Increase Engagement for SEO Success

October 2011 – we are now over three quarters of the way through what, in SEO terms, could be called the year of the Panda. The change in Google rankings which first surfaced in early 2011 (known as the dreaded “Panda/Farmer Update”) caused uproar in the online marketing community. Changes in Google search algorithms meant that certain sites that had previously ranked highly for targeted keyword phrases were now literally, nowhere to be seen. Panda-monium (oh dear) ensued, with webmasters and online marketers desperately trying to figure out why they had dropped so far in rankings. Many high ranking European e-commerce sites were badly hit, with well known online brands like Ciao and Hotfrog losing up to 58% of their indexed pages pretty much overnight.

The Panda update affected sites that Google perceived to have duplicated content – that is, content which is available in other places on the web. This affected online resellers most keenly, sites who use manufacturer’s descriptions and product specs. The reason given? Google wanted to target content farms, aggregators and other directory-type sites, who typically have a high portion of duplicate content, dense with keyword-based links.

With several Panda iterations behind us now, it has become clear that Google also wants to give a much higher weight to social mentions, citations and other types of website engagement. So, each site now needs to look at creating good, unique content which is “mentioned” in as many relevant and varied channels online. And when we say social, we don’t just mean Facebook and Twitter. This umbrella terms covers all the social network platforms out there – including blogs, forums, online communities, social bookmarking sites, the lot.

So, as a company looking to improve your SEO rankings, we’re telling you that you really need to be investing in some level of social media engagement. Engagement covers lots of different factors, and while we can speculate, noone knows for certain which factors Google rates most highly. We know that Google looks at some of the following areas at site level and views them in an important light:

- How long the average user spends on the site
- How many site visitors are new/returning
- How many pages each visitor views while on the site
- How many pages are printed from the site
- How much users use the scrollbar

Offsite, Google looks at areas online where each site is referred to, as an indication of how much “authority” they have and how “trusted” they are as a resource. This refers, in part, to:

- Mentions (that’s links, shares, tweets etc.) on all types of social network platforms
- How often the site brand is searched online
- How much non-search related traffic the site is getting

Google also looks at user behaviour within search results themselves – for instance, do users click on a search result and then immediately go back and try another link? Basically, Google want to make sure users get the most relevant results for their search query, which means that the most relevant sites should be getting higher click through rates from search results pages (SERP’s). They should not be sending users back out to the search results to try another link. Therefore we think that the click through rate from SERP’s may also be an important factor for Google, which in turn, makes it important for you.

Confused? You are not alone If the idea of building your social engagement strategy from scratch seems daunting, why not ask the experts? We would be more than happy to help you find your way.