I knew this one was coming, especially with all the press on real-time search going around.

Bing and Microsoft have been in the news lately regarding deals that in effect add social search results to mainstream search. Bing has a beta setup, and Google just launched Social Search – an experimental Google Labs product.

It should be noted that Yahoo! has already integrated social with their search results. Once a search is performed, users have the option to view search results from a variety of social networks and authority websites (see below image).

Usability

• Google’s experimental social integration has to be activated in Google Labs before it can be used as a search option.
• Bing’s social integration is only one click away from the homepage and does not require activation; users will have easier access to this feature than in Google.
• Yahoo!’s integration is the most usable; options to view results from social networks are displayed immediately after a search is performed.

Functionality

Google Social Search

From the mouth of the Goog:

The way we do it is by building a social circle of your friends and contacts using the connections linked from your public Google profile, such as the people you’re following on Twitter or FriendFeed. The results are specific to you, so you need to be signed in to your Google Account to use Social Search. If you use Gmail, we’ll also include your chat buddies and contacts in your friends, family, and coworkers groups. And if you use Google Reader, we’ll include some websites from your subscriptions as part of your social search results. More…

Bing

Bing’s social integration is exclusive to Twitter (and eventually Facebook), while Google and Yahoo! both show results from multiple social networks that include Twitter.

Yahoo!

After a search is performed in Yahoo!, users have the option to view results from other social networks and authority websites from a list generated based on the keyphrase searched.

Endgame

Bing is focusing on Twitter while Yahoo! and Google are focusing on a number of social networks that include Twitter. Yahoo! doesn’t give you the option to select which social network to show results from – they decide for you based on the search phrase, while Google Social Search focuses on networks that the user is already engaged in.

However you slice it, social content is in the process of being integrated into mainstream search. Further integrating Social into SEO.

Google’s Blogger turns 10! Plus, learn about the future of blogging, and how to balance Tweeting and Blogging from Blogger’s Product Manager, Rick Klau.

Thanks to Twellowhood; a service from Twitter directory Twello, there is now a reliable place to obtain Twitter geographical information.

Twitter is big, and has a prolonged buzz effect, but is still relatively small in comparison to social networks like Facebook and MySpace both in Idaho and the United States.

Social Marketing Networks Exposed

Social marketing, integrated social marketing (ISM), social media marketing or whatever you want to call it is HUGE! With so many networks itchin to monopolize your time without any real giveback how on earth are you supposed to figure out which ones are ‘worth it’? Glad you asked, intrepid social marketing knowledge seeker – see (and freely embed) the Social Conversation Prism:

The Conversation Prism by Brian Solis and Jesse Thomas

Also known as the ‘why you need a professional social marketer’ prism.

Embed the Social Marketing Conversation Prism on Your Site/Blog

Ahh Pay Per Click (PPC), not nearly as many variables in contrast to SEO – the organic other side of the equation. The following PPC tools are a must have for any marketer of any size. Use these performance-enhancing tools not only for your own website(s), but on the competition as well.

PPC Tool : Google AdWords Bid Simulator

Have you ever wondered about the potential benefits a bid increase would bring to your Google AdWords PPC campaign? End the wonderment…

Google’s AdWords PPC Bid Simulator can help answer important campaign-related questions like:

• How many more ad impressions and clicks could potentially be received if I up my Max Cost Per Click (CPC) bid?
• What is the potential CPC of the new clicks received from upping my Max CPC?

PPC Tool : SEMRush

SEMRush allows you to quickly generate 6 reports that are split between organic SEO and PPC. Punch-in a competitor URL, domain or keywords to find out which organic and paid keyphrases are being targeted, and how much it is costing them. SEMRush is a great tool for gauging the value of both organic and paid traffic.

Click here to utilize this valuable PPC resource >

A good SEO is worth every penny. Getting a website to rank on competitive keyphrases is a very difficult task which requires an ongoing effort from an experienced SEO. If your business depends on the web, ranking well for keyphrases that potential customers will use to find you is crucial to your ROI.

Everyone claims to be an SEO these days. Web design/development companies and consultants are hastily adding it to their service roster, despite having any real clue as to what SEO really is. Marketing and Brand Management agencies have done the same, adopting a technology they know little about. That leaves the SEOs themselves… the consultants and companies fully devoted to SEO, PPC and Social Marketing. Many of which, drop the ball on keyphrase targeting, monitoring and reporting. SEO is so much more than just marketing. It requires a fundamental understanding of the technology that powers the web.

How To Tell if an SEO Knows

1. The GOLDEN RULE. Google them. You are hiring someone to get your website to rank well after all. If you can’t find them online, don’t expect to rank well by employing their services. Be wary of SEOs that show up in the sponsored portion of the search results; these include the box-like results that show at the top and to the right of typical search results. These are paid advertisements. Meaning, the SEO is merely paying for their site to be displayed versus it actually ranking well in the ‘organic’ search results. An SEO that pays to rank is not an SEO at all.
   Example searches; your city name plus the words SEO or Internet Marketing i.e. “boise internet marketing” or “seo boise”. All things considered, if an SEO can’t rank well with their own website, I wouldn’t even worry about applying the following rules.
2. Portfolio Availability. Many new SEOs smell the money, and subsequently have very little experience at providing optimization services. A good SEO will have a robust portfolio of clients readily available online. If you are unsure, e-mail them a request for references, success stories and a link to their LinkedIn profile.
3. Under the Hood Optimization. SEOs should know how to optimize code along with content. They need to be able to write sitemap.xml and robots.txt files, analyze website structure, naming conventions, RSS/XML feeds and optimize CMS code to boot. A technical understanding of how search engines work will definitely give any SEO an edge. Many SEOs are reformed traditional marketers and brand managers that typically lack this technology-based skill set. Hat Tip: If the SEO in question uses a blog, click on one of their pages (not a post), other than the homepage. If there is a time stamp on the page you can almost bet that the SEO is technically clueless.
4. Backlinks. Backlinks. Backlinks. Your potential SEO better be good at this. Very good. This off-page SEO tactic is aimed at acquiring 1-way, incoming links to your website. Good, ‘quality’ backlinks from reputable, well-ranked and authority sources not only represent votes of confidence for your site in the eyes of the search engines, but they also can increase overall levels of exposure by ranking well themselves. For example, my Twitter profile has at times out-ranked my website when people search for “seo boise”. Same goes for individual content items, like a well-optimized YouTube video, blog post, Squidoo and press release. If an SEO doesn’t have many ‘quality’ backlinks for their own website or blog, they probably didn’t pass the golden rule anyway (see #1). Without ‘quality’ backlinks, you might as well kiss good rankings goodbye.
5. Competing Clients. If an SEO has 2 or more clients that have directly competing search terms, then the SEO greatly benefits by allowing said clients to compete with each other. A good SEO will turn away a potential client if direct search term competition exists. Ask your potential SEO about this, especially if they fail rule 2.
6. Who Does What. You will also want to inquire about who actually performs the SEO, and make sure it’s not being outsourced to India, unless you’re OK with that.

Use the 6 rules above to help thin the crowd when searching for an SEO that is knowledgeable in their field. If you are interested in SEO Boise (.com) Internet Marketing consulting services please click here to contact us.

SEO Boise (.com) is owned and operated by Jtree.net, a Boise, Idaho based SEO, PPC and Social Internet Marketing consulting firm that has provided services to over 50 companies and agencies over the last 10 years.

Generate different views of your search engine results with Google Search Options. The new search options provide quick access to related content along with other sift and sort tools. Consider it a further continuation of universal search integration; where related content on other platforms and networks is grouped with traditional search results. Watch the below video to learn more.

40 Must-Know WordPress SEO Tips : Rank Better in Search Engines and Social Networks

If you use WordPress, then optimizing (SEO) it for search engines and social media networks is one of your top priorities. This batch of 40 WordPress SEO tips comes from famed WordPress developer and SEO guru Joost de Valk (link below).

Finding quality websites with related content to obtain backlinks (incoming links to your site or blog) is one of the most time consuming Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tasks that must be preformed on an ongoing basis.

As search engine algorithms improve, as does the need for you to have quality incoming links to your website. Google and the other two are becoming more attune with giving link juice to links placed in quality locations that are related to your website’s content.

This tools searches for websites of the theme you specify that contain keyphrases like “Add link”, “Add site”, “Add URL”, “Add URL”, “Submit URL”, “Add Article” etc. Most of the results could be quality potential backlinks.

Duplicate Content Can Pinch Your SEO Efforts

Not only can duplicated content make it difficult for search engines to index your web pages properly, but it can lead to penalties that could dramatically effect a website’s ability to rank well for targeted keyphrases in the major search engines.

As websites grow-up, the potential for duplicate content increases. Sites that contain a lot of content might have a variety of different URLs that all reference the same location. This issue can often impact smaller websites that show up in search engine results with and without the ‘www’ in front of the corresponding URL.

An Open Standard Solution Supported by Google – Yahoo! – and Microsoft

Even though Google Webmaster Tools has an option to select the ‘www’ preference for the URLs of your website, a tactic with more control that is acceptable for other search engines was needed. The canonical link element was developed to help search engines determine the preferred URL to be used for your website.

When linking to pages of your site or blog, utilize the canonical link element in the header portion of your links.

Here’s the canonical link element in action:

<link rel="canonical" href="http://example.com/page.html"/>

This tells the search engines that the prefferred URL is http://example.com/page.html (note: without the ‘www’). Where canonical = preferred.

Additional Information

Video clip of Google’s Matt Cutts explaining the link element…