Nothing in the world of SEO or Social Media Marketing ever stays still for long… a challenge that keeps all of us digital marketers running like Olympic sprinters trying to keep up with the latest winners and losers!  For those of you who are still running laps of the course or haven’t made it out of the starting blocks yet, the following update will give you an overview of one of the latest budding relationships that has been a big talking point of late in the digital sphere:

Facebook & Bing Jump into Bed Together and Give Google the Cold Shoulder!

For some time it has been rumoured that social media giant Facebook has been gearing up to give Google, the giant of the search engine world a run for its money!  This much anticipated event has seen Facebook team up with a rival search engine, Bing to create its own new offspring, a new search facility which has been christened ‘Graph Search.’  So how did this all happen?

Miss Bing Thought it was Time to get Noticed!

Formerly shy Bing has been the subject of much gossip and speculation over the last year as a search experiment on the quality of her search results aimed to turn the phrase ‘Perception is Reality’ on its head.  Blind test experiments revealed that a large volume of internet users who participated in an experiment to compare search results, rated the quality of the results returned from Bing as being better than those of her much bolder love rival, Google.  This has started ripples in the search world that Google is perhaps not the Goddess we should all be worshipping after all.  In fact, she is perhaps just ‘mutton dressed as lamb!’

Miss Bing Got Her Man!

Bing has boldly announced that she is proud of her new strong and confident partner, Facebook and is ready to show him off to all her friends in the coming months, in fact Bing’s search results are set to contain five times more content from Facebook than previously – everything from links and comments to status updates.  For those social savvy marketers, this will come as no surprise as Bing has been flirting with Facebook for a while, gradually featuring Facebook more prominently in her search results.  From now on, we’ll be seeing a lot more of Facebook in Bing's news feed! 

Things Moved Fast and They Had a Baby

Their young ‘un, Graph Search is now on a mission to help us find everything we need through our Facebook friends and connections – everything from searches for friends who share our passion for a specific sport, films our friends recommend, restaurants they’ve been to in Belfast.... the possibilities are endless!  To quote Facebook, “With Graph Search, you can look up anything shared with you on Facebook, and others can find stuff you've shared with them, including content set to Public. That means different people see different results.”  Tailored content unique to the user is what marketing gurus have been talking about for years.

What Does The Future Hold for Facebook, Bing, Graph Search and Google?

As always, how successful Graph Search will be remains to be seen but already the pros and cons are being heavily debated.  Some people fear that it will expose them to greater risk of phishing attacks, and privacy concerns have arisen in light of the fact that status updates and activity may appear in the organic search results but as businesses, we are look for the benefits.  Graph Search could prove to be a useful research tool to aid our understanding of things our target audiences like, enabling us to use these insights to target our fans with content that will interest them.  Facebook and its new offspring may also encourage fans to spend even longer than they already do in their company, which further cements Facebook as one of the leading channels that businesses need to utilise to strengthen engagement with their target audiences. Google will have to stay on top of her game in the coming months.

Social & Search’s Marriage is Strong

We’ve been chatting for some time about the growing strength of the relationship between Social & Search.  Events over the last few weeks indicate that Facebook’s relationship status isn’t likely to change to ‘single’ anytime soon and Bing’s heart isn’t going to get broken before the upcoming romantic occasion that is Valentine’s Day.  But what may change for those of us who are friends of the leading lights of Social & Search is how the latest developments affect our own relationships with them.  For some of us Google may no longer be our 'BFF' and Bing may be in with a chance of becoming our ‘New Best Friend’ in the future…. at least for a time until something better comes along!

Keep a close eye on your status updates, images, friends' comments and links to more juicy gossip in the coming months to find out exactly what is going on….. and if you are too busy, don’t worry, we’ll do our best to make sure you don’t miss out on any hot gossip!  Just sign up to our blog alerts to make sure you don’t miss out!

Staff at The Web Bureau recently had the opportunity to meet one of the world’s leading Search Engine Optimisation experts.

Rand Fishkin is the CEO of global SEO software company SEOmoz, who recently took on investment of $18 million. A prolific blogger on topics such as SEO, start-ups and entrepreneurship, Rand, from Seattle, spoke openly about his approach to business at an event held in Belfast on Tuesday evening (18th Sept).

Rand’s fascinated audience were briefed on how the SEOmoz’s mission statement – TAGFEE- is a clear declaration of the company’s organisational cultures and core values. 

TAGFEE stands for Transparent, Authentic, Generous, Fun, Empathetic and Exceptional.

Rand advises that within each of these points are key questions that should be asked by every business:

- Am I being as open/honest as possible without causing harm? Am I accurately representing my opinions and values?

- Am I being as helpful as I can? Am I giving back to the community?

- Are we celebrating our strengths? Are we having fun yet?

- Am I being respectful to the thoughts and feelings of others? Can I proudly stand behind my work and my statements?

- Is it the best it can be? Is it uniquely better than anything else out there?

Denise Cowan, Digital Marketing Manager at The Web Bureau said:

“It was great to hear from Rand who has been one of the world’s leading SEO experts over the last 10 years and has built SEOmoz into a hugely successful company.

“As one of the principal search engine optimisation providers in Northern Ireland, it was fantastic to hear from an industry insider.

“TAGFEE is a great business model and marketing strategy to stand by and I’m sure the rest of the local digital marketing community was just inspired as I was by Rand’s pioneering SEO expertise.”

The team at The Web Bureau would like to extend their thanks to both Barry Adams of Pierce Communications and Kevin McCaffrey of Conversion Rate Services for organising the event.

If you are interested in search engine marketing to drive traffic to your website and grow sales, contact The Web Bureau on 028 9073 1190, www.thewebbureau.com or email denise@thewebbureau.com

The Web Bureau can also be contacted on Facebook or on Twitter

Photo: Left to Right, Denise Cowan (Digital Marketing Manager), Rand Fishkin & Lisa Kelland (Digital Marketing Assistant)

Our recent article, 2012: The Year Google Became Local, announced the introduction of Google+ Local, and the Google Venice algorithm update, elements of Google's strategy to return the most relevant search results for users.

If your business targets customers in your region for new and repeat business, there are many advantages of investing in local search engine optimisation. Those who rank well locally can attract regular visitor traffic and new customers to their site. With mobile searching on the increase, ranking well for local keywords is increasingly important.

Local businesses gain trust more easily due to the map, address verification, customer reviews, and content that local business pages typically contain. Conversion rates tend to be higher for local search terms, than national terms as geographic proximity results in increased click-through rates and repeat visits. Securing reviews from these local customers who purchase often, also enables local businesses to establish credibility quickly. 

So How Can a Local Business or Organisation Rank Well for Local Search Terms?

Stage 1: Keyword Research 

Identify suitable keywords to use to optimise your website, social media profiles and anchor text for link building. Local search marketing is challenging as you are targeting both industry-specific and geo-specific terms.

Stage 2: On-Site Optimisation for Local Search

Tell the search engines the locations you are targeting by including geo-specific information, keywords and phrases on your website:

Meta Data
Include your local keywords within title tags, meta descriptions, image alt tags, H tags and so on.

Local Address & Phone Number on All Pages
Include these details on all pages within the text, not in an image. Most businesses place this information in their website’s footer. This is good for search engine bots and for people on mobile phones as your phone number may be clickable.

Location-Specific Pages
If you have more than one location but only one website, create a page on your website specific for each physical location. This way, anyone searching for your business in a particular region, city, state, or country should be directed to the appropriate page.

Embed a Map
The best place to start is to get listed on local search directories. Some good examples include Google+ Local, 4NI, Yelp, Yell,Cylex and Free Index.  Include as much content as the directory allows to best optimise your listing. Some local search directories are free, others incur a cost. 

Enter the address on Google Maps, get the HTML embed code and add the map to your website. To be extra sure Google and other search engines pick up on this, get your web developer to create and upload a KML file to your website.  KML is a file format used to display geographic data in an Earth browser such as Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Maps for mobile. Instead of waiting for Google to find out where you are, this will tell them where you are!

Stage 3: Off Page Optimisation / Link Building for Local Keywords

There are a number of strategies that businesses can employ to secure local links to their website:

Local Search Directories & Reviews
Boost your visibility by monitoring your business listings. Encourage your customers to provide a review and respond to both good and bad reviews as the listing owner. Positive ratings can elevate your business in search results, especially on sites that allow visitors to sort businesses by the number of positive ratings. Here are some tips for getting great social local search reviews:

• Add Icons to Your Website - Let your website visitors know they can rate your business on directories by adding links to your business listings on your website.
• Encourage Reviews in Your Store - If you have a store or restaurant, encourage local reviews by simply putting a mention or link to your business listings on receipts.
• Encourage Reviews via Emails - Email people after they purchase from your website or sign up to your mailing list and ask them to rate their experience on their choice of business listing.
• Ask! - If you interact with customers daily, simply ask them to add a review on your business listing.

Related Local Businesses
Identify local businesses from the same industry, which are not competitors. If their websites have resource pages that link out to other businesses similar to yours, try to get your link listed as a valuable resource their visitors.

Local Bloggers
Find bloggers in your region whose audience might be interested in your business. Offer to do a guest post for them, or give them the opportunity to sample your products or services in exchange for a review on their blog.

General Local Resource Pages 
Search for other local business resources where you may be able to get your site listed e.g. your local Council’s website.

Competitor Backlinks
Use tools like Open Site Explorer to find out what backlinks your local competitors’ websites have to see if you can get yourself listed on them as well.

Local Events
If you sponsor or exhibit at local industry conferences, expos and shows, check if they link to their exhibitors and sponsors on their website. 

Local Charities
Sponsor and donate to local charities. Many will have websites that thank their local sponsors and donors, linking back to the sponsor’s and donor’s websites.

Actively delivering all of the above will have you well on your way to achieving a strong position in local search results, but the challenge does not end here. 

Our previous article, ‘Be a Social Animal for Search Engine Optimisation’ illustrated that SEO in not complete without the support of Social Media Marketing. Our next article will identify social media marketing strategies that will strengthen your Local Search Optimisation strategy.