Search

Tweets, Links and Organic Search Rankings, Oh My!

QUESTION: What’s more effective for organic search rankings — traditional inbound links or social media links?

ANSWER: No one knows for sure but Google.

Okay, it was a trick question. But SEOmoz is running an experiment to see how tweets effect search rankings and they need your help.

Here is how SEOmoz has set up the experiment.

“In order to test these two ranking factors (traditional links and social media citations), we are going to need to promote two nearly identical pages using one promotion method for one and the other promotional method for the other while targeting the same keyword phrase. We can then see which page performs better in both the short term (my guess is the the tweet driven page) and the long term (my guess is the link driven page).

These two test pages will need to be targeting the same keyword phrase and on the same domain. I could do this on my own domain but doing so would be disingenuous (Hey everyone, send links and tweets my way! It is for an “experiment” ;-p You wouldn’t be fooled for a second and my apartment would get TPed… again)

Instead, the two test pages will be on a local charity’s website and target the phrase “Hunger in Sierra Leone”. The local charity, SeeYourImpact, is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that sends 100% of donations to the charity of a donation makers choice. The non-profit then photographs the results and sends the photo and a story of how the donation made an impact on an actual person to the donation maker so they can ‘see the impact’ (thus the name) of their donation. There is absolutely no financial affiliation with SEOmoz and SeeYourImpact although we do do consulting for them on a pro bono basis. In short, we think they are doing a great service but no money is being exchanged between the two organizations.”

Where you come in.

Below are two link options. The first is text with a link for Twitter. The second is code for a traditional link for your website. Pick one or both, but any links that you provide will help in this experiment.

Tweet this:

Help end hunger in Sierra Leone and meet the life you change http://bit.ly/hpsMJq

Follow the Yellow Brick Road.

I’ll post SEOmoz’s results here or you can follow the SEOblog to see results as they come in.

Never Alter Your Company Brand Unless…

Branding 101 says to establish your company brand and then be consistent. Place your brand everywhere and under no circumstances should you change that brand. Use specific PMS colors to print on slick stock and different PMS shades on uncoated stock. The RGB values and hex codes are specified. Maintain a clearance distance of x space around the logo. Never change the size relationship between the mark and the text. And never, ever, under any circumstances, or risk your own personal safety, alter the logo. It’s sacred!

Then along comes Google who proceeds to turn this Branding 101 rule on its head. Visitors to google.com sometimes see a creative interpretation of the Google logo, based on the date. Like today’s logo celebrating the birth of H. G. Wells. A mouse over explains the topic and a click on the logo takes you to a Google search of that topic.

New designs may be related to a holiday like New Year’s or St. Patrick’s Day. It may be an event like the Olympics. It may even be to celebrate the birth of a famous author, or artist, or inventor. Do any of these look familiar?

Google will customize its holiday logos specifically for certain countries, only displaying in that country. Most Americans have never seen these logos.

Why would Google practice such blatant blasphemy of it’s company brand? Two reasons come to mind. First, it gives people something to talk about on the web…builds some Google buzz. Secondly, it gives people a reason to go to the Google search page occasionally…to see the creative logo. Otherwise, with the integration of search into web browsers and websites, there in not much of a reason to ever visit google.com! I also think Google does it because it’s fun and it supports their company culture and brand of being different and “going outside the lines.” It’s a brilliant example of the old adage, “There’s an exception to every rule.”

Google archives all of the logos on its website so don’t worry if you missed the recent “crop circles” logo or the “unexplained phenomenon” logo that you heard all the buzz about. You’ll find all of them dating back to the very beginning of Google. What is “Burning Man Festival” anyway?

Oh, and if you find one that you really like and wish was your default Google logo, there is a new greasemonkey script for Firefox that will enable you to pick your favorite Google logo to display by default.

To see all of Google’s holiday logos, visit the company’s website, but remember to never, ever, ever alter your company brand. Unless you are Google or you have a strategic reason for doing so.

Play a game and help Google with image search

Google has a beta application called Google Image Labeler which it describes as “a feature of Google Search that allows you to label images and help improve the quality of Google’s image search results.”

Sounds kind of boring, but leave it to Google to turn image labeling into an online game.
Here’s how it works

You are matched up with another online user and both of you are shown an image. You each start adding labels to the image until you both suggest the same label. To add to the challenge, you can’t see the labels your partner is adding. So you just keep adding labels until the game tells you that you matched — or you and your partner may click a “pass” button to move to the next image.

Once a match is made, a new image is presented to both of you and the process begins again. And just to make it really exciting, there is a time clock. You and your partner are given two minutes to label as many images as possible. And of course, it wouldn’t be a game without scoring. So there are points rewarded for successful matches.

After the clock has expired, you are shown a page containing your overall score, thumbnails of the images you saw, along with identifying information:

image size
image URL
whether it was a pass or a match (with matched word)
your partner’s labels

A little warning

Some of the images presented are a bit risque. However, Google does not believe you’ll come across inappropriate images. In the Image Labeler FAQ Google states, “While there’s no guarantee, it’s unlikely that you’ll see mature content because all images are filtered under image search’s Strict Safe Search setting.” Hmm, well I saw a few that apparently snuck past the filter.

Also, since you are playing with an unknown partner, your success – or failure as the case may be – depends in part on the other person. On one occasion, I had a partner who I couldn’t match with at all, and when the game was over and I reviewed his or her image labels, they were not related to the images at all and were rather silly like “poop,” for example.

You should give Google’s Image Labeler a try, but I’ll warn you , it is a little addictive.