3 Ways Social Media Impacts SEO

In case you missed it, last week I posted a blog on my company blog about how social media impacts SEO.

If you think social doesn't impact SEO, you are mistaken.

Check it out here: 3 Ways Social Media Impacts SEO

Does Open Site Explorer Recognize Social Shares that Use URL Shorteners Instead of the Direct URL?

If you use the SEOMoz.com Premium Open Site Explorer Tool like I do then you know it calculates your inbound link metrics, which includes the following social link types:

•          Facebook Shares
•          Facebook Likes
•          Tweets
•          Google +1

A lot of people think that this has something to do with their own social accounts, but that’s not correct. It actually stands for the amount of times your website was shared on Facebook, how many times a Facebook share with your URL was liked, how many times a tweet contained a link back to your site and how many Google + posts include your website URL.

That said, we were having a discussion in the Eminent SEO office yesterday about using URL shortners and how that might impact your social link counts.

For example, we like to use the social media tool Hootsuite to schedule some of our posts. However, when you schedule a post through Hootsuite, your URL is shortened using their shortner owl.ly. I was concerned that if you pass your link through a shortner URL verses posting a direct link on the platform itself you might not A) get full link juice and B) not get social share counts in the Open Site Explorer report.

I searched Google using this question, “Does open site explorer recognize social shares that use URL shorteners instead of the direct URL?” and clicked on this SEOMoz post: Owl.li Is Ranking Above My Own Page! What To Do? Whooo To Blame? which clearly isn’t my exact question, but still relevant. After (mostly) reading the post and skimming the comments, I didn’t see a solid answer. So, I asked the question in the post:

“So, I skimmed most of the comments and didn't see an answer to my question, so I hope I didn't miss something... but here goes:

Does open site explorer recognize social shares that use URL shorteners instead of the direct URL?

Of course there is value in using Hootsuite (shorter posts = longer Tweets, scheduling, etc) but if by using Hootsuite which forces me to use their URL shortener I am #1) getting diminished link credit from the 301/302 redirecting and #2) not getting social share counts to show to my client... then I might just have to stop using Hootsuite and go direct and input the whole URL.

Side note: It's really unfortunate that Hootsuite has not adapted to the Twitter auto long URL shortner (not a separate URL like bit.ly or owl.ly but like URL.com/xyz... ) as that would solve this problem altogether.”

I didn’t hear back on the post, so I actually reposted the entire comment on the Facebook Wall of SEOMoz, click here to see the full thread. 

Basically I was told that they do, indeed, “unroll” the shortened URL’s and they still count and associate the tweets correctly with the website URL, after all of the shortening and redirects are parsed.

NOTE: the redirects comment. In my quest to find out if URL shortners pass full value I did learn that some use a 301 redirect and some use (or used to use) a 302.

This might seem acceptable, but there is still the question of whether or not Google values a link that goes through a 301 redirect the same way they do a direct link. Most SEO’s would say NO they do not. A direct link is always more valuable than one that has to pass through a redirect.

What do you think?

How Google is Using YOU (and your marketing budget)

WARNING: Yes this is a rant. But it's small.

I decided the algo updates (aka "Panda" and "Penguin") have nothing to do with improving the quality of the results.

I’m pretty sure you don’t want to hear me rant for an hour, so I will sum it up this way instead:

Google is a business. 
The business of Google makes money primarily through ads (PPC).
SEO does not make Google money.
Big sites with big money paid SEO companies to rank them organically with SEO.
Google sees SEO as competition for PPC.
Google knows websites with lots of links have lots of money to spend on marketing.
Google came up with a plan to get that money. 
Google devalued sites with lots of links. 
The sites that lost organic rankings lost traffic.
These sites need traffic.
Sites use what once was their organic SEO budget on PPC with Google instead.
Google pockets all the cash.
Google continues to feed the public with confusing propaganda regarding SEO.
Google improves free tools to aid in PPC management.
Google inundates website owners with free ad coupons.
Google has no problem serving your website up in the paid listings even if you were penalized organically.
More sites decide to use PPC instead of SEO for website traffic.
Google pockets more cash. 
Quality websites are nowhere to be found in the organic rankings.
Crappy websites that have no budgets for SEO or PPC remain untouched. 
Google claims they have penalized sites for breaking their terms. 
Google wins.
SEO loses.

Jenny moves to Bing. (half kidding)

Blah. 

Where in the world is Jenny Stradling AKA SEO Gurl?

Okay, so I hate to abandon my personal SEO blog here, but since I started the blog years ago, I have moved on to bigger and better things. Don't get my wrong, I still think I need a great place to rant on the topics of marketing, advertising and SEO... but for the last year or so I have been writing the copy for my company website: Eminent SEO instead.

If you are interested in staying up to date, I do blog about SEO and industry news on the corporate blog here: Eminent SEO Blog 

And, when I have a quick thought, idea, question, quote or something fun or candid to share, I do it on the Eminent SEO Think Tank.

And, who knows.... maybe next time you stop by I'll have a new rant for ya!

Help Name the Eminent SEO Monster Mascot

In case you missed it, my company, Eminent SEO, has a cute little Monster, I like to call him our Marketing Mascot < --  Click for a pic from a previous post.

Anyways, we thought it would be fun to let the staff pick some names for him and then let you, the public, vote on what name you think is best. It’s fun, free and only takes a min.

Here is a video if you are still not sure:



Now that you’ve watched that, how can you possibly resist!??!

GO NOW! Eminent SEO Monster Vote < -- Click here and JUST DO IT!

Google Place Pages - How to Market your Business Locally Online

A lot of clients have been asking about Local Marketing and how to get better placement with their Google Places pages (AKA Google Maps), so I thought I'd share a few thoughts.

In case you didn't already know, Google will pull in some businesses and create a map to the business address naturally, in order to provide searches with physical directions to the business. However, many times when we check, a client either doesn't have a map page at all - or it's the generic page Google created and isn't optimized for better search placement. 

Because Google Place pages are so vital for local businesses online, we have developed packages that include map creation, optimization and further development. 

Want to see what an optimized Google Places page looks like? Check out: Eminent SEO Google Places Page

If you are interested in getting your own optimized map, drop us a line: sales@eminentseo.com or 800-871-4130 

Meanwhile, here are some other tips to help you rank your Google Places pages higher.

We would fully optimize your listing, but in addition to just creating the map, there are things you can do on your website to increase your Google map rankings, including:

• Make sure your address and phone number are on the website, preferably every web page, if possible. This will help ensure Google and the other search engines find you no matter what page they are crawling.
• Make sure your city, state, and local (geo targeted) keywords, are in the title tags and meta data. 
• Make sure your local keywords, for example, "Phoenix Arizona Lawyer", are in your website URL if at all possible. 

"How can you optimize for local traffic in other ways?"

From other areas of the web, it’s important to make sure you have plenty of incoming links. These links should be quality links from relevant websites, and should link to you using your niche, local keywords. This shows Google you’re a valid business and adds credibility for not only your domain, but the local keywords you have now optimized your site for.    

Want this done for you?

The Eminent SEO Team can:  

• Do the keyword discovery and research to determine the best local target keywords
• On-page Website Optimization to ensure your keywords are represented in your content, URLs and other meta data
• Google, Bing and Yahoo Map Creation and Optimization
• Map/Places Pages Organic Search Engine Marketing – we can boost your maps and ensure they get search engine traffic, using special techniques
• Link Building to your website, using your local target keywords – now you will have local search engine traffic to your map AND your website
• For a full list of our services – check out our site here: Eminent SEO Services

Or just give us a call! 800-871-4130

How Google Instant Is Changing Search

I just found myself waiting for the Google Instant to show up in my search results before typing because I knew it was coming. Do you use Google for your search queries (AKA looking for an address, a map, a website with quick information?) What are you searching for? Is Google using emotional response from humans in order to create an algorithm that is ultimately adjusted based off of human response?

Today I wanted to look up the top Fortune 100 and the top Fortune 500 companies. Doing some research and curious to see who these guys are and what they are doing.

I was going to search for “Top Fortune 500 vs 100 companies” but instead of searching for that key phrase and clicking on that first result, I waited for Google Instant to tell me what I should choose from. I didn’t even attempt to keep typing, I actually waited to see the results before I typed in exactly what I was thinking… Are we now allowing Google to narrow our natural selection to a “more suitable” selection? If so, based off of what criteria? Are we so common, so similar, that instead of an unlimited amount of things I could be searching for when typing “Top Fortune…” I am now given 10 choices to choose from and that’s sufficient for my search?

I was served the following options from Google Instant:

top fortune 500 companies

top fortune 100 companies

top fortune 500

top fortune 500 companies to work for

top fortune 500 companies list

top fortune 500 top fortune cities

top fortune cookie quotes

top fortune 500 companies in florida

top fortune 510 list

top fortune 50 companies

I chose “top fortune 500 companies” – now remember, I was going to search for “Top Fortune 500 vs 100 companies” which was not even on the “list”.

Are the 10 above that Google offered up the best search queries or top search terms when a human types in “top fortune” according to their data. Hrm. Do you think this dramatically changes search? We do.

Does the search volume of the “keywords” you are targeting reflect what people USED to be searching for, or what they are NOW because of what Google is serving up? When is the last time you checked?

For $200.00 we (Eminent SEO) can do a keyword discovery and research project for your website to determine the overall keyword strategy and make sure your approach matches the changes Google’s algorithm and the implementation of Google Instant reflect in the natural results.

Are you targeting the “right keywords”?

Who is your audience?

When is the last time you checked?

Could you use a fresh perspective?

Does your website need a health check?

Find out now, your $200.00 could MAKE you thousands. 

Just contact me:

Jenny Stradling

Managing Partner/SEO Strategist

Jenny@eminentseo.com

C: 480-338-8848

O: 800-871-4130 (ext 1)

F: 866.501.3296