, manager, executive, professional) who has learned to have an online presence (sadly, some still have not)
Warren, nice post. I agree that this is key to be found on the web. Doing some Google basics like authorship, complete profiles, etc. will help with the social ranking. I know when I do a search and see a familiar trusting face, I am more apt to look at it.
One thing they can’t measure is what the person searching was thinking five minutes before going to the computer. If you are LOOKING for someone, you may user search or “type in” .. the latter is usually ignored in optimization but obviously part of social networking
Always good to stay on top of this ever changing topic. Thx for the update.
Thank you Nicholas
Great point. While algorithms are relevant – the social mediasphere is best utilized when personalization and engagement are at the forefront. I’ll sacrifice numbers for a loyal following that identifies with my brand any day!
Yes!
I pity the poor “SEO professionals” that are ill prepared for the world ahead and not seeing that their jobs are like the craftsmen who did carburetor repair. We got fuel injectors and some learned to thrive with new skills, other retired of went out of business.
The skill set that make for a good SEO is highly needed in the world of BIG DATA and other technologies coming. Those who are lingering in SEO and trying to “game social media” are wasting time they could be investing into more profitable careers.
Beautifully put. Great article Warren. Most forget the “social” part of social media.
Thank you. Like I say, Social Media is about 1% “media” and we are still learning the rest, and how that revolutionizes business
Thanks for this article, Warren. When someone, a person or entity, wants to remain anonymous that’s fine. It should also be fine and clear in their minds that most people don’t transact business with “anonymous.” I will not – I’m very loyal in business preferences and reward an earned positive reputation. Conversely, when I put someone on a do-not-buy list they will remain there for at least 10 years. (Toshiba earned that spot, and when they got their second chance, I decided to reward them with another 10+ years of do-not-buy, i.e. they’ve effectively lost a customer for life).
It goes back to a classic adage: People buy from people they like. Ergo, if they don’t know you, they can’t like you.
There is plenty of good reason to use anonymity and private. We do get to choose where we speak, and can stay out of the conversation. This isn’t not “censorship” any more than being able to stand up at City Hall is your right.. a right that includes being seen.
I can’t imagine a public forum accepting anonymous pot shots and public place online are just like that.
So in other words – you saw in on the national news the day after that town hall meeting on the healthcare bill? Darn! I thought I simply identified as the “troublemaker in a suit.”
saw what?
Sorry – joke fail. I actually did stand up at a Town Hall meeting, and it created a bit (understatement) of a ruckus. I was an unidentified as a “troublemaker in a suit” on the local and national media the next day.
You are so right CHris
My Great Twitter Friends, Please give me some help and Vote for ResumeBear ***REDACTED**** Thanks
Bob, I’m shocked to see you spamming my comment wall. But, as I said in the post, speaking your piece and standing up for what you think is important is encouraged.
I would note that this blog is NOT Twitter, looks like you may have been confused about that.
And since I own the blog and set the rules, I will choose to advice readers that I think “vote for me” contest are unethical, and will not allow ads for such here.
If you have anything to say about Authorship, social media, or the future of SEO, please feel free to post again. We love to hear from you.
Ignoring the human aspect of sales does not make for good business. Social media has drastically changed our course of business game plan. We are a tourist driven business with a 5 month window. Social media helps fill the coffers the remaining dry months.
I keep seeing these ‘SEO gurus’ out there peddling snake oil, and I wonder who is buying. They all have tips, tricks, and secrets…that age old search trying to get something for nothing. Create effective content, engage with your audience, and let the chips fall. That is all…no tricks…no secrets…just work.
There’s plenty of reason to create what people want. Search engines are in that business too. We’re all on the same side
Not to be contentious (which means I’m going to be), but is it really snake oil? Cannot one have the greatest content in the world, but if they are not marketing themselves in a coherent, easily reachable manner then they are diluting their efficacy?
I don’t know the answer as to whether this stuff is really smoke-and-mirrors or not, so I appreciate both of your points of view.
This is the paradox of the “build a better mousetrap” line.
Many today say that a guy in the woods with a great mousetrap can’t be found due to the explosion of marketing since Emerson said it.
I hold that the quote had nothing to do with communications. It was assumed that people would learn of the great mousetrap maker through reputation and word of mouth.. which is not called social media
2oth Century approach to selling mousetraps was to YELL LOUDER. the Internet has added so much din that yelling can’t be heard.
Google’s approach is to find the relevant. Some SEO’s took this to mean “figure out the formula and YELL at Google” .. that worked for a while.
Now Google is putting reputation and word of mouth into it’s algorithm. It is still an algorithm and some are trying to game it. (to them, I say “good luck outsmart 1000 enginering and math Phd’s working against you).
End of the day, we all have our message to push. That’s why I’m here, maybe why you are here. But when we back off and remember that the human species is crave CONNECTION and STORIES, and we start giving them what they want, “pushing our snake oil” takes a back seat (mine’s in the trunk inside a suitcase)
This push to require users to own their work online and connect their social comments to identified accounts should help raise the level of discourse online. Anonymity leads to rudeness, along with all the mindless repetitive robot action we saw associated with SEO a few years ago.
Identity appears to be the entry card for civilized conversation
I’m with Google, lol. I’ve been travelling down this path of modelling my online presence with “what would Google like?” making the investment in Google authorship and producing fresh, original content regularly caused my site to exceed its bandwidth last month.
Right. Making sure the search engine’s find you and using structure they like is good, but the content comes first
It is always interesting to watch the SEO chasing after the search engines and specially Google. Things are getting tougher and tougher and you know that SEO guys will some day crack the it but unfortunately, by that time search engins will change the algorithms 🙂
The #1 reason for introducing Google+ is the identity. For years we have been served the same content cooked, reheated and presented in pretty looking different plates. With the authorship and author authority the things are changing.
But at the same time, SEO guys are watching to find ways to manipulate it. I think the next big words from SEO guys would be: “We will increase your Authorship in your Preferred niche within 15 days and rank your site high in SERP” 🙂
That’s like saying “we will increase your bank account” by charging you ro put money in your accounts
The clue is in the title;
Social: living or disposed to live in companionship with others or in a community, rather than in isolation: People are social beings.
Network: to cultivate people who can be helpful to one professionally, especially in finding employment or moving to a higher position: His business lunches were taken up with networking.
Business meals are never about the food. Which works for me. I’ve been feeding myself for several years know 🙂
As a newbie in Social Media, I am checking my Klout and Kred scores trying to figure out how recent on-line activities influenced figures. There are clear correlations so that the algorithms prove efficient. Nevertheless, one can achieve high scores just playing, thus getting quite visible without really looking for it.
nothing wrong with learning the ropes, putting one’s best foot forward. manipulating without having anything to say is not what Google intended and thus will find those patterns and work around them.
But ultimately, we prefer having a search tell us what our friends would recommend over who did the most tricks 🙂
Yes,, this is forever changing world, Human contact is still the best way to reach people.
nothing like face to face with someone you trust, but we’re all looking for a edge where we can have a conversation with the same person without getting tricked by a bot
excellent post about google’s point of view (what we already knew or suspected )
They’ve been reading every page on the web for 15 years.. they must know something 🙂
Hey Warren,
Great post! Have to say though that authorship is useful WHEN you can figure it out! lol And when you do have it going you forgot how you did it! HAHA!
Have a nice one
Rob, it’s not hard at all now. You makes sure to have the tag on content you write, and verify that you are a contributor to that site on your Google + profile. takes 10 minus, max.
There is so much information on SEO. This was a awesome post.
A lot of miss-information too. It’s a safe bet that anyone saying the can guarantee you will beat the search engines is lying. The good SEO experts would never say that.
Other than that, the main concern is that you focus on creating content that is worthy of sharing, with structure, wording and complete “meta” information that help people (and search engines) find it.
Authorship is something you don’t hear about enough. Great post.Thanks!
When I spoke at the last PUBCON, I’d say half the sessions talked about it. The social media people were cheering, the SEO engineer types were scared they hadn’t found a good trick, and the rest had never heard of it.
Started in July 2011, so it’s been covered well by the good online reporters.
Very Timely on the topic of Authorship. Something I am gearing up to do as I “re-energize” my blogging! =) I am going to be doing some blogging for my college as well as from my personal blog and Authorship is really going to help build my own brand.
Don’t just gear up.. it’s like you resume.. you are building credibility each day with what you do.
Make sure you have links in you profile to anything to write for, and get those verified by putting a rel=”author” tag in the post.
Simple as that.
Excellent article firstly and secondly, yep the ONLY thing that is effective in SEO now is new fresh unique constant content, social engagement (shares and comments) authorship like you said… old school SEO is dead!
Inbound links from authoritativeness sites is still very important, and much of what made a good site/page 10 years ago still applies.. in some case, more so because Google uses Panda and Penguin updates to eliminate the less relevant , leaving the more relevant to prosper 🙂
I’m doing ‘authorship’ in blogs since 2004 and was always in favor of genuine content. I knew SoMe is the BIG wheel in marketing-you-name-it and it would take long. I completely ignored Google algorithms as they probably ignored me. I just ‘did my thing’. It starts paying off.
How did you do authorship tag before they were invented?
Was it rel=”author” or something else?
nice read. will look out for more.
Thanks for the great advices
it seems most people wants the term “expert” affixed to their forehead…the so called specialists is actually a person who can do a task…bear this word ” task”..it is important…if it is a task or work than you may not be enjoying what you are doing and therefore would in all liekihood would factor in some form of resistance… I enjoy sharing a project with people of like mindedness and having fun completing said project. It passes so quickly….anyway it is only my opinion..Have fun doing what you are doing..cheers 🙂
In my experience, I see many more people want the term “expert” on a forehead that any real expert wants.
Sure, there’s the stories of someone start with no experience in a new field and calling themselves “expert” when it’s questionable. Actually, unless there is a license involved, the biggest determining factor in expertise is the dedication to that field. with the tools available today, anyone can study and become expert on most any topic.
A decision to spend an hour a day on anything will make you knowledgeable in a week, more expert than most in a month, and world-class in a year or two.
“capable” or “experienced” would be a different measure.
Great article!
As for “expertise” throw in enough jargon , make it sound profound and …boring 😀
I think Google itself leads the way. Identifying content with verified author doesn’t really make it social, other authors’ opinion on this should. . User reputation, influence as on Twitter can really called social.
I think a decision to be an expert is minimum threshold to start focusing on one area. Capability and experience and ultimately results are what makes an expert valuable. It’s not the word 🙂
Warren, thanks for being generous with your knowledge on twitter today. I appreciate your feedback. I will look out for your book. Still on L plates! JM