social indexing and ranking, by eric enge at smx advanced seattle 5/30/2013

Social Indexing and Ranking

@stonetemple / + Eric Enge

First Off... Who Am I?

Co-author: The Art of SEO CEO: Stone Temple Consulting

SEO Social Media Content Marketing

Twitter: @stonetemple Google +:

+Eric Enge +Stone Temple Consulting

@stonetemple / + Eric Enge

Study Goals

1. See what methods Google uses to discover new content

2. See what “non-SEO” factors influence ranking

@stonetemple / + Eric Enge

Factors Tested

Participating Sites

@stonetemple / + Eric Enge

Methodology

• 14 articles created for each site• Posted on each site• Pages fully isolated – no links• One signal generated per page• No other signals generated

Signals Generated in Isolation

@stonetemple / + Eric Enge

Page Performance Tracked Over Time

• Searchmetrics used for tracking in many cases• Log files checked to see what pages were

accessed• Backlinks checked as well (WMT, Majestic, OSE)• Corruptions did take place– Some pages got links– Some had Chrome visits– Corrupted pages excluded from the results

Google Plus Signals

Google Plus +1 Ranking Data Samples

@stonetemple / + Eric Enge

Additional Google Plus Observation

• Even the presence of this code:– <script type="text/javascript"

src="http://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js"></script>

• Or use of the Google+ API: – https://developers.google.com/+/api/

• may drive indexing!

Facebook Like Signals

Facebook Like Ranking Chart

Google Chrome Signal Generation

No Searchmetrics Monitoring.

No Indexing Behavior at all.

Google Analytics Signal Generation

No Indexing Behavior at all.

No Searchmetrics Monitoring.

Many Facebook signals at two specific dates.

Searchmetrics Study Results

Rankings increased after first wave of Facebook signals

Searchmetrics Study Results

Searchmetrics Study

Searchmetrics Study

Searchmetrics Study

Ranking Does Appear to Erode Over Time

Query Deserves Freshness?

@stonetemple / + Eric Enge

Summary

• Google+ drives Google indexing and ranking within 4 or 5 days

• Facebook drives Google indexing and ranking within 7 to 8 days

• Links often take longer!• Bing did not show indexing and ranking

behavior• Keywords were 3 words or longer in length• Did not appear to drive “Head term” rankings

@stonetemple / + Eric Enge

Usage

• Definitely powerful way to create visibility for content

• Definitely has rankings impact– Especially long tail and chunky middle terms

• Shows some time of decay over time• As an isolated signal, not “powerful enough”• BUT, a powerful supplement to a traditional

SEO strategy

@stonetemple / + Eric Enge

Thank You!

• eenge@stonetemple.com• @stonetemple• +Eric Enge• +Stone Temple Consulting• (508) 485-7751• www.stonetemple.com