SEOmoz has collected dozens of the world’s best search marketers to get their opinion on search engine ranking factors. This year, for the first time, SEOmoz presented correlation-based analysis with comments from this 132-person panel.  We also attended the webinar of these findings presented by Jamie Steven, and Matthew Peters, PhD of Applied Math.

Source: SEO Moz

Correlation and Causation Significance in Ranking Factor Analysis

To understand what the difference is between correlation and causation as the SEO Moz study presents see our examples below:

 Correlation and Causation Example:

• In summer, there is an increase in people at the beach and there is also an increase in shark attacks.

There is a correlation here because both items increase and the correlation is directly proportional.  The causation exists because the shark attacks increase since more people are in the water.

Correlation only example:

• In summer, beer sales increase. In summer, ice cream sales also increase. But beer sales do not increase ice cream sales so though there is a correlation between them there is no causation.

Thus, these factors mentioned in the SEO Moz study might be correlated to each other, but there is no proven direct cause between ranking improvement and one of these factors.

SEO Moz Ranking Factors Findings

This research shows several segments of the search-ranking algorithm such as page specific, link level features, and domain-level, keyword features.  Their Search Engine Ranking Factors study demonstrates the power of statistical analysis in SEO. This survey and statistical analysis provides us with a good idea of what the majority of internet marketers believe affects website rankings.

Since search engines do not disclose completely how their algorithm works, SEO professionals rely on each other for the best tips in ranking well. Now, with so much information out there, these tips and conclusions are subject to different interpretations.

One of the items in the study showed that websites that rank higher on search engines generally have a high volume of links or other unique features. This does not necessarily mean that those links are the reason these sites are ranked higher. Rather, it is because higher rankings and links are related or correlated.  Listed below are some other important factors that you should keep in mind when you are marketing on the internet.

Domain Level – Keywords

One of the most successful search engine marketing and optimization factors that you should remember is the inclusion of keywords throughout your website content and structure.  When your domain matches a search term exactly, this increases your chances of having a user click on your website in the results pages.  It’s important to remember, however, the more unrelated characters, especially punctuations, that are included in the domain search, the less chance the users will find your site.

The length of the domain name, the numeric characters, and the number of hyphens included the domain name all could negatively impact rankings. Try to have a domain name that includes keywords without punctuation or numbers, and no more than 3 hyphens.

 Branding

 Branding is also another important element to search engines. It’s essential that many users recognize your site. Having your brand mentioned in nonaffiliated sites, such as social media sites like Facebook or Twitter will increase your search volume. The more you spread your brand in various places on the internet, the more users will visit your website. So, get your brand out there and create your trend.

 Page Level – Keywords

 In the same way as the domain level, keywords are extremely important. When users select specific words and search for something, they will look for those specific words in the result. It’s important to have the correct set of keywords present in title tags and content on your site.  As long as your site contains the information and relevant content, which users are looking for, your site will most likely to be viewed based on the popularity of their keywords. It’s always better to have keyword rich, descriptive tags so that users can easily make out what your website is about and decided if they want to click or not.  Remember users like to read interesting, valuable, unique content.

 Page Level – Social Media

Social media is often correlated with website rankings. Indeed, social media is a great candidate for best website advertising. For example, sharing the domain on Facebook, or having Facebook comments or likes are all influential factors in spreading your brand. Twitter also helps with circulating your brand, products or services. When someone tweets about your brand, it increases varieties of the audience and authority for your brand.  Also, tweet connections attract specific individuals based on their interest and needs. Additionally, when reputable or authoritative users in the social sphere make multiple references about your site through Facebook or Twitter, your site becomes more credible and preferable among the broad audience.

Page Level – Links

Links are also extremely important especially on an individual page level. The quantity of links definitely employs the keyword as part of the anchor text. Those links must be unique and contextual. The overall page authority is of course a necessity in boosting traffic, but root domains, partial match in keywords, and unique linking naturally back up your traffic volume.

In conclusion, just because there is a connection between ranking improvements and for example Facebook likes to a page, doesn’t mean the Facebook likes caused the ranking improvement.  Instead, it could mean the content was good in itself, which contributed to it being deemed valuable to users by search engines and that is why it was ranked higher. Your best bet is to do all of these items well, but always keep the user in mind.

Things never seem to stay the same in the world of Facebook.  Since December when the social network changed its default settings to share users’ profile information with anyone, unless a specific user opted out, Facebook has received a healthy amount of flak from privacy advocates and regular members eager to keep their profile info to themselves.  Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, then defiantly declared we were headed to “a web where the default is social” last month when he expanded his definition of “anyone” – now the network was not only opening up profiles to other users, they were beginning to open up profiles to third-party websites.

Quitters Far From Winning

Facebook’s privacy battle has only escalated.  The recent changes prompted a small but fierce group of insurgents to mobilize behind “Quit Facebook Day,” adopting the final day of the month of May as their D-Day, publishing on their site: “If you agree that Facebook doesn’t respect you, your personal data, or the future of the web, you may want to join us.”  As of this blog post, the QuitFacebookDay.com movement is just shy of 12,500 pledges to quit on the 31^st.

Facebook, which was probably hoping to lay low for a little while, also grabbed the cover of Time Magazine, due to hit newsstands (coincidentally) on May 31 with an article on the privacy concerns of the social network, called it the “the Web’s sketchy Big Brother, sucking up our identities into a massive Borg brain to slice, dice and categorize for advertisers.”  For all the doomsday rhetoric, worries over the site have yet to materialize into any concern regarding the overall stability of the network; the Quit movement would need to increase its members by 400 times to equal 1% of the total Facebook userverse.

Shift in Privacy Policy on the Horizon

Naturally looking to avoid Time Magazine’s characterization, Facebook has signaled today that they are reconsidering their privacy settings.  From a series of crisis management meetings of senior staff for the social network, all agreed that the privacy settings were at best confusing and at worst exploitative.  It is unclear at this point whether these changes would include an unlikely abandonment of Zuckerberg’s “open graph” proposal he unveiled last month or will satisfy privacy advocates.  Facebook, nonetheless, stresses its desire to remain “user-friendly,” thus fueling speculation that the default setting may be switched back, meaning only those users who opt-in will be sharing their public information with the vast public of third-party websites.  This would likely satisfy their near 500 million person network, as we only want to have a choice in the matter.  All in all, the flak Facebook faces nor the U-turn Facebook management is about to pull will likely hurt the stability of the massive network.  Sometimes things change while remaining the same.

A recently released report by Marketing Charts titled “State of Inbound Marketing Report” from HubSpot, reveals a growing trend of brands focusing their energy and funding on “inbound” marketing versus “outbound.”  Outbound techniques have long been employed and still constitute the majority of marketing techniques, but that is beginning to change.  Last year’s numbers indicated brands were beginning to rely more on inbound marketing techniques to generate leads; this year the outbound marketing budge­ts contracted further, closing the gap between the two opposing approaches.

What’s the Difference between Inbound and Outbound?

So what exactly constitutes an inbound approach versus an outbound approach?  And what techniques are brands turning to?  Essentially, an outbound approach is that where a marketer pushes his message out to the masses whereas an inbound approach is designed to pull in people who are already looking for your product or service.  HubSpot classified these techniques based on how important they were perceived by the company, and also allowed for multiple responses in order to account for brands that place value in more than one technique.  From their data, we see that popular and time-tested outbound techniques, such as direct mail and telemarketing, contracted 1% and 6% respectively, only generating 10% of leads each.  Trade shows remained flat at 10% importance among respondents, meaning outbound techniques are preferred by less than 1/3 of brands.

Meanwhile, inbound techniques have become increasingly important to brands.  Paid search and AdWords were the only inbound methods that fell in importance, now at 22%.  However, social media, company blogs, and SEO methods have all increased in importance to brands, with social media and SEO methods important to 60% and 59% of companies, respectively.  Company blogs were claimed to be important to 49% of the survey’s respondents.

Follow the Money, Inbound Marketing Budgets on the Rise

But let’s get down to the bottom-line: company budgets.  When asked whether budgets for inbound marketing strategies increased or decreased for the year 2010, 51% of respondents claimed their budget had increased, with an additional 37% claiming it had remained constant.  This means that 88% of American companies have maintained a healthy budget for inbound techniques, such as social media and SEO marketing strategies.  Furthermore, of the companies that claimed to have a lower budget for inbound marketing campaigns, 92% claimed that the economy, not performance, was the reason for the decrease.

Specifically, social media campaigns returned high confidence numbers from brands, with four in 10 companies overall acquiring customers from major social networks.  Businesses are increasingly placing their confidence in inbound marketing strategies, believing social media and SEO to be the two most important channels in gaining leads and bolstering their brand image.

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerburg, surprised his almost 500 million man strong user-verse this week by unveiling new features for the social network at the F8 Developer Conference in San Francisco.  Some initial response has been hyperbolic, claiming an end to the Internet as we know it; however, conventional wisdom indicates that major changes to one of the Internet’s most popular Websites will doubtlessly impact our online experience in a dramatic way.  Zuckerburg’s vision is extraordinary and revolutionary; in his keynote, Zuckerburg proposed the Web as a social being, where you, your friends, your brands , and your favorite bands (among other things) are all a part of the experience.  Ultimately, Facebook is attempting to socialize the Web in a much deeper way than any previous vision.

Open Graph to Blur Existing Distinctions between Websites

The main feature of Zuckerburg’s vision includes the “Open Graph.”  The CEO highlighted current issues in connecting Facebook friends to one another through their Yelp or Pandora accounts, leaving many people unconnected precisely when they are sharing informed personal insight.  As a result, Zuckerburg has proposed the Open Graph, blurring the lines of current distinct Websites.

The Open Graph is essentially Facebook’s method for reading tags from other Websites to decipher what information their users are “liking.”  For example, IMDb starting immediately will include “Like” buttons for films, and Facebook will publish your recent favorite film. Likewise, favorite plays on Pandora will be published on your profile. Furthermore, this process will be fluid, allowing for information from a CNN article –  liked on CNN.com and published on Facebook –  to appear when you hover over the News Feed story.  Facebook has paired with major partners – including Microsoft, CNN, and ESPN – ensuring that there will be enough Websites from which users can begin to test these features.

A lot to “Like” about the Changes to Fan Pages

For brands and businesses, it just got a lot easier to gain fans.  Zuckerburg announced that a single line of code will integrate a “Like” option onto Websites, so that one click can ensure an interested customer has connected to the brand via Facebook. Just like the major partners, brands that include this code will make their website, a fan’s News Feed, and their fan page separated by less than three clicks.

There are skeptics who question whether the public desires to be so steeply invested in Facebook, or social networking for that matter, that are unsure of whether these changes to Facebook will indeed succeed.  It is important to keep in mind that Facebook’s 500 million person strong network can certainly find a sizeable group of test subjects.  The future of social networking and the Internet is uncertain; however, it seems there’s consensus to the claim that major changes are in the pipeline.

You may know how many friends, followers, and connections you have on your various social networking sites. But do you know how many are actually agents from the FBI, looking to comb through your profile and pictures for criminal leads? Maxi Sopo, a fugitive living abroad in Mexico, sure didn’t when he began posting Facebook status updates saying he was “loving it” and “living in paradise.” While Sopo had been careful to stay private on his social networks, unfortunately for him, his list of friends was not. And so — with the click of a button – a friend request was made, accepted, and the Secret Service was able to track down Sopo’s location and arrest him.

Kind of makes you re-think the last friend request you accepted.

But this is how U.S. law enforcement agents are updating their tactics in a world that’s become increasingly more connected through social media. What’s most surprising, though, is the lack of boundaries for federal authorities within these spaces. Previously, the stories revolving around investigators catching crooks online involved a lot of criminal stupidity: Thief caught after stopping to check Facebook. Bank robber arrested after boasting of crime on MySpace. However, today’s federal authorities are proactively seeking evidence using social networking sites. Some of these investigative techniques include verifying alibis though Twitter messages, uncovering illegal activity through Facebook photos, and using Google Street View to investigate taxpayers. Even more, because of unclear regulation online, agents are currently able to impersonate a suspect’s family member or friend under the guise of a social networking account.

So how concerned should I be?

Assuming you’re a perfect citizen and have absolutely nothing to hide, keep on tweeting and posting to your heart’s desire. For the rest of us though, use some common sense about online privacy. Be sure you understand who you’re accepting as a friend and why you’re accepting it now. Sift through and remove any incriminating pictures from your profile. And be discreet about not only what you’re posting but who can see it (there’s some great privacy filters in Facebook you should be aware of). Until there’s more regulation on what the Feds are able to do online, your best bet is to be cautious.

Or, at the very least, not accept that friend request from the Secret Service.

If you’ve ever wondered what makes something go viral, hopefully this blog post will uncover some of these hidden characteristics. Last Friday, viral scientist and author of The Social Media Marketing Book, Dan Zarrella, gave a webinar on The Science of ReTweets. He collected over 100,000,000 retweets and observed almost every element possible within its 140 characters. He looked at everything from word choice to punctuation to the time of day – all in his quest to discover what makes something “retweetable.” In the end, he came up with a collection of tips and tricks to make your tweets go viral.

1.    Use the most retweetable words

Of the millions of tweets in his database, Zarrella identified 20 words or phrases that are more retweeted than others. These include (in order): ‘you,’ ‘twitter,’ ‘please,’ ‘retweets,’ ‘post,’ ‘blog,’ ‘social,’ ‘free,’ ‘media,’ ‘help,’ ‘please retweet,’ ‘great,’ ‘social media,’ ‘10,’ ‘follow,’ ‘how to,’ ‘top,’ ‘blog post,’ ‘check out,’ and ‘new blog post.’
While it’s unsurprising that the most retweeted words are those relating to Twitter or social media, it’s interesting to see that the phrase “top 10” makes the top 20. Zarrella explained that people, on average, like to see “chunked content” or readings that are easy to skim and digest. Seeing words such as “top 10” or even “how to” are signals to people that the link is easily readable and, therefore, sharable.

2.    Avoid the least retweetable words

Here’s some words you should probably avoid using in your next tweet (also in order): ‘game,’ ‘going,’ ‘haha,’ ‘lol,’ ‘but,’ ‘watching,’ ‘work,’ ‘home,’ ‘night,’ ‘bed,’ ‘well,’ ‘sleep,’ ‘gonna,’ ‘hey,’ ‘tomorrow,’ ‘tired,’ ‘some,’ ‘back,’ ‘bored,’ and ‘listening.’ In other words, don’t be boring! Ask someone why they’re not on Twitter and you might hear: “why would I want to know when you’re eating breakfast?” Well now there’s proof of the unattractiveness of these status updates.

3.    Include a link in your tweet

It’s hard for something newsworthy and sharable to be self-contained within only 140 characters. That’s why the most retweetable tweets include a link to something interesting. Also, the use of URL shorteners (especially bit.ly) leaves enough room in the tweet for others to add a short comment. Don’t miss this opportunity. Link to the story and keep it short!

4.    Tweet the news

Another unsurprising tip, but important nonetheless. Breaking news, in particular, is one of the most sharable types of content. And again, guess what’s not sharable: small talk.

5.    Use longer and more unique words

The average tweet has about 1.58 syllables per word, while retweets have 1.62 syllables. Also, retweets often contain words that are uncommon in average tweets. In other words, be unique and interesting in your choice of words and you’ll be the social butterfly of the Twitter Party.

6.    Use colons, not semicolons.

In general, Zarrella proved that tweets with more punctuation are more retweetable. While you would think that the opposite would be true given the focus on rationing your characters, it turns out proper punctuation is a more attractive characteristic. And the use of colons makes for great “Headline: Sub-headline” news stories. Semicolons, interestingly, actually make it less likely for you to be retweeted—perhaps given the ambiguous nature of when to use it properly.

7.    Write entertainment tweets for women, opinion tweets for men.

This tip is actually more dependent on your particular audience. But if you’re unsure what kind of content your followers would be willing to share and you skew a particular gender, use this rule of thumb.

8.    Avoid the self-reference

Even though Twitter previously asked its users to share “What’s on your mind,” it turns out that the self-referential tweets are the least retweetable. In fact, this goes for every sensory experience that just involves you. Instead, your tweets should focus on social experiences, focusing more on “we” instead of “me”

9.    Time your tweet for Friday 4-5pm EST

Like every good comedian knows, timing is everything. And it’s no different in the world of twitter. Zarrella identified that people are more likely to share another tweet on a Friday and anytime from late afternoon to evening. But the sweet spot is definitely from 4-5pm EST.

10.    Ask for it!

They always say the simplest solution is the correct one, but on Twitter this is especially true. Adding “please retweet” to your next tweet makes it 5x more likely to be retweeted! (Just remember to use this tip sparingly since it can become a bit annoying).

So Why Should I Care About Retweets?

It may seem a bit geeky to focus so much attention on just one of Twitter’s features, but in reality, learning to craft better tweets can have a great impact on your bottom line. The more your message is retweeted, the more other followers will notice you. And the more followers you gain, the more traffic you can convert on your website! Even more, learning the rules to go viral on Twitter can help shed light on other ways to make your other content more viral. So with that said, I’d like to craft the perfect tweet given our tips on retweets:

“Please Retweet: Top 10 Ways to Write Retweetable Tweets on Twitter!”

A new study detailing the likelihood of referrals and purchases from Facebook fans and Twitter followers has revealed, perhaps unsurprisingly so, that fans and followers are a brand’s best friends.  The study explains that 60% of Facebook fans and a whopping 79% of Twitter followers are more likely to recommend a brand or brands after becoming a fan or follower.  Furthermore 51% of Facebook fans and 67% of Twitter followers are more likely to purchase products or services offered by a brand after becoming a fan or follower.

New meaning to “brand loyalty”

Skeptics of the lasting impact or advantage of a brand maintaining its presence on Facebook or Twitter may insert their feet into their mouths now.  The simple act of clicking “become a fan” or “follow” is likely not the sole reason these brand loyalists are recommending or purchasing from a brand.  Still, the regular interaction with and updates from their brand of choice remain influential in their decisions to recommend or purchase.  In some ways, a person’s news feed is the ultimate location to stage a marketing campaign, as updates are mixed between posts from a user’s friends, subliminally asserting that this brand itself is a friend. 

The end of the email era?

If critics still need convincing, they need only look at the frequency with which Facebook users are logging onto the social network.  The raw numbers of daily log-ins were detailed in a previous post, but they, nonetheless, indicate that almost half of Facebook’s user-verse (universe reference, anyone?) logs in each day, most times more than once, ensuring that an update or promotion is not left unnoticed.  Furthermore, a recent article in the Wall Street Journal announced the “End of the Email Era,” positing Facebook messages had replaced emails, citing a study by Prompt Communications.  In the study, 96% of respondents claimed to use Facebook messages as a means of communication, with only 91% of respondents admitting the same for email.

Just like video killed the radio star, Facebook messages have killed the email.   Armed with the knowledge that radio remains a viable means of mass communication, we know that death is not quite as final as the Buggles suggested.  Nonetheless, as medium replaces medium, the broad encompassing tool of email has been edged out in sheer usage by its cousin, the Facebook message.  The question remains over the qualitative differences between these media, as almost certainly deeper conversations and more information can be exchanged via email than Facebook message.  That being said, it is becoming increasingly clear, given the frequency with which the social network is utilized by everyday people and the inherent loyalty of fans and followers, that social networks are and will remain a crucial arena for marketing campaigns.

So we know the postman always knocks twice, and that the USPS will deliver your mail through rain, sleet, or snow, just not on Sundays.  But as snail mail has been replaced by email, email has been increasingly replaced by its cooler cousin: Facebook messages.  As the number of users has exploded, so too have the number of transmissions through Facebook messages.  Which leads to the latest hiccup in the world’s most popular social network.

Last week an undisclosed number of private messages were misdirected by Facebook’s servers to unintended recipients, originally reported by a Wall Street Journal writer who fell victim to the server snafu.  While spreading general confusion, these messages also offered snapshots into the lives of other Facebook members. Messages ranged from teenagers lamenting their sweetheart not asking them to the prom to even death threats.

A Selection of mis-delivered messages:

1.“Until I start hearing some thank yous from you, I will be unable to give you rides home after dance.”

This raises great questions over modern parenthood.  Are today’s adolescents so plugged in their parents need to Facebook them in order to garner a thank you?

2. “The jealousy, the vibes, and what I hold dear to me made this whole weekend hard. The cuddling, truth or dare game, the texting back and forth for long periods of time, and the whispering back and forth for a long time got to me.”

Unrequited love and intrigue has never seemed quite so titillating as when it’s delivered through a Facebook message, where you can simultaneously poke the object of your affection.

And finally,

3. “I took my stuff off don’t want to ruin your life for you. So you can continue to cheat on facebook I don’t care anymore. I have asked you please not to do things but you keep on and on. So you are listed as married but that is because my status is gone. Too bad everything had to end over a f*****’ website. Wow that was worth it to you I guess.”

The age of question of who gets to keep the circle of friends has only gotten messier in the digital age, wherein, it appears, all record of a relationship must be cleansed from that “f*****’ website.” The question remains whether a post-marriage restraining order will mandate these two be defriended.

How About We…

Go gallery hopping in Chelsea this Thursday.  Attack the crossword in a quiet café.  Take a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.  Go skin-diving in the Maldives.

Finally, an online dating site dedicated to, in the words of UrbanDaddy, finding “like-minded hedonists.”  Flipping the online dating scene on its head, new matchmaker “How About We…” lets you first propose a date, then find someone to ask out who is mutually interested in that activity.

Previous online dating platforms have matched users by interests or “chemistry;” this new model aims to find people who enjoy doing the same things when out and about in New York City.  To get a sense of your style, the site presents you with a series of sample dates, to which you can respond with interest or skip over.  Based on your reaction to these samples, the site will try and show you dates proposed by other users that may be of interest, as well as allow you to post your own dates.

Even if you don’t find a love connection, you can at least find someone with which to enjoy even the quirkiest of habits…from weekend-long Chinese checkers tournaments to blindfolded knife-throwing lessons.

The site will officially launch in mid-March, but if you sign up now during the beta phase they’ll give you 3 months of free dating.  Check it out at www.howaboutwe.com

Luxury Brands and Social Media: an Oxymoron?

Luxury brands are moving away from small targeted social networks, according to Mashable columnist Samir Balwani.  Balwani lays out the three main obstacles for luxury brands in social media:

1. Luxury = exclusive.  Social media = inclusive. The loyalties of each lie in almost polar opposite ideologies.

2. Luxury brands uphold a hesitancy toward all things experimental.  They are classic and timeless, not fans of following new fads.

3. New ventures = expensive invoices. Luxury brands put high priority on aesthetics.  Aesthetically pleasing applications or web pages for social media can often rack up the bills.

For these reasons, it has been tough for web users to find an agreeable juxtaposition of social and luxury.  But with Facebook recently reaching the ranking of #2 most popular website in America, along with a slew of other encouraging statistics enumerated in a previous post, it seems that brands can no longer ignore a growing market of online socialites.  Add another attractive element to the mix—a study recently released by Unity Marketing, claiming that nearly 80% of “affluent luxury consumers” belong to a social network—and the social media presence becomes almost essential.

Are we all asking to get robbed?  That’s what the guys behind PleaseRobMe.com are telling us, with their new website dedicated to a Twitter reel showing anyone who recently left their homes and then notified the public via location-sharing networks, such as Foursquare, Buzzd, Gowalla, all of which have been profiled in this blog.  Really it’s about time someone highlighted the dangers of sites like Foursquare and Google Buzz; when you break it down, it really does seem ridiculous to tell the entire world when you leave your home and to publicly list your address.  The site itself is overall quite primitive—all their “inside scoop” comes from a simple Twitter search that anyone could perform on their own computer in about 0.4 seconds.

Okay, so maybe these guys are exaggerating a bit, making it sound like we might as well put out a welcome mat and greet burglars with a tray of freshly baked cookies.  But they do make a very good point about how oblivious most users are to the privacy risks that come with being so connected.  And now that they’ve done that, and in the process garnered a whole lot of buzz, they want to dedicate the website to a foundation for online privacy awareness.

What does it all mean?

One reading of this development is as follows: privacy concerns are taken far too lightly by members and participants of these social networks.  People share too much information too frequently and are compromising their safety.  Conversely, one could argue that the size of these networks has grown faster than imagined, creating a wealth of information that is now being sifted through and sorted out, allowing for a disciplined thief to digitally case someone’s place.  If members start to post less information they will be protecting themselves, but they’ll also be providing marketers less information to assemble a profile from.  In the meantime let’s not forget the major precautions one can take to protect their home and belongings…like locking the door.