Yesterday’s post on Social Media Crisis Management was a bit of experiment to see how highly I could rank for the term “Social Media Crisis Management”. I also wanted to share my results with you, so you can hopefully learn a bit more about the importance of SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
First, I picked a fairly specific term, in “Social Media Crisis Management”. I checked prior to publishing yesterday’s post, and there were just a shade under 29,000 Google results for that term. This is important because you need to pick the most specific term as possible, because this will result in less competition, and (if you’ve picked the right term for you) it means you will be more likely to get the ‘right’ kind of traffic.
Second, I made sure the term was in the title and mentioned a couple of times in the post. I also made the term “Social Media Crisis Management” at the front of the post title, I originally had the title as “A No-Nonsense Guide to Social Media Crisis Management” but Amy wisely suggested that I flip it so the term I was targeting was at the front of the title.
Now, a note about keywords and phrases: You do need to pick and target specific keywords and phrases, but you also need to incorporate them into the post in a way that makes sense to the reader. I only used that term in the post twice, because that’s all I felt it needed. It might have helped the results to get it in there once or twice more, but I felt I would have had to compromise the flow of the post’s structure to do it, so I didn’t. You always have to remember that you are writing for people, if the post doesn’t make sense to them, then it really doesn’t matter if it does well in search results.
So, when I published the post yesterday at 12:20pm, there were 28,900 Google results for the term “Social Media Crisis Management”. I tweeted a link to it at that time. Fifty minutes later at 1:10pm, the post was already showing up on the 3rd page for a Google search of #Social Media Crisis Management”:
I tweeted out another link to the post around 2pm, and then at 2:30pm, it moved a bit further up the results on the 3rd page:
Then 15 minutes later at 2:45pm I checked again, and 2 hours and 25 minutes after being published, the post is now on the 1st page of results for the term “Social Media Crisis Management”:
As you can see, the post was now at #7 on the internet for that term. I searched one more time at 3:40pm, and the term had risen up to #6 on Google, and above the fold (barely):
As of this writing it has settled back to #7. But the interesting part is that all of the above screenshots were taken by me searching with Google with results for EVERYTHING, and when I was NOT signed into Google.
So at 3:20pm, I decided to check the Latest results for “Social Media Crisis Management”, and this is what I saw:
THIS is huge. The Latest results factors in real-time linking behavior, so it is picking up all the tweets where my post was being RTed, and as a result, the top half of the Latest results for the term “Social Media Crisis Management” were completely devoted to MY post.
And this is what the same search showed me this morning at 9:20am:
I couldn’t get all of the results in one screenshot but EVERY result from the above was about my post. Every result in the latest column on the left, the Top Link on the Right, and the Top Updates under it. My post owned the 1st page of Latest search results for the term “Social Media Crisis Management”.
That’s a perfect example of how Twitter and Facebook sharing is now impacting Google results. And it’s also a wonderful illustration of the value of being active on Twitter. I tweeted a link to that post several times yesterday and this morning, which was a big reason why it moved up the Google results so quickly, and a big reason why it dominated the Latest results for that term.
So those of you that are trying to sell your boss on why they should use Twitter, you just got another argument in your favor 😉
But there are two things I want you to take away from this:
1 – This was very basic SEO stuff that any of you can do. It was simply a case of targeting a specific phrase, and inserting it in the post. Now as far as my having a large and engaged Twitter network and readership here (thanks guys!), that definitely played a big factor in the post moving up the results so quickly. But at a basic level, everything I did from a SEO perspective is what you can do with every post. And you should.
2 – You can best learn by breaking stuff. There are a gazillion ‘How to’ and ’10 Steps to…’ articles about using social media, and I have certainly written my fair share of these. But the best way *I* learn is if you can show me the first 1 or 2 steps, then leave me alone and let me figure out the remaining 8 or 9 steps for myself. Don’t just blindly follow my social media advice or anyone else’s. Use the advice as a guide for how you can get started. But there is no one RIGHT way to use social media. Never forget that. I can tell you what works for me and my clients, but you still need to tweak any advice so that it is perfect for you. SEO geeks will no doubt see a ton of things that I could have done or altered in this experiment to get even better results. And moving forward, I am going to continue to tweak and ‘break stuff’ in order to better figure out how all the moving parts work together.
So go forth, be social, and keep breaking stuff 😉
Great follow up to yesterday’s post. Nice to see your illustration of the value of being active on Twitter. Cheers!
Thanks Roy. I am always trying to learn stuff here, and always trying to share what I do learn. Hope it’s helpful!
hi mack, this is powerful however it does presume that ppl who go searching on google for things are as expert as you. a lot of people aren’t and wont click “latest” in the left hand column. Iinterestingly, i just did the exact same search (not signed into google) and your result mackcollier.com has dropped further down the results from page 3.
Interesting Mike, it’s still showing up for me as #7 on the front page. But that leads to another question, how can I make it stay up higher in the results, for a longer time? Which gives me more of a reason to keep tinkering 😉
Small issue: You’re using personalized search and google is connecting the dots between your searches, your tweets, and your history of clicking on your own links. :/ You have “Atlanta, GA” marked and you should take a look at what SEObook’s rank checker says, or any other ranking service that ignores your personalizations. Good try though!
Jaded what do you mean by personalized search? As for my location, I am using a Verizon Mifi Card, and it connects at a different location every day. Usually I show up as being from Kansas City, yesterday it was Atlanta, today it is Tampa. Throughout the day I did check the results from another computer that I don’t use that wasn’t signed into Google, and it was showing the same results I saw on mine. But I’m sure there will be some slight deviations?
@Mark Good thought…I was wondering about that because that is what I use when Im out and about. Not the same set up but a New IP address every time.
Hi Mack
Nice find!
This looks like you are seeing a new version of the fairly long established real time blended search results. I suspect it is just a test at this stage so it may or may not become a permanent addition but it certainly shows they are looking to increase the prominence of real time results.
I know your post doesn’t say it, but I would be careful in assuming that the early changes in rank are related to tweets (and your individual ones specifically). They could equally be down to Google just being mighty efficient at indexing frequently updated websites with or without tweets.
Having said that I suspect you are right about the some of the rank increases being down to an increasing volume of tweets.
It does seem that the inclusion of the “Latest” (real time search) element in the results is related to volume of tweets. I’ve seen the latest tweet box appear within a minute of an announcement that generated buzz. Someone has suggested the magic number is 8 tweets but I haven’t tested that.
Tim that’s a great point, we don’t really know what role the link-sharing on Twitter impacted the rise of the results. I don’t think it really affected how quickly the post was indexed by Google (someone correct me if you can), but I do think it had to have an impact on how far the post did rise.
I think that’s one of the key questions that a lot of people are asking right now, that no one really knows the answer to.
So you’ve been told that 8 tweets gets you to pop up there in the latest? Interesting, thanks for sharing!
excellent article. Now – try the same without twitter and see if results are similar. The reason is that blog content is often picked up and ranked especially from a site that is active. You might see very similar results.
I have posted blog articles in subjects where there was not much competition – and found my article on page one within hours.
One note on keyword usage – your points are spot on. also – the use of keywords too often can also diminish ranking. if the percent of keyword content to overall content is too high… it’s a warning sign and is treated negatively. great study however!
Stephen great point about keywords/phrases and not overdoing it. That was one of the points I tried to make in the post, I used the phrase “Social Media Crisis Management” twice in the post, and that was it, because it would have felt ‘forced’ to add it any more than that. I think if it’s a tradeoff between adding more keywords or making the post more ‘natural’ for readers, then you need to side with the readers. If the content doesn’t make sense to people once they click on it, then the high rankings really don’t matter, do they? Thanks for the reminder!
I am totally an SEO reject… I started playing with it a bit in about November.
I had my feelings about Twitter, but THIS is amazing.
thanks so much for the info, and this post.
Awesome research man. I have been considering a little test like this for a while now. Now I don’t have to. 🙂
Chris yes you DO! 😉 That was my main point, you still should do this experiment on your own, because I bet YOU will learn a few more things than I did in this post.
Every situation is different, and experience is the best teacher!
Hi Mack!
VERY interesting findings and I appreciate your sharing the results. I noticed in your search results that my article on the topic discussed appeared.
My article’s title “Is there a Crisis in Crisis Management?” – Blue Focus Marketing. http://www.bluefocusmarketing.com/blog/2010/11/08/is-there-a-crisis-in-crisis-management-2/
The article was based on a new Crisis Management survey that was released and also highlighted my upcoming presentation on “Perils of Social Media Revolution and Crisis Management” in Nov., 2010 at CPE/ Morgan Stanley – NYC. It was my intent to include the right keywords in the blog (good blogging/SEO best practices) as you stated.
This is excellent learning about how Twitter and Facebook sharing is now impacting Google results. I am a very active Twitter user and I can see the benefits you describe.
I would also agree with your approach to “tweak and break stuff” to understand how it all works together. Both your blogs and your #BlogChat are excellent resources.
Cheers,
Cheryl
@ckburgess
http://twitter.com/ckburgess
http://bluefocusmarketing.com/blog
Thank you Cheryl, and glad I could get your post some additional exposure 😉
Mack,
Sincerely enjoyed this post as well as the comments, which in my opinion added to the value of the post.
I do think mike ashworth has a good point about majority of ‘searchers’ are not aware nor use the advance features of google. For instance, when I looked at your screen shot I wasn’t quite sure of exactly what you were using to display the results, and I don’t consider my self to be a search novice. Through reading the rest of the comments I realized it was the ‘real time’ setting – but even then I don’t have ‘latest’ link on my google.
At any rate I think that is not all that important to what is the underlying point here. What you have done here is illustrate the importance of some fundamental SEO awareness, enough so that one can begin to practically apply it, and underscored it with the investment that is required in engaging activity across social media outlets.
For that reason alone I find it a very powerful use case for being mindful of one’s content marketing strategy and methodically and consistently executing against that strategy to pump up the SEO equity of targeted terms.
A little long winded perhaps, so sorry for that. But it is a great discussion and I’m glad to participate in it.
thanks for the great work!
I am new (few weeks new) into the blogging world and I keep seeing social media post everywhere I look. This post showed me the power of what everyone was talking about. I guess I am getting a twitter account now for my website and I can’t wait to experiment with social media.
Thanks for the awesome post!!!
Mack – I’m going to show this to a legal client tomorrow. Case closed. Nice job. – Fred
SOBCON?
Thanks Fred! And unfortunately, I believe I’ll have to miss SOBCON again this year, but you never know, would be great to meet you and the #LeadershipChat gang!
First up – here’s what I like – I really like that you’re experimenting with this, and encouraging other people to do so. The more evidence based decisions we’re able to make, the better.
That said, there are some ways you can improve your experiment. Firstly, you need to try to strip away other ranking factors, so you’re sure you’re only testing want you want to test; the ‘effect of tweets on rankings’. To me, what you’ve shown here is that a well optimised blog post on a relevant site can be made to rank for an exact match keyphrase, and continue to do so. This is nice, obviously, but not, I feel, what you set out to prove, and certainly not what’s in your comments.
Secondly, you need to have some sort of control test – what would have happened if you’d not tweeted about the page at all? We don’t know, because there’s nothing to base this against. This isn’t easy, obviously, what with the duplicate content issues, but there are ways around it.
Personally, while not dismissing Twitter as a useful tool for increasing visibility, including within search returns, I don’t think that there’s any evidence that tweets are being used as rankings factors in the main organic search returns.
Damian you’re right, the post was initially going to be focused on how simple keyword/phrase placement in the title and post can influence search results. But the latest results, especially yesterday when EVERY link and result was from my post (with the majority coming from links shared on Twitter), I thought that was too big not to share.
As you point out, it’s tough to say exactly what impact those tweets had on the overall rankings. BUT, if Google is going to placing more of a premium on tweets in the future (as some have suggested), then the impact of tweets on search results could be huge.
I like your second tip, I too believe that getting your feet wet is the best way to do anything. A bit of theory is needed, but just doing stuff over and over, in a bad way first, and tuning up afterwards, is a sure way to really learn something. You can’t learn just from books.
This was an excellent post! I must say that your step-by-step instructions make is easy for a e-neophyte to be able to understand and do it themselves. Kudos!
Eddie Velez
Thanks Eddie, that really was the focus of the post, if I can do this stuff, anyone can 😉
Nice Artical
Mack — I never would have realized just how much Twitter impacts search results. Of course it helps that you’ve got such a big following (with good reason!), but those are pretty astounding results. THANKS for another great post full of good info and tips.
Hi Mack – I’m currently seeing your article listed 5th — which is great since the other four are dated prior June 2010. That gives a lot of time to build equity and links.
I’m glad you emphasized that you were logged out of Google at the time you ran your search because it makes a big difference.
As for the keywords, two exact match keywords in a post of that length is plenty so you made a good call on that. But it’s also a good practice to add variations of the phrase too – like, “managing a social media crisis”, etc. Citing examples with each of your points would also add relevant keywords – like with #3, you could have mentioned Kenneth Cole, etc.
If you need to get full page screen shots, I reco Paparazzi (which is free) and also LittleSnapper.
Hi Mack,
You had a great experience plus I too get to know one very important tool for getting higher ranking in search engine. So it’s great experience for me as well. 😉
Hi Mack,
I knew social media was helpful for SEO, but had no idea that the impact of Twitter can be so huge. I am going to do a little experiment myself. Thanks for inspiring. 🙂
May sound like a stupid question, but did you reset your cookies every time you did the search?
Thanks for the post!!!! Just heard about this method this week….
Hi Mack,
Thanks for sharing this very insightful study. I posted it to the LinkedIn group, “Social Media for the Blogger.” I noticed you’re not yet a member of this group — we’d love to have you! Join us here: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=2206635
Karen
Mack:
I really liked this one! Behold the power of SM for SEO. I look forward to more experiments on this topic.
SB
Thank you Stacey! Hopefully you will play around with it as well, especially the Latest Google results.
Hey actually i know that twitter and facebook affect a lot on the traffic and ranking of keywords but after reading this article i seriously believe that the changes happen very fast.I really appreciate you for posting this!!
I have heard about social media sites like tweeter and facebook are very helpful in promoting the sites but actually I haven’t tried it. I hope it well work out well for me 🙂
Thanks for the strategy. I’ll try it (though have a much smaller twitter following than you). I was adversely impacted by Google’s new search algorithim, so now looking to other channels like fbook and twitter to grow readership. This post reinforces that approach.
Very nice article. Love how you are so generous offering great tips and advice. Will experiment with your suggestions!