SEO — good content still rules
Since search engine optimization is primarily about identifying and classifying good content, the search engines have finally taken notice of social networking. All the major search engines now admit that social engagement — clicking a Like button or sharing content on Twitter — has a positive effect on search engine rankings for a particular keyword.
In other words, if people recommend your content on Facebook or share it with their friends on Twitter and Google+, the content will be ranked higher in search results compared to similar content lacking those personal referrals.
A higher ranking in search results means more traffic to your web site and even more personal referrals. This positive social feedback cycle is a powerful new tool in your SEO toolbox.
Ignore social media at your peril
In the past, having the right keyword density, meta data and domain name was enough to maintain an acceptable placement in search results. Today, these traditional SEO guidelines are less and less important as user-generated feedback from social netoworks becomes integrated into search engine algorithms.
Anyone who is serious about their placement in search results now has to be engaged socially and have a web site optimized to take full advantage of this new 'social SEO'.
A comprehensive social engagement tool set for Joomla
sh404SEF® is the well-known Joomla extension focused on search engine optimization. As developers focused on SEO, we knew that building a comprehensive solution to optimize your Joomla web site for social SEO was the next logical step in the evolution of sh404SEF®.
Today we are proud to announce that sh404SEF® now ships with a full suite of tools designed with one specific goal — improving your earch result placement by maximizing the SEO effects of social engagement.
The all new sh404SEF®, quietly released last Friday, has three major improvements focused on improving the social SEO of your web site.
Integrated buttons for social sharing
First, sh404SEF® now includes a plugin to place social icons for Twitter, Facebook and Google+ anywhere in your content. These icons can be displayed globally for core Joomla content with just one click in the sh404SEF® configuration.
For users who want more control, simply place the following tag in an article, module, template file or even in an HTML override to display the social icons on virtually any page of your web site (be sure to remove the spaces).
{ sh404sef_social_buttons }You can see these buttons in action at the top and bottom of the very page you are reading.
Tight integration with Open Graph
Second, sh404SEF® integrates seamlessly with Open Graph, the new protocol announced recently by Facebook. It allows Like, Recommend and other passive actions to appear in your Facebook and Google+ activity streams. As noted above, simply having users share or recommend your content using the social media icons will have a positive effect on your ranking in search results.
In addition, sh404SEF® allows you to include additional data with your social engagement activities. For example, if someone shares an article you wrote about your lawn care service, you can also share the location of your business.
Since search engines often emphasize local search results, including location information when sharing your content via social networks will increase your rank for local search results.
No other social media plugin for Joomla offers such tight integration with Open Graph.
Tracking social engagement with Google Analytics
hird and perhaps most important, sh404SEF® tracks your social engagement activities and sends all the information directly to Google Analytics. Of course this can be viewed at the Google Analytics site.
In addition, social engagement is also displayed in the sh404SEF® dashboard and analytics manager. Like traffic reports and top referrering URLs, you can now track your social engagement directly in the Joomla administrative backend.
Importanly, tracking social engagement is much more informative than simply knowing what page(s) on your site receives the most traffic. Social engagement identifies the content on your site that truly captivates your audience.
By identifying and analyzing this content, patterns in social engagement can be discovered and used to improve the SEO of other pages and/or new content on your web site.
Combined with the social feedback cycle described above, sh404SEF® allows you to leverage the social SEO of your web site as well as your search result placement like never before.
Let’s socialize!
In the coming days we’ll be publishing more information on installing and optimizing your web site for social SEO with sh404SEF®.
But you don’t have to wait! The social features described above are ready to go and are compatible with Joomla 1.5 and 1.7.
Simply download version 2.4 (Joomla 1.5) or 3.4 (Joomla 1.7), install using the Joomla installer (uninstall is not necessary for existing users) and activate the social icons in the Social SEO Configuration area of sh404SEF®.
New customers or existing customers with expired subscriptions will need to purchase sh404SEF® before downloading.
With just a few clicks, your web site will be ready to unleash the social SEO potential of your Joomla web site.
Source: anything-digital.com
