Gamification Tips for SEO and Social Media Optimization
What is gamification? Why do you need gamification tips? Why doesn’t my spell-checker recognize gamification as a word? Hmmm…
One of the more important ranking factors being incorporated into search algorithms nowadays (and moving forward) is social signals. It’s very important to remember that your domain isn’t just a domain anymore. Your domain is your brand. Notice how much favor Google is paying toward its big advertisers by awarding them higher rankings in organic search? Those guys have established brands. Yes, it makes it tough to compete, but not impossible. SEO has always been an undulating marketing methodology, changing on a frequent basis. Obviously, core principles will always remain, but the evolution of SEO can happen as often as monthly, quarterly, etc. The point is…don’t be afraid to adapt. In fact…screw fear; if you don’t adapt you will fail (apologies for the bluntness).
All that being said, here’s a gamification tip you will find handy. One great way you can get people to start mentioning your site on social media is by creating sub pages on your site(s) that offer fun quizzes about pretty much anything (e.g. pop culture, music, cartoons, IQ, etc.). Let’s say (for example) you create a 10-question quiz called “Family Guy: What character would you be?”. You develop 10 easy questions with multiple choice or true/false answer formats. Make sure you nail down some sort of scoring system, then put the quiz on your site. The key to making this effective is how many people you can get to take the quiz and then how many of those people you can get to share their results on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Now, I would recommend using something like SnapApp.com. You’ll see for yourself why it’s such an awesome tool. Now, if you don’t want to spend the money on their app, try building something yourself following the same model.
Ok, so now you have your quiz, it’s programmed on a page with awesome sharing-ability. What next? I recommend using StumbleUpon Paid Discovery. This is an easy, affordable way to get your page in front of a highly targeted audience. Ask for Jean, tell her Tommy Bussey sent you 
You may be wondering how this gamification tip actually benefits you and your site. Well, there are actually a few benefits. First, you’re going to increase your site’s average “time-on-site” length because you’ll have thousands of new visitors interacting with the quiz, thus spending more time on your site. The more time people are spending on your site the more search algorithms will see your site as a quality resource. Second, when people share their results, obviously they will be sharing links on Facebook and Twitter back to your website. So cool! Another benefit is that your “brand” is being built by these social mentions as well, giving you more credibility in the long term.
I will be expanding more on this topic in my upcoming SEO coaching program, stay tuned!
SEO for 2012: How to Use Pinterest
As a SEO coach it is my responsibility to be up-to-date with all the latest changes in both search and social media (and, quite honestly, all methods of traffic generation online). I would recommend that you make it a habit in doing SEO for 2012 to read the latest blogs and news feeds in our industry. BUT REMEMBER, not all sources of information are credible and/or reliable. AND, even the ones that are credible can have the tendency to push “new” tactics a little too hard. I find that when they do this it steers people away from what’s currently still working. In my opinion, the SEO game has to be played for both the short-term and long-term. So far, that approach has served me quite well.
Now, if you have heard of Pinterest then you know where I’m going with this blog post…
In 2011, we saw that search engines have started to moderately recognize and factor socail signals into the ranking algorithms. If you’re not aware, social signals are things like Tweets, Retweets, Facebook Likes, Facebook Shares, Stumbles (StumbleUpon), +1 (Google+), etc. Obviously, there are a lot more social media and bookmarking sites out there but these major players seem to show the strongest correlation between social media and higher rankings (I cringed a little typing that).
All that being said, there’s going to be an even strong push in 2012 for this. You may be wondering why the search engines are doing this…frankly, it can pretty much be summed up in the following three points:
- Social signals give your site more authority due to the nature of peer-to-peer sharing
- Social signals show that your site is also a brand
- Social signals provide natural (again peer-to-peer) relevancy to your site/page content
Okay, moving on…so a few days ago Rand Fishkin made 8 predictions for SEO in 2012. I typically read these types of predictions with a very cautious mindset, but one of the items he mentioned in prediction #4 is that Pinterest will go mainstream – I couldn’t agree more.
I’ve known about Pinterest for some time and have been studying it’s application to the SEO and social media industry – oh yea, and the users too [smirk]. I’m not going to get into the intricacies of the site today, if you check it out you’ll see it’s a fairly simple yet ingenious idea that has been implemented quite well.
What I want to briefly discuss is how to use Pinterest in SEO for 2012. Remember, that Pinterest isn’t even publicly live yet so what I’m about to write is purely based on my experience in the SEO industry and my personal rationale.
So, with Pinterest people are going to be creating “pin-boards” to show their favorite sites and products all across the internet. These “pin-boards” will be grouped into categories and given relevant titles. There will be user-generated content on each “pin-board” and will get even more granular from there with likes, comments, etc. on individual postings by users and their networks. How juicy does all that sound based on what I’ve already told you in this post? Doesn’t it make sense that getting your site into as many “pin-boards” as possible will eventually affect your rankings in the search engines? I certainly wouldn’t doubt it…
For example, let’s say you run a website about men’s fashion. On this website you focus on selling men’s jeans, men’s t-shirts and men’s shoes. Your goal will be to get each of these sections of your site “pinned” on as many users “pin-boards” as possible that relate to men’s apparel. Obviously the more granular the better (e.g. men’s shoes page “pinned” on a Favorite Men’s Shoes “pin-board”, make sense?).
I can honestly foresee the verbiage “Pin This” becoming a popular content campaign theme in the coming year…just as we’ve seen with “Like This” and “Tweet This” content campaigns.
I will keep you posted on any developments in the area of Pinterest and SEO. Best of luck to you in your business and SEO endeavors in 2012!
Surprise! A Tip for In-house SEO Managers
As some of you may know, in addition to SEO coaching and running my company (323 Ventures), I lead the in-house SEO team for Saveology. It’s amazing how many different challenges you can face from playing these different roles. Trust me, as a consultant you’ll face a whole different set of challenges than you would as an in-house SEO. That being said, one of the biggest issues I have faced in the corporate setting is people’s lack of understanding of what SEO is and why it matters.
This can be problematic for many reasons. The biggest issue that this lack of understanding causes is it creates difficulty to get funding for the SEO team. Without a budget in place, doing SEO in competitive markets for 20+ websites is a nightmare. In addition, you’ll find that if your executives don’t know why you’re important to the business (as an SEO strategist, manager, etc.), then they may start wondering why you’re on staff at all. Right? So, there are a few solutions to combat these issues and the many other problems you may face due to lack of understanding by your C-level and coworkers. First of all, don’t get frustrated, remember that for most people SEO is a very tough concept to grasp (much less understand the high-level strategies).
One thing to always remember…ranking doesn’t matter unless you can show related revenue. Numbers, numbers, numbers. Always be prepared with numbers (ranking, visitors, sales, closing rates, etc.). I can write a whole series of posts on numbers, but today I want to focus on something slightly different.
Recently, I have been making an effort to do some internal PR (public relations) for the SEO team at Saveology. This is very important but must be done tactfully. You don’t want your coworkers to think you’re bragging arrogantly, but you do want them to be aware of your success (and how it benefits them). This sort of relates back to the point I made about numbers.
Now, one big thing I did for this internal PR campaign is write a short whitepaper called “What Is Search Engine Optimization and Why Do We Do It?” and then sent it to everyone in the company. I obviously encouraged everyone to ask any specific questions that they had related to SEO and how it affects the business.
If you want to get a copy of the whitepaper, feel free to contact me and I’ll send it over. Well, that’s my SEO coaching bit for in-house SEO managers and team leads, feel free to pose questions!
Saying Goodbye to India
I’m getting my things packed up and ready to go. I’ll be flying out of New Delhi in about 8 hours and as my time here is winding down I’m reflecting on the experience. I spent the first week here as a SEO Coach in Coimbatore. Our new team of content writers and link builders did a great job throughout the training and I’m very excited to have them on-board. Reading over their daily summary reports over the past few days, it is evident to me that they will become an invaluable asset to our SEO efforts.
After finishing up with the SEO workshops I flew to New Delhi on Sunday night. I’ve been staying with a friend and it’s been an awesome couple of days here. I’ve got to experience so many new things and I’m just so thankful for the opportunity I had to visit this great country.
On Monday I went to the Qutub Minar complex (seen in this first picture) and also Humayun’s tomb. What an experience that was! Aside from the incredible architecture and cultural history, another aspect of my visit made it extra special. There were hundreds of visitors there and many of them were school kids visiting the complex on a field trip. As I was walking around snapping photos on my iPhone and reading the various historical excerpts at each structure, I started getting approached by the other visitors there. The first group came up to me and said, “One photo, please?”. I assumed they wanted me to take a picture of them, so I said sure thing, hand me your camera. To my surprise, they actually wanted a photo with me IN it with them! I was so embarrassed at first, but agreed out of politeness. I was slightly bewildered by the experience, but didn’t think much of it. However, another 20-30 groups asked me to be in a photo with them! I felt a little embarrassed every time, but all-in-all I admit it was flattering (a lot of them really liked my tattoos too haha). Needless to say, my visit to the Qutub Minar complex was quite memorable.
Yesterday, my new friend Pritha and I journeyed on the Metro to Old Delhi. The Metro was an adventure in itself, but I only got (nearly) pick-pocketed one time! Someone reached for my iPhone but luckily I already had my hand there and batted them away. Once we arrived in Old Delhi we hopped on a rickshaw en route to The Red Fort (as seen in this second picture). The complex was quite remarkable and the vast expanse of the place was truly staggering. I learned that in 1911 the ceremony to shift power in India from Calcutta to New Delhi was held at The Red Fort under the rule of King George V. I can’t even recall the many adventurous encounters we experienced in Old Delhi, but let’s just say it was slightly refreshing to finally escape the crowd and sit down to a nice lunch at Kahn Market.
This country is truly amazing in so many ways. It’s a great place to grow your business (SEO for me specifically) and a wonderful place to visit and soak up new culture. I truly hope to come back someday! Now, I need to start gearing up for my 15-hour flight back to the US.
Last Session of SEO Coaching in India
So today concluded the SEO coaching workshops I’ve been doing here in Coimbatore at KGiSL. It’s been an amazing trip so far and the new team has certainly shown that they are going to be a great addition to our SEO efforts.
As you can see from the smiles in this picture, everyone had a great time. This was a great learning experience for both myself and the new team. It’s amazing how quickly they were able to hear all this new information and start successfully applying it. We first focused on learning how search engines algorithms work and why optimizing our websites for those algorithms is important. I talked to them about the many elements of both on-site and off-site optimization, and how these two pieces work together to achieve first-page rankings in Google for a given search query. Once they had an understanding of the process we began looking at specific disciplines like content creation and link acquisition. The team did a great job of utilizing the various brainstorming techniques I shared with them and learned how something as simple as a bubble chart can generate literally thousands of ideas for creating quality content. Then we looked how to leverage these pieces of content to acquire links that point back to our various web properties.
Even though there is still a lot to learn, I’m highly encouraged by their ability to grasp and implement new concepts and tactics. This is truly the most important part of becoming a “good” SEO. The game is always changing and the ability to quickly adapt to those changes is what makes a successful optimizer.
As for me, I was able to learn a lot too. Aside from exploring a fascinating new culture and a bewildering (thanks Hari) new culinary palate of flavors, I gained invaluable experience in sharing my passion for SEO and online marketing. India is truly a remarkable country and I have a feeling I will be coming back.
I leave for Delhi tomorrow, looking forward to spending a couple days there before it’s back to the US to continue my daily hustle in the world of online marketing.
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