I feel like I'm one of the last SEO guys to jump on the social media bandwagon. I jumped on because search engines started paying more attention to blogs, photos and videos. And in order for my clients to dominate SERPS, we've got to do more SMO for them.
But if Google, Yahoo! and MSN are really interested in providing the most relevant information for Searchers, should social media posts be ranked above quality web pages?
How an Irrelevant Video Can Get a #1 Ranking
At a recent SMO workshop I attended, students were instructed to created a simple video from from a Power Point presentation, basically creating a short infomercial for their companies. One of my colleagues went after phrase "Internet Marketing for Community Banks". Primarily because he is an internet marketer with a background in community banking. So, it's natural for him focus on that niche. Within 1 day of posting and optimizing, the test video he created ranked #1 on Google organic search results, something that is almost impossible with a static web page!
I thought about how unfair it would be to be outranked by a video that only took about 15 minutes to create and optimize, and had little or no relevant content. Again, the video wasn't even about "internet marketing for community banks". It was just a test video/infomercial. It was only optimized for the phrase "internet marketing for community banks". What if I had spent months doing research and writing great content about "internet marketing for community banks", optimizing it, building links to the page and getting that number 1 ranking. Is that fair?
Initially, I didn't think it was fair at all, but when I looked at the SERPS for the optimized phrase, they all sucked! Not a single other site listed on the first page was optimized for "internet marketing for community banks". Is that because no one specializes in internet marketing for community banks? Probably not. It's more likely that no one has taken the time to carve out the niche like my colleague did.
Is Google Even Smarter than we Think?
So, I'd have to say in this case, the video did deserve the #1 ranking even though the video wasn't about internet marketing for community banks. Perhaps Google didn't even care about the content of the video because they knew enough about my colleague from his social media profiles clearly showing his background as a commercial banker and an internet marketer?
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3 comments:
Hey Clark,
Greetings from the author of the "sucky" video that did get to #1 and I appreciate your thoughts. Had I REALIZED this video would have received the attention from Google that it did, I would have done more of my job as an Internet Marketing Professional than what you saw online.
I would have made the video actually RELEVANT to the community bank space. I would have created an apparent CALL TO ACTION to get the viewer to do something once the video was done. I would have created a LANDING PAGE on my website with more information, case studies and current community bank testimonials. Etc...
You get the picture, I'm sure. I think the exciting thing about what we learned during our SMO training is that this IS possible and that Google (and other search engines) are actually sitting up and taking note at video and all the other forms of content on the web.
Incidentally, the blog posting that I made on Friday (the second day of class) ended up taking over #1 by Sunday and moved my video to #2. So, in under three days I had "dominated" 20% of the search results on the first page of Google out of over 500,000 search results.
This is exciting stuff...
Eric
www.PoweredByWSI.com
I actually did notice your blog post about the video. I wouldn't be surprised if you become the SEO guru for community banks!
I believe you had done so far in Internet Marketing.Great thoughts you got there and really feel good to read.
Regards,
Web Design Delhi
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