This week a couple of us from Bite LA went to a panel held at the Rubicon Project put on by the Social Media Club of LA (#SMCLA) on the topic of SEO and Social Media. As panelist Barbara Boser immediately pointed out SEO and Social Media are different things, though they often get conflated. Later, Jeffrey Henderson followed that point up with the astute comment that “social media is where people hear about you, but search is where they find you” – I may be paraphrasing a bit there, but the point was well taken. The panel was rounded out by Sean Percival and Tony Adam. It was really solid group and a rare occasion where the panelists did less pontificating (okay, there was some of that) and talked more about very specific, tangible things brands can do to improve their SEO.
There was lots of talk of how best to appeal to the almighty Google search algorithm (hint: Google loves freshness) and how to avoid incurring the Google censors wrath (hint: if you’re going to cross link among sites, you best be on different IP addresses or even different data centers). Lots of good discussion of what plays well on the various social bookmarking sites. Digg is great for male-friendly topics, but don’t bother if your brand or content is about baking. In that case, give yourself a push on the female-oriented Kirtsy. Speaking of content, Sean noted the conventional wisdom about online content: it plays well if it elicits two emotions in readers: bemusement and curiosity; concern and frustration; lust and envy. Whatever.
But what struck me amid all the discussion of linkjuice and metatags was how almost nonchalantly the panelists talked about “content.” For the most part it was just assumed that you or your brand can whip up new content at the snap of a finger, and the real job is all about getting links, tagging it with the right keywords, driving it up to Digg’s top page. But as alluded to above, only Sean really talked about the act of creating the content. In addition to pointing out the ‘two emotion rule’ and the importance of continually refreshing content, he also mentioned tying brands or products to current trends and sometimes taking bold stands on issues.
That can be hard to do, especially for bigger organizations as Sean pointed out. As public relations people, we know that well. Often times ideas for funny, topical or partisan content – be it blog posts, bylined articles, speeches, videos – get edited to the point that authenticity and spontaneity are drained out. It is possible to do those kinds of things without compromising brand integrity, but it takes hard work, creativity and a bit of courage – not nonchalance. That’s where your PR team as content experts and storytellers rather than SEO specialists can be of tremendous value. So let this be a reminder to Biters to keep pushing – and to our clients and other readers – to remain open to those sometimes challenging suggestions. Because the benefit is two-fold when done well. Smart, non-spammy content can not only help you engage your audience, it can also help you climb the Google rankings.