This was by far the most intersting seminar of the day. I wish I had gone to all of the Social Search seminars. While search engines have still yet to figure out how social search figures into ranking algorithms, this is clearly a major factor when it comes to building links and exposure.
Moderator: Chris Sherman, Search Engine Watch
Neil Patel, Advantage Consulting Services
Leveraging Wikipedia for search traffic. 1.3 million articles are accessible from the Wi English home page.
Anybody can edit content on Wi, free document license. You can monitor any page for changes via RSS or a history feature. Wi provides information. If linked, traffic and “authority” links.
Don’ts:
- use Wi for link building!
- Delete accurate info
- Add biased info
- Break community rules
- Spam
Dos:
- Add facts
- Add valuable information
- Add valuable links (not just to your site)
Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz.org
“Tagging is a digital post-it note.”
Social Tag Sites: Digg, del.icio.us, Technorati, flickr, StumbleUpon, Slashdot
Social tagging influences bloggers.
Don’t spam, people monitor and they will ban. Write for your audience.
Look and feel of a site will inhibit SEO. Use common terms. Build a profile, tag other people’s content.
Andy Hagans, Text Link Ads
How to monetize all this stuff? Most sites being tagged are informational sites or blogs. Commercial sites are more challenging to get tagged and links. Takes creativity and hard work.
- Build creative content… bookmark-worthy.
Put an interesting twist on what you do. Funny lists, encyclopedic resources, unique tools. - Get it in front of the right people. Be proactive.
Contact bloggers in your industry. Make a list, sent them a short email letting them aware of the content. Build relationships with them by creating a personalized email. Don’t spam them. - Give it a bump on Del.icio.us (most important of the tagging sites, Andy’s opinion.)
Create Del and Digg accounts. Give it a bump (once) and don’t set up multiple accounts. Become a frequent tagger, this helps getting your own stuff noticed. - Do it again and again.
Most link bait flops. This is normal, so keep doing it.
See what articles are tagged on Delicious, create articles similar and submit. Spend the time on one exhaustive article rather than a lot of smaller ones.