Facebook Edgerank: what marketers need to know
It's been nine months since I wrote the original Ultimate Guide to the Facebook Edgerank Algorithm. I was amazed to see the reaction to the piece.
It clearly seemed to strike a chord as it went on to be the most popular guest post on Econsultancy in 2012.
But a lot has changed since then in the world of Facebook. As I'm currently putting together a presentation for the upcoming Econsultancy Digital Shorts event in Manchester on Edgerank and other social algorithms, now seemed the perfect time to revisit the piece to update and expand it.
Search plus: five changes you need to make to your SEO campaigns
Well, it's a few days since Google announced Search Plus Your World and I’ve had a chance to start to think a little about how this dramatic shift in the personalisation of results might change the day-to-day tactics of the search campaigns I work on.
Please note: I’ll be referring this as Search+ henceforth, rather than the namepuke “Search Plus Your World”.
Here are six small tweaks to make to your SEO campaigns, thanks to Search+...
Five tricks our minds play on us and what marketers need to know
There’s a phenomena on the cusp between behavioral economics and psychology known as cognitive biases which are essentially scientifically documented tricks that our minds play on us.
As all of us in the world of digital marketing are in the business of persuasion, understanding these often irrational tendencies can help us do a better job.
Some are glaringly oblivious when you’re alerted to them, other are far more subtle in the way they influence decision making.
I recently delivered a talk at A4U Expo London exploring a few of these ‘mind tricks’ but I want to explain them further and in more depth.
The ultimate guide to the Facebook Edgerank algorithm
EdgeRank is one of the most important algorithms in marketing. Despite this, very few people have heard of it and fewer still can claim that they fully understand it.
EdgeRank is the name of the algorithm which Facebook uses to determine what appears in their users’ news feeds. The news feed is Facebook’s ‘Killer App’. There is a plethora of information available to Facebook users, and the newsfeed is the order in which it appears.
It determines which of your connections is the most important to you and thus appears most frequently, and which kinds of content should appear higher than others. For anyone seeking to market a product or service on Facebook it’s essential you understand how this algorithm works.
Understanding the rules of the algorithm and changing your tactics to reflect the system can make the difference between a business changing campaign and an embarrassing failure. Yet despite this huge importance very little has been written about the algorithm.
Why Google + is already giving better social ranking signals than Twitter
There’s no secret in the SEO world that many of us suspect that the reason why Google has been pushing Google+ so aggressively.
It isn’t just to build its own successful social network, but also to gain access to data on what content and websites are being shared socially as this could be a great addition to their search algorithm.
You have to have been living below a rock the last year to have missed out on studies which have suggested volume of shares on Facebook and Twitter having a correlation with high rankings.
There might not be causation there yet, but that certainly seems the direction we’re heading in, with social signals becoming a ranking factor.
Here are five reasons why Google+ is already finding this data more useful than the Twitter Firehose...
Eight tools and techniques to boost your link building efforts
There’s no question the difference between a successful search marketing campaign and one that fails is very rarely due to a lack of creativity or a naive strategy. Far more frequently it’s down to inefficiencies or wasted resources.
So what can you do to reduce those problems? Try and constantly improve things. Those changes are very rarely revolutions in your process, but just small refinements.
What follows are eight of those small refinements and improvements that I’ve made recently which I think have made me a better link builder.
What did I learn swapping a book for a retweet?
A few weeks ago I released a mini eBook about link building for SEO titled “Becoming a Clockwork Pirate.” Although I put my heart, soul and everything I know about link building into the 30,000 word digital mini-book, that’s not what made the book most interesting.
What made it unusual was the approach I took in ‘monetising’ it.
51 essential link building tips
I’ve been fortunate enough to write over 275 blog posts across a variety of different SEO blogs, some have been successful, others have had more a lead balloon vibe. Often you have no idea beforehand which ones are going to work.
But one pattern I’ve been able to discern is people love in-depth blog posts. So inspired by great posts, like Aaron Wall and Glen at Viperchill’s long-form posts, I wanted to produce my link building opus of as many ways I could think to build links for here on Econsultancy.
So below are some of my top tips that cover off pretty much every way you can go about building links...
Seven signs your SEO agency is living in the past
The whole world of digital marketing is maturing but it’s still hugely dynamic, particularly in the world of search marketing.
This makes it an exciting time to be involved in the sector but does mean more and more agencies and practitioners are being left behind, clinging to what used to work and sticking with habits even if they aren’t doing anyone any favours.
But how can you spot one of these search marketing laggards, who have fallen so far behind?
Why PRs can be better link builders than SEOs
I talked in my last post here at Econsultancy about whether the PR industry had missed the boat on SEO. Although there were some differing opinions in the comments, I think the consensus was that the public relations firms could have done more to get into search engine optimisation.
Despite this reticence to get going I think there’s a scary truth that the search firms need to wake up to: If and when the PR industry gets its act together a lot of the link development tactics search companies are delivering could be delivered by someone with a public relations background.
