5 Reasons Social Media Belongs in Your SEO Strategy

When you think of search engine optimization (SEO) tactics, keyword research, meta tags and inbound links come to mind much sooner than engagement via social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. But many recent search engine industry reports paint a picture of the near future in which links, likes and tweets become equally important to your overall SEO efforts.

Why is social media becoming so imporant to SEO? Here are five reasons why social media belongs in your SEO strategy.

5 Reasons Social Media Belongs in Your SEO Strategy

1. Google and Bing Algorithms - In a December 2010 Search Engine Land interview, Google and Bing both admitted to using signals from Facebook and Twitter to calculate a part of their search algorithms. They take note of how many times a page is shared and the importance of those doing the sharing to calculate a portion of the ranking process.
2. Liked Pages Rank Higher - SEOmoz recently reported that content shared and liked on Facebook correlated more highly with higher search results than did the number of links on the web. Until now, links have been the bread and butter of SEO. This research suggests an important role for social media in the future of SEO, a development that should drive a major fundamental shift in most SEO strategies.
3. Social Media in the Search Results - Google's new +1 button gives search engine users a chance to note which web pages were helpful. If you're logged in to your Google Account, you'll start seeing pictures of your friends near the search results they found helpful. The first result on a search results page typically receives the most amount of clicks. With the +1 button, click patterns will shift towards the results that carry the recommendations of your trusted network. This is only the beginning of search engines using social media signals to increase the quality of search results.
4. Bing Results and the Facebook Like - Not to be outdone by Google's new +1 button, Facebook and Bing announced a deal to show Facebook likes in Bing's search results. Likes should now be considered a primary tactic for Bing Social Media/SEO strategy, as they have a direct impact on both the ranking factors and the resulting click-through rate patterns within Microsoft's search engine.
5. The Power of Social Proof - We often take the suggestions of others before making decisions. Web pages are no different. A web page that has been liked or tweeted many times subtely persuades us that we have found quality information. We notice the sharing counts in the margins or the headers of the articles we find and read the ones that impress us. Social proof increases the chances visitors will stay on your site, thus increasing the value of traffic you fought so hard to get through SEO in the first place.

Approaching search engine optimization and social media from separate angles is not a long-term strategy at this point in the game. If you're operating search and social strategies in silos, it's time to rethink your approach and combine some of your efforts.

Where are you taking your search and social strategies? Have you found any tactics or synergies in utilizing social media within your SEO strategy that have worked particularly well? As always, I invite you to share your thoughts in the comments below.

The Most Important Squarespace SEO Setting

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a big part of my life. Making a few small changes to your website here and there can result in a significant and real boost in website traffic. And even though Squarespace goes a long way to address many of these factors, there are still a few settings in Squarespace that can affect your search engine rankings. Today we’ll take a look at the greatest single opportunity to boost your SEO efforts on Squarespace.

What’s the single greatest SEO change you can make to your Squarespace blog? In short, it’s the Optimize Title Ordering setting within your Squarespace website settings. Simply navigate to Website Management -> Website Settings -> Search/Indexing. Scroll down to the Search Engine Parameters section and check the box in the Optimize Title Ordering option. Mission accomplished. Read on to see why this simple change was so important.

Why are Page Titles so Important?

There are over 200 individual factors that search engines such as Google look at when they’re deciding which page should appear in the coveted #1 spot in the search results. The meta page title is generally recognized as the strongest opportunity on a given page to influence where the page shows up on in the results. Let’s take a closer look at this important field.

Your meta page title is the text that makes up the blue links in the search results. It's also the text you see in each web browser tab. Much like a title of a document or a file, the meta page title tells Google what it can expect to find on each page of your website. As a result, it plays a big part in the search engine optimization process.

The Effect of Optimizing Page Titles

In general, search engines only look at the first ~60 characters of the page title. When your page titles are not optimized, your brand name ends up taking up a large portion of your page title. This can fail to send the appropriate signals to Google regarding the topic of your page.

This brand takes up the first third of the page title in the search results.

In addition, Google bolds instances of keywords in the search results when they match a user's search query. People tend to click on results that are bolded more than results that aren't.

Bolded search results increase clicks to your web pages.

Optimizing your page title places the individual page's title prior to your brand's name, giving your keyword-rich page titles a chance to tell search engines what your page is all about. This setting also increases the chances that parts of your page title will be bolded for users. It's clear that the Optimize Page Titles is a great setting to utilize within Squarespace's website management settings.

It's nice that most of the on-page factors of SEO are addressed by Squarespace, but it's also good to change a setting here and there if it can make a big difference in traffic. What easy SEO tips have you discovered on Squarespace? If you use a platform other that Squarespace, are there non-platform-specific SEO tips you can suggest?

The Great Blog Comments Outsourcing Debate

Blog comments rarely get the love and appreciation they deserve for how beneficial they are. Most blogging platforms have such terrible comment support that bloggers are forced to outsource their comments to third-party solutions if they want a decent commenting experience. But are these services convenient tools to facilitate conversation or are you putting your blog comments at risk by using them? Let the great blog comments outsourcing debate begin.

The Perfect Blog Comment System

Rarely will you find a blog commenting system that is perfect out-of-the box, which I think is a shame. Encouraging easy commenting can have an amazing positive impact on the success of your blog. Ideally, blog commenters need to perform several key tasks to keep the task simple:

• Leaving comments must be simple
• Commenters should have the option to subscribe to email notifications when replies or new comments are left on the blog post.
• Users should be able to like or dislike comments
• Ideally, commenters should be able to personalize their comment profile by adding a name and profile picture.
• Bloggers need simple, yet effective tools to keep blog comment spam minimal

If you make commenting difficult on your blog, don't expect people to leave a lot of them. Squarespace doesn't offer a lot of the features above and sometimes I wonder how many more comments I would get if I simply changed to a better experience like the ones offered by third-party solutions such as Disqus and Facebook Comments. But at what cost?

The Dark Side of 3rd-Party Comments

Although tempted to use 3rd-party systems, I've decided to stick it out on Squarespace's comment system and hope and pray that the upcoming release of version 6 contains some much needed comment love. I'm stubbornly avoiding Disqus and Facebook Comments for three main reasons:

1. Eggs in a Basket - What happens if Disqus starts charging for their services or if Facebook decides to abandon the project? Comment migration can be a messy or even unachievable undertaking. Is the risk of losing everything worth the convenience these services bring? 
2. Fresh Content is Good - Blog comments can continue to roll in for a blog post months after it was written, keeping it fresh in Google's eyes, and fresh content is good for search engine traffic. Disqus and Facebook Comments can be invisible to search engines due to the JavaScript integration of these services. There are extra PHP steps you can take to ensure your comments remain indexable by search engines, but most people don't take those steps.
3. It's My Content, Darnit - When someone chooses to leave a comment on Big Picture Web, that content lives on and is a part of my blog. But if they're being pulled in externally from Disqus, are they really my comments anymore? I have a hard time with giving my content to other services, even if I technically retain the copyright.

The Butterfly Effect of Comment Systems

Changing a blog's commenting system can have dramatic and unintended consequences, both good and bad. For example, Techcrunch recently moved to Facebook Comments. They've been reporting far fewer comments than what they had when they were with Disqus, but they're also reporting that the comment quality is much better. It appears that Facebook's authentication helps filter out the anonymous trolls.

Here's another example. Squarespace implemented a comment captcha at the end of 2010 to reduce comment spam. In an odd design choice, the captcha prompt doesn't happen until after you submit your comment. Several people have found this to be confusing and told me that my comments were broken. I wonder if the change meant to reduce spam has also reduced the amount of legitimate commenters as well due to this confusing process.

The number of comments on Big Picture Web decreased since the release of the Squarespace captcha.

What is a Blogger to Do with Blog Comments?

To be honest, I continue to struggle with the question of what to do with my blog comments, but my current plan is to play it safe and wait until Squarespace rolls out new comment functionality. Am I being too much of a stickler on this one? Am I missing out or smart for sticking to my guns? I'd love to hear your thoughts on comments, from the importance of blog comments to the idea comment management system, whether it be the native commenting system or a third-party partner such as Disqus and Facebook Comments.

Creating a Thriving Multi-Author Blog on Squarespace

Blogging with Squarespace is incredibly easy. In fact, that's one of the main reasons I chose Squarespace for my blog. Individual blogs are one thing, but does Squarespace deliver the goods when it comes to multi-author blogs? This week I interviewed friend Brandon Davenport of Okay Geek to explore his popular tech news website and how he created a thriving multi-author blog on Squarespace.

What is Okay Geek and How Did it All Start?

Josh Braaten: On your website you describe yourselves as “a bunch of youngsters who believe that there is more than one way of looking at today’s tech industry.” Describe why you founded Okay Geek and what is your mission?

Brandon Davenport, Founder of Okay GeekBrandon Davenport: When I created Okay Geek, I had one idea in mind: “I want to be like Kevin Rose, Mark Zuckerberg and Leo Laporte... a big name in tech. I want to create something amazing that people will love”. It was really the whole idea of creation. When we finally had a few people contributing the site, I knew we could achieve it because we all shared that goal. We wanted to become something other than a dinky little blog, an we’ve been doing a pretty awesome job so far.

JB: What does the process look like when screening new authors on Okay Geek?

BD: When you’re a very small blog, you can’t expect people to want to write for you. You need to look for people, but accomplished editors aren’t going to take you seriously. You need to find people who have passion for what you’re blogging about, no matter if they’ve never blogged before or not.

You can teach someone how to write a blog post, but you can never teach someone how to be passionate about something (especially the same thing as you). Try to find people who share the same core interests you do, and work together to build the best blog you can, filled with the best content you’ve ever written.

Only when you have managed to do this will people ask to write for you. You need to create a culture within your team (no matter how big or small) that will spread to others who read your blog. You want people to write for you, not your blog.

Producing a Multi-Author Blog on Squarespace

JB: Creating a multi-author blog brings another level of complexity to a blog. You need permissions and logins for each author and author pages and archives, for starters. You chose Squarespace to publish your multi-author blog. How has Squarespace served your needs in creating a multi-author blog in Okay Geek? Have you had any big challenges?

Ricardo Trejo, Executive EditorBD: When I created Okay Geek, I actually didn’t plan on having other editors. Only when I noticed I had the ability to do so, I asked of anyone wanted to write on my blog, and that’s when our Executive Editor, Ricardo Trejo, came into the picture.

In the big scheme of things, the Squarespace system has been spot on when it comes to managing larger teams of people. You can easily create different “audiences” which contain a set of specific permissions. These could be things like which pages are visible or different editing capabilities for certain authors. You can then assign specific people to an audience and give each person the abilities attached to the assigned audience. It’s much like a series of groups.

Something that threw us a curve ball was profiles. We really wish we could have a profile page for each of our editors that they would be able to edit and build upon (add bios, photos and social networks). Squarespace will be releasing v6 of their platform soon, but if this isn’t part of the update, I’ll have to build it myself.

JB: On the topic of multi-author blogs, what does your editorial process look like? Do you have a calendar and rigid publishing schedule? How do you set and enforce production goals for each contributing editor?

BD: When it comes to filling the front page with awesome content every day, we rely on trusting that everyone will do their part, and it hasn’t failed us yet. If for some reason one of our editors is un-available for a few days, I can ask one of our other editors to help out and fill in the blanks.

As for a schedule, we don’t really have one. If we see people are really enjoying our reviews, we do more of them. If we see our how-to’s aren’t that hot, we drop them for a bit -- and at the end of the day, Okay Geek is a hobby for most folks on our team, so we can’t expect them to treat Okay Geek with the importance of a job. If we want them to keep writing, we need to give them something they’ll love to write about, or ask them “what do you want to write about?”, and many features you see on Okay Geek (This Week in Mobile and Game Reviews for example) were ideas our editors had. It’s pretty damn awesome to have people like this writing for you.

Okay Geek contributing editors Connor Scalleat, Alex Tretrop, Daniel Carey and Darryl Cobb

JB: You’re the main developer, designer and video editor for Okay Geek. What are contributing editors responsible for when publishing new content? How involved are you in the process of publishing individual entries?

BD: When it comes to editing and publishing content, that is our Executive Editor, Ricardo Trejo’s specialty. Our editors (including myself) write articles, and when they are complete, our backend (we call it “The Farm”) tells Ricardo they are ready to be polished and sent off to the front-page. It’s pretty simple.

He then makes necessary changes like spelling, grammar and maybe adding an image, or shuffling things around. He then takes the article and pushes it over to our front page. He then adds tags, thumbnails and puts the article into the matching categories. Once it’s scheduled and ready to go, it’s published the next day.

The T3ch H3lp/Okay Geek Domain Change

JB: Speaking of design, you recently rebranded and changed from the name T3ch H3lp to Okay Geek. What motivated that change?

BD: T3ch H3lp wasn’t a great name, and it didn’t help when others would try to show “T3ch H3lp” off to friends. There’s a rule that every company should go by...

You need to have a product that can be explained and demonstrated by anyone in 20 seconds. You need to give fans of your website the ability to show it off to friends, and explain what it’s all about and why they love it as fast as possible. There are a lot of people who loved T3ch H3lp, but the name was a major turn off when trying to explain it to friends... I mean they couldn’t even type it!

When we changed from “T3ch H3lp” to Okay Geek, there was an overwhelming response. It was like a weight had been lifted, and the gates we’re now somehow opened. It was really somewhat of a “boost” to the entire team.

As for the reason why I chose the old name, well that’s quite simple, “Tech Help” was taken.

JB: How difficult was the change, technically speaking? What were your largest development hurdles in changing your domain name on your Squarespace blog?

BD: There were a lot of difficult things we had to do to successfully make the transition. We had been preparing for weeks, and it was a few days of finishing touches before we actually launched the change. It was going to work like this:

Announce the change and get people talking and we did this with a Promo video and a whole lot of conversation on Twitter and comments. We had set up a page to display the progress we had made day to day, and gave people a really transparent look into what we were changing, and ask if we could do anything better every second we could. It was our only chance to do this after

After we lined everything up, and had it ready to push out, we pulled down the front page (all articles were still accessible) and flipped the switches. In about 15 minutes the site had changed it’s name and there was no looking back! It was a few days before everything was in order, but it was all down-hill from here, and we were stronger than ever.

Marketing a Multi-Author Blog on Squarespace

JB: You also launched a new line of t-shirts and iPhone cases as part of the marketing for your big rebranding. How do the goals and marketing for a multi-author blog differ than a personal blog?

BD: Well, we don’t really see this as marketing, heck our signature “leaf” logo isn’t even on these products. What we are trying to do is give hardcore Okay Geek fans a way to take us with them wherever they go, and show us off to their friends and potential readers and maybe spark some conversation. We don’t make any money off the products, and we don’t plan to for quite a while.

There’s also a reason we don’t have our official logo on the products -- we want people to download the full, copyright-free design and make their own stuff. We’ve seen a bunch of things made (even coffee cups!) and that’s why we did that, not to directly benefit us but to keep our readers happy, and let them have a little Okay Geek of their own.

Questions about Blogs with Multiple Authors?

What questions do you have about creating multi-author blogs? If you've been to Okay Geek, what do you like best about how Brandon and team approach tech news? Leave your thoughts and questions about multi-author blogs, Squarespace and Okay Geek in the comments below.

I'd like to thank Brandon Davenport of Okay Geek for his time in putting this post together. I wish you the best of luck on your future efforts with Okay Geek! 

How to Add the LinkedIn Share Button to a Squarespace Blog

When you share blog and news content on social networks, you probably do so by liking on Facebook or tweeting on Twitter. But have you ever thought to share on LinkedIn? LinkedIn recently revealed LinkedIn Today, a new social news website for professionals that makes it a good idea to add a LinkedIn Share button alongside your Tweet and Like buttons on your blog posts. Learn how to add the LinkedIn Share button to your Squarespace blog in today's post.

LinkedIn Today is like Paper.li mixed with Digg and LinkedIn. You'll see a dashboard comprised of the most popular content being shared on LinkedIn by your professional network. Adding the LinkedIn Share button to your blog posts is as easy as adding the Tweet or Like button, and may be a good way to increase traffic and readers to your blog from the professional social network.

Getting the LinkedIn Share Button Code

In order to add the LinkedIn Share button to Squarespace, you must first get the code for the button from the LinkedIn Publishers page. Choose the button style you prefer and then enter %PERMALINK% into the URL to be Shared field (Important: Case sensitive). Copy the resulting code from the text box displayed.

Adding the LinkedIn Share Button to Squarespace

Next, we'll add the LinkedIn Share button to Squarespace. Navigate to your blog main page and switch to the Structure Editing mode.

Click the configure this page link to enter the Journal Page Configuration menu.

Scroll down to the Post Display Configuration section and click on an unused HTML Snippet from the list of Squarespace journal components

Paste the LinkedIn Share button code you copied from the first steps in the process and then choose Hide & Save.

Finally, arrange the HTML Snippet within the blog post layout. Generally, Like, Tweet, and Share buttons should be at the top of blog posts to promote maximum visiblity. 

Now when you look at each blog post, you'll see the LinkedIn Share button alongside any other social sharing buttons you've added via the HTML Snippets.

Share and Nurture Your LinkedIn Network

Your blog is the point at which your website, your brand and all of your social networks intersect. It's important to develop and nurture relationships in as many social networks as makes sense for your brand, whether it's personal or professional. Add the LinkedIn Share button to your Squarespace blog and make it dead simple for your LinkedIn contacts to promote and share your content to their network. I look forward to reading your blog and news content on LinkedIn Today.