Exploring the New Opportunity in Google’s Social Search Features

Rand Fishkin, CEO + Co-founder, SEOmozMay 2011; New York

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlResults from Google’s “My Social Circle.” To see results like this, just add “&tbs=frim:1” to the end of any Google query.

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlThese annotations undoubtedly increase CTR, particularly if the source is trusted.

The social connections appear to influence

rank ordering.

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlhttp://www.google.com/search?q=mba+program+reviews

Hang on a tic... How did they know I’m connected to Kalena on Facebook?! I

haven’t yet added Facebook to my Google account!

If Networks are Latent…Google + Social Really Could Work

for Everyone

Question 1:What Networks Does Google Support?

Question 2:How Can We Earn More Connections?

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlUse this URL while logged in to see yours: https://profiles.google.com/connectedaccounts

Currently, Google supports these 7 social networks

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlScreenshots from top results for http://www.google.com/search?q=seo-friendly+directories

Facebook

“Shared this” language suggests that a “like” alone

may not be enough to appear in these results

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlGood piece on earning more likes to company pages:http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2010/10/01/13-simple-ways-of-increasing-your-facebook-likes/

More Friends + More Shares

Personal Pages can use the “Find Friends” feature

Company pages convert “likes” into “friends”

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlSitewide Facebook “Like” buttons are neither banned nor blackhat, but they’re a great way to earn connections

More Likes on Company PagesI like Ian’s self-

effacing CTA, and the fact that a like on any post is actually a like for the whole blog!

See http://www.seomoz.org/blog/facebook-twitters-influence-google-search-rankings for info on the correlation between Facebook shares + Google rankings

Employ + Promote the “Share” Button

“Share” is a more intensive, lower conversion activity, but that’s probably exactly why

Google thinks it’s worthwhile.

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlUmm… Yeah, sorry. I got nothing. I probably wouldn’t spend much time here either, as it’s largely a dying community (from a social standpoint).

Yahoo! Pulse…

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlFlickr’s social interactions are primarily around comments + favorites on photos.

Flickr

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlEarning “contacts” are what get your shares to show up in Google results.

Flickr

You can see who’s connected to you via this link

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlLinkedIn is, perhaps, the easiest place to build a network. Virtually any invite message you send that includes a personalized, well written connection request has a good chance to be accepted.

LinkedIn

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlI tried dozens of queries through many LinkedIn connections with no results in Google. I’ve never actually found a “shared by” annotation from LinkedIn either…

LinkedIn Updates Don’t Seem to Hit Google

???

If you haven’t yet started contributing on http://www.quora.com, the Google social integration is a great excuse

Quora

Find topics where you’re an expert; click on the “open questions” link + answer. http://www.quora.com/browse is a reasonable (though not great) place to start.

Answering Popular Questions w/ Great Answers is the Best Way to Earn Follows

Hovering on a topic will show you follower-counts.

Tackling older questions where other answers haven’t been robust can often yield better results than answering something where a phenomenal response already exists.

Use Graphics/Photos in Answers; it Works

50 Upvotes on an answer containing an image…

Probably not a coincidence.

If you haven’t yet read it, http://blog.socialflow.com/post/5246404319/breaking-bin-laden-visualizing-the-power-of-a-single is really quite remarkable.

Twitter

Social results and local/places results don’t yet overlap, but I suspect it can’t be long.

Yelp

Yelp’s data influences local, but not yet in a

directly social way

Unfortunately, Yelp, like LinkedIn + Yahoo, doesn’t appear to create sharing connections in the same way Facebook, Twitter, Quora and Flickr do.

Yelp

Talk + Events are the best ways to make

connections currently

Rule Social SERPs…Rule the Future!

Q+ARand Fishkin, CEO & Co-Founder, SEOmoz

• Twitter: @randfish

• Blog: www.seomoz.org/blog

• Email: rand@seomoz.org

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