* The New York Times investigated how J.C. Penney consistently outranked other competitors for popular retail search terms / keywords in Google organic searches.
* Allegedly, J.C. Penney purchased inbound links for these keywords and these incoming links were hidden in hundreds of web pages (potentially thousands) around The Internet. All of these web pages possessed low PageRank. But, with so many inbound links coming into J.C. Penney's web site, their Google Search Rankings still increased.
* After Google learned and validated the tainted linking strategy, it took "manual action" against J.C. Penney (e.g., it is punishing the firm by burying the results of search queries formerly benefiting the company). In other words, its organic search ranking results now land anywhere from the 60s to 80s for certain keywords / keyword phrases versus one placing in page-one results.
BONUS #2: This article from The Wall Street Journal explains the overall fallout and how Google modified its search algorithm to counteract this type of SEO gaming: Google Reorders Web's Winners.
They wanted to outrank competitors in Google Searches during the 2010 Holiday Shopping Season. By ranking higher than competitors, consumers clicked on J.C. Penney's Google results (versus Bed Bath & Beyond or Amazon).
How Big Is Earning a Page-One Google Result in Organic Search — HUGE. Research proves that the #1 ranking Google search result captures a disproportionately large portion of the click traffic for that keyword / keyword phrase.
Check out the research explaining the implications of page-one Google results.
Nine (9) Resources Explaining the Value of Page-One Google Results in Organic Search:
What J.C. Penney Did is Just Plain Dumb. Simple as that. And, don't get me started on the public relations debacle.
But, Embarrasing Google in a Global News Story is Worse. And now, they are facing Google's wrath. Google who has the power as trial, judge, and jury to continue burying Penney's search results or remove their search results completely.
* Martin Giles, The Economist, US Technology Correspondent. Martin moderated the October 2010 panel discussion. In David 's aforementioned blog post, he notes how Martin Giles is the best moderator he has ever worked with. After viewing and studying this video, I understand why.
* Chris Brogan, President of New Marketing Labs, popular blogger and co-author of Trust Agents and author of Social Media 101.
* Charlene Li, Founder and CEO of Altimeter Group, popular blogger, and co-author of two (2) books, Groundswell and Open Leadership.
* David Meerman Scott, popular blogger and best-selling author of the two (2) books The New Rules of Marketing & PR and Real-Time Marketing & PR.
The discussion topics covered the following issues relevant to social media strategy, emerging trends, and several case study examples of its successful execution (or in some cases, unsuccessful):
* How should organizations build a social media presence?
* Who within the organization should own the social media function?
* How can organizations measure and analyze the value of social media?
* Who are the model organizations of modern social media management and strategy execution?
Part 1 represents the first piece of a multiple-post blog series describing the insights shared in this video. My goal is to publish the posts from every Saturday morning until completion (but please bear with me if I slip on a date). Part 1 will be the A to Z Executive Summary provided by Martin Giles at the end of the panel discussion. In the future posts, I will publish the deep dives generated from the panel's discussion. And trust me, there's a lot of substance in this panel discussion because I recorded 20+ pages of notes.
Martin's A to Z Executive Summary starts at 1:01:57 of the video. His Executive Summary recapped Chris', Charlene's, and David's insights from different parts of their hour-long conversation. Where appropriate, I sprinkled in my point-of-view (I hope you don't mind).
Executive Summary: Social Media Strategy from A to Z
* A = Analytics. Understanding the value and ROI your social media initiatives produces requires analyzing the data with analytics tools.
* B = Brogan and Boeing. Chris did a great job as a contributing member. Boeing showed it was listening to the conference's live Twitter Feed by acknowledging David Meerman Scott's positive comments citing Boeing as a model organization in social media strategy and execution. Here' the tweet, Boeing sent to David: @dmscott thanks for citing us during #pbls10. Here's the air show effort DMS mentioned. http://bit.ly/dkQEqC
* C = Control. Control in social media means you have to give it up. Learn to lose control.
* D = Disaster Recovery. Mistakes will happen in your business. Have a disaster recovery plan in place to address these mistakes through the right social media channels. For example, if an irate customer makes a highly publicized complaint via their blog, respond quickly by commenting on that customer's blog. Responding via a press release is a mistake.
* E = Earpiece and Earning Credibility. Martin made light of having to constantly readjust his earpiece during the panel discussion. He also pointed out how much of the discussion focused on "earning credibility" through your social media efforts versus the traditional advertising mentality of "buying credibility."
* F = Facebook and The Future of The Web (two highly debated topics among the panel members).
* G = Grab Audience Attention. On the World Wide Web, you have to creatively think of ways to grab audience attention. Martin also said G stands for Go Giants because he lives in San Francisco.
* H = Human. Be human and don't be afraid to put real human beings on The Web to support and implement your social media efforts.
* I = Innovate and Influencers. Identify the online influencers in your impacting your organization's online reputation and think of innovative ways to reach them.
* J = Journalists. Martin noted The Internet's impact on traditional publishing and how he may be searching for a job soon (so please hire him). Also, David suggests organizations bring journalists into their social media operations because of their storytelling abilities and gift for creating share-worthy content.
* K = KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). Carefully think about and select your KPIs and how they can inform your decision-making.
* L = Charlene Li and Listening. Charlene Li contributes great insights to the panel and cites many different examples particularly in the Fortune 500. Martin thanks the live in-person and online audiences for listening. Most of all, he cites how organizations need leverage social media in listening to their respective online audiences.
* M = David Meerman Scott, Modeling (a humorous reference to David's former career as a male model in Japan), and Measurement. An ongoing and important future trend in social media is understanding how to best measure its impact.
* N = Need to Respond Quickly. Martin notes how he and his fellow journalists are online 24/7. Learn to respond in real-time because if you're not, there's a problem.
* O = Open Leadership and Ownership. This is the title of Charlene's recently released book (I purchased my copy this past week). Her book describes the required organizational and leadership attributes required to effectively compete and successfully engage audiences in today's World Wide Web. In addition, her new book discusses how to determine, manage, and execute the right open leadership strategy for your organization. Ownership is for who's going to own and execute your social media strategy (and what's the best way to do that).
* P = People and Paris Hilton. As Martin says, I'll stop right there …
* Q = Questions. Pose better questions to your audience because we've discussed numerous examples of how really smart companies benefit from seeking audience feedback.
* R = ROI and Real-Time. The panel shared examples where companies have achieved ROI and how they measure it. Furthermore, companies who learn or take the initiative to respond and act in real-time will have future competitive advantages in areas ranging from product development, interacting with the media, and capitalizing on real-time events impacting your industry.
* S = Sharing. Social media is about sharing great content so be willing and generous in sharing it.
* T = Twitter and Trusted Advisor. The panel provided a number of examples of using Twitter to generate revenues, enhance customer service, and promote content. Consistency, commitment, responsiveness, and a genuine attitude to help customers make better, informed decisions described organizations developing Trusted Advisor reputations online.
* U = Understand Customer Insights. A lot of these insights come from "L" Listening and "A" Analytics.
* V = Virality. Whatever you're publishing on the World Wide Web, learn to accept that your content will flash across at the speed of light.
* W = Word-of-Mouth. That's the real goal here. If you get existing customers and potential customers to talk about you to one another, you've created a fabulous success story.
* X = X Marks the Spot. Martin joked this is what he figured what the audience was wondering for what he would write for "X."
* Y = You. Martin also joked "you" (as in the audience) must be wondering "when I'm going to shut up."
* Z = Zero. Zero because Martin had zero time left.
Conclusion
Watching and studying this video was a labor of love. How many times do you get the opportunity to learn from thought leaders like Brogan, Li, and Meerman Scott interacting on the same stage. I personally want to thank SAS for publishing and sharing the videos from The Premier Business Leadership Series. By allowing thought leaders like David Meerman Scott to share this content, everyone in the social media community benefits.
Thank you for reading and if you watched the video, please let me know in the comments. What did you enjoy and learn? I would love to hear from you.
Please stay tuned for next Saturday's installment – The Business Value Behind Social Media: Part 2 – Open Leadership, Guidelines, Process Discipline, and Goals.
In a recent post, 3 Findings on Real-Time Trust and Influence in Online Communities, I wrote about how an inbound link from a very popular Facebook Fan Page, positively impacted my site traffic. Here's a screen shot of the Facebook Fan Page's inbound link, and the referral to its Fans about my blog post:
This Inbound Link and Relevant Keywords Helped One of My Blog Posts Achieve Page-One Results in Google Searches
This inbound link also had another important effect on my blog: placement of my blog post, 3 Social Media Tips for Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love, on the first page of organic Google search results. The post shows up in different places on the first page of organic Google Searches and Google Blog Searches (depending on the keywords typed into Google).
Here are some example screenshots where my blog post or my blog has shown up on the coveted Google 1st Page:
Page-One Google Results Drive the Most Click Traffic …
* Potential customers begin their decision making process with a search engine
* These customers trust that a search engine will bring forth the best and most relavent results
* On average, 95.3% of all non-branded natural search traffic comes from a Page-One result from a search conducted in Google, Yahoo!, or Bing
* If your search result lands on the second or third page, you're likely to garner only 1.6% to 3.4% of the natural search traffic to your website – minimal impact
* The other way to look at this data — 95% of all users aren't going that deep into their search results because they stop after search result #10
… and the #1 Ranked Search Result Drives 34% of that Traffic
This picture further reinforces the importance of gaining a Page-One Organic Search Result. If you can't achieve the #1 search position, your goal is to earn positions #2 through #10. Why? Your opportunity to earn search traffic drops significantly if your search result land in positions #11 to #20 (e.g., your search result lands on page 2).
Conclusion
Google rewarded my blog post with Page-One organic search results for different keyword searches for two (2) reasons:
#1: A High Authority Inbound Link from a Popular Facebook Page
#2: Relevant Keywords in the Blog Post Title and/or URL.
It only takes one high authority inbound link or careful placement of relavent keywords in your blog post title and/or URL to improve your Google Search Rankings. These examples also underscore the SEO implications for carefully choosing the blog post titles and wordings in the URLs.
Furthermore, the research data reinforces why earning a Page-One search engine drives website or blog traffic. If you're fortunate to earn the #1 position, the top ranking search result always gains a disproportionate share of the click traffic. Therefore, looking for and understanding opportunities to improve keyword selection with our blog titles, URLs, and website content increases the likelihood of achieving a Page-One Search Result and earning more click-generated traffic.
BONUS SECTION
If you read this far in my post, I thank you. Here are links to the research I found on the value of Page-One Organic Google Results: