Comments on: Improving Search Traffic … Using Social Media

By: claire stokoe

claire stokoe — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:25:06 +0000

I torn with this one and a little late to the table i admit. But reading it again, i actually don’t agree with the mixed titles across the networks. I’d be pretty peeved if i had to sift around 10 titles per post, just to get through the duplicates.

Maybe i have misunderstood this?

claire

By: SEO Rob

SEO Rob — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 10:14:05 +0000

I will have to disagree with this.

If 5 out of the 10 results on the first page of Google are ultimately traffic gateways to your site, you would indirectly control most of the traffic for that search term. If everyone submitted different titles, you would be left with 1 out of 10 links for that search term pointing to your site. Leaving you with a far less chance of getting the click.

Not only would you get more traffic for your search term from Google, but I would guess that you would also get more people visiting those social sites and voting your article up (if it’s good enough), thus increasing your traffic even further through from the social sites as well.

Lastly (and the most selfish), I have enough to do during the day than to have to write separate title suggestions for my posts. 😛

By: Utah SEO

Utah SEO — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 02:07:59 +0000

Ya, I guess it would be good to diversify your titles/headlines for each social media site. Another reason is, each social media site has a different audience that all responds differently to different types of articles. Appealing to them with different titles is just a smart thing to do and a win-win all around.

By: James

James — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:26:15 +0000

I can’t see any reason you wouldn’t do this, presuming you had the time to craft variations of your titles. It seems so obvious in retrospect.

Personally, I prefer to avoid duplication in the SERPs. I think this helps to avoid creating any perceptions that you’re a social media spammer.

By: Joy

Joy — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:32:33 +0000

Excellent post Jeff!..The point that you raise is really interesting and hope every member of all social sites will follow your idea co’z for sure a lot of people will benefit from it.

By: TheMobiBlog

TheMobiBlog — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:49:34 +0000

Jeff, This was a very interesting post and I agree with the overkill, it will actually drive a user to not click or worse to click on more than 1 to see duplicate content and not stay very long..

I will continue to follow this as it develops..
G~

By: SpostareDuro

SpostareDuro — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:42:16 +0000

I think leaving a post title suggestion certainly can’t hurt.
I am sure most of us want to respect the ones we follow and are following (I hope) by working with their wishes to do so.
It will be touch and go of course..
Just because an SEO has an optimized title in mind, doesn’t necessarily mean that the social submitter sees it as the best way to secure the attention of the persons they are targetting within their personal friend networks..
Al that said..I love the idea and think I may use this idea as well Jeff.
Thans for juicy tip!
Btw..I’m also going to do the ‘lazy Sphinn comment’ thing..

By: Paula Hawk

Paula Hawk — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:34:23 +0000

First I have to say I’m relatively new to all of this, but I have been playing around with all of the social sites out there for awhile. Just looking at these names, I see I am playing with the big boys (and girls, sorry Shana!) here, but I want to offer perhaps a newbie (or perhaps one of the real sheep’s!) viewpoint…

Many times I have been to Digg and found a preview of a post/news story/photo/whatever that I am really interested in checking into further only to find that when I click the link, I get the dreaded 404 or even that the site has crashed from the traffic generated. Some stories are interesting enough, that I have searched by using the title given in Digg, since I know that the Digg button will automatically assign the same name as the post to it’s title. Of course, when I do this, I am also looking for the same originating site that is shown on Digg… Sometimes I search from the originating site itself, but when the main words in the title produces no results, I head over to Google.

When the Digg title does not = the original post title, this becomes a major pain, and can even be frustrating if it is something you are really wanting to see.

Now, I’m sure you are wondering how badly must I want to see this? Well, sometimes it is enough that I will temporarily bookmark a search, or leave a note on my desktop to remind myself to look later.

I do understand the viewpoint of feeling as though others are stealing your thunder, especially seeing that the Sheep post ended up so far down on the list of search results. I think that other bloggers should take the time to rename their posts (this is something that I have not practiced in the past, but after reading this will certainly practice in the future!), but if it is just the common everyday person you are wanting to reach who may not necessarily already read your blog, I suggest leaving the titles the same on the social sites.

Once again, please realize I am new to being a contributor and this is just a viewpoint of someone out in the general public… please don’t hurt me! 🙂

By: Wayne Smallman

Wayne Smallman — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:16:44 +0000

First of all, the issues raised here by Jeff are at the very heart of how we now need to bridge the gap between social media and SEO to get the very best out of our ‘blogs.

“So, my question question for all of you is this; how can we best encourage this behaviour as it is in the best interest of all involved?”

Secondly, the answer to that question really does go back to Jennifer’s points in the article that Jeff is highlighting — who is going to be the thought leader that others look to?

A fantastic subject, Jeff!

BTW, I know I’m being lazy, but I posted this comment on Sphinn, too…

By: Darren McLaughlin

Darren McLaughlin — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:18:30 +0000

The “problem” of too many listings pointing to my page is one I enjoy having. But you bring up a good point about varying titles. What can it hurt? If you include a few more key concepts, it should have a positive impact on results.