Background
Earlier in the week, I posted a blog video tasting on a wine called Sásta, from Portugal’s Douro region. To do so, I posted on Viddler, but also on YouTube, (as a back-up).
I also posted a review on Twitter, using the rating site LouderVoice format.
Different sites, same message with different formats – Twitter, Video and the blog post. So what?
Joining the conversation
Now, all of this was “genuine engagement” or “joining the conversation” – all the stuff you hear from Social Media experts, not SEO.
The positive side effect
The interesting part of all this is when searching for “Sásta Douro”, all but the last two results come back to content I’ve produced (granted, the “Sásta Douro” may not be the most competitive phrase, but it serves as a good example of where this should be headed).
Those last two on the first page are the importers of the wine, The Wicklow Wine Co and the Irish Times.
Here’s the thing: SEO is now becoming more about owning the whole page of results, not just the top results. This means combining Twitter/Blog/Video into what marketing types would call a “cross-channel strategy”.
Build your brand, squeeze out the comp.
The benefits are not just increasing your own brand visibility within the search results, but squeezing out the competiton. Interesting times. Wonder what Rob thinks
One quick question Lar, do you have any idea regarding the longivity of these results.
What I’ve noticed with a lot of web 2.0 stuff is that for a finite period of time following a post the data shows quite well on google searches. After an amount of time you’ll find that these links will begin to slip. Do you have any idea of the timeframes around this slippage?
Nice one Lar, always love seeing LouderVoice in SERPs :-)
Will, we notice that our results do age but it’s usually strongly inversely proportional to ongoing comments. As long as Google sees the content updating, it keeps the pages high.
It’s the same reason that some of my blog posts from four years ago still come near the top for certain search terms.
Of course the best of both worlds is when you write reviews on your blog and we aggregate the summary onto LouderVoice!
Pretty invaluable stuff Lar, and very relevant to what we’ll be looking to do – especially once we start video reviews. “God help us all” I hear you cry :D
Matt,
Do you find that many sales eminate out of these wine 2.0 hits? I think the whole online wine thing is great as a medium for consumers but I’ve always wondered about the business benefit of it.
Cheers,
Will
Hey Will,
I’m not too technical, but I assume one can’t track 2.0 hits accurately? We’re still young enough on the whole blogging scene but I really think the blogosphere in general helps drives traffic & thus potential sales. Lar said that SEO is now becoming more about owning the whole page of results, not just the top results, so I suppose if we keep it up it will help to further optimise. Apart from anything else, Mike and I really enjoy writing about wine and have made lots of contacts and friends through it. Just as well, as the internet is such an important part of our business model.
I’m assuming that you can track these hits/sales very accurately! But I think you’ll need someone a lot more technical that me to show you how…
It’s good to see retailers that are so enthusiastic about their internet profile, so I really hope that it works out well for your company!
Hi guys,
thanks for the feedback. I’ve no clue on the longevity, but my guess it depends on how well people receive your content and thereby link to it (a key SEO driver) and how much other stuff is being published by others (the competition) and of course how often – all standard SEO stuff, I’d imagine. But back to social media – if you’re being social and present on Twitter etc. you’re framing the conversation around your content and your business.
Lar
And very much looking forward to the vidyos!
Thanks Will. We’ve had great feedback so far – videos in the pipeline, Lar, so stay tuned ;)
Having written about wine in Portugal and Spain for 4 yrs now I can tell you that the majority of wineries are not aware of the internet and therefore when I write a piece on one, 8 times out of 10 we have a similar experience. It’s amazing when I show the wineries this and they think I did some “evil magic” or something.