SEKARI talks about Social Optimisation and how it's changing your websites ability to rank in search engines and opportunities to take advantage of your social profile.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates (9 August, 2011): The buzz around social media in the Middle East is at fever pitch. Whilst many brands are grappling with the issues of how to engage in social media and manage their reputations, little mention has been given to how important a role Social Media Optimisation plays in a company's website ranking in search engines. There are two sides to this story, however, the first is how social media content plays an ever increasing role in the Google's ranking algorithm, the other is how by optimising your social media profiles and content with the right key phrases you can ensure that the first page of the Search Engine results are completely owned by your brand.

'Universal Search' is the terminology given to how the Google Search Engine Results page is nowadays made up of Google maps results, live twitter feeds, News Articles, YouTube video, and images. In order for your Social Media content to rank well, you need to make sure that all your social media content is optimised for the same key phrases which are part of your SEO strategy, ensuring a coordinated holistic approach across all your platforms. It's not simply a case of ensuring your social media ranks for your brand name, it's about being visible for the key phrases people type in search engines when looking for your products or services and then making sure that your offering is the first one these potential customers click on, whether it's a video of your services, your latest Twitter feed or your company Facebook page.

"A consistent approach across all platforms is the trick. As an SEO agency we research what these key phrases should be, we use various sources of data to decide on the most valuable key phrase strategy for your brand's website. The amount of searches for a particular key phrase is an important starting point, your company might be called Rose Trading but if you sell fashion accessories then we need to find out what people are searching for in the UAE when they are looking for somewhere to buy your type of products", explains Managing Director of SEO Dubai Agency, Sekari. And in the Middle East, which is still relatively in its infancy when it comes to Search, these are more commonly broad generic phrases. In the case of the fashion accessories company these would be phrases such as Dresses, Jewellery, Fashion Stores. These same key phrases need to be infused in all your social media content. For example your target key phrases should be referenced in the titles of your YouTube videos so that any authority is passed onto your website URL, those same keywords should also be in the tags and or transcript.

All these factors build the relevant authority of your website in the eyes of search engines and at the same time ensure that whenever someone types in a search for those key phrases, that the results page is littered not only with your website but all your social media assets as well, from your video, your Facebook page to your latest Twitter feeds.

But social media optimisation is not simply about ensuring your various social media profiles rank high for your target key phrases, nowadays the optimisation and usage of your social media profile plays an important part in search engines deciding how your own website ranks.

According to our research at SEKARI a number of social media factors play a role in your websites Search Engine Rankings.

Twitter

The number and the quality of your twitter followers.
Simply explained; the more followers you have, the more authoritative your twitter persona and the more value associated with your URL.

Quality and Relevance as always in SEO plays a vital role. Followers with their own communities of followers, which re-tweet your content and follow you are the best. But these followers have to be relevant to your specific industry as using your relevant target keywords. Someone with fashion in their description who re-tweet's your latest clothing promotion provides your website considerable value.

Being in the game means staying active and volume plays a very important role. The way search engines see it is the number of people re-tweeting your content the more authoritative the content must be. The more followers you have the more likely you are to be re-tweeted. But remember it's not just about tweeting and being re-tweeted, it's about engaging in conversation with people in your industry.

And guess what? It's not just all about Twitter either.

Facebook

For example the number of comments on your Corporate Profile Facebook page is an indicator to search engines, however, too many 'Likes' and not much real engagement is a sure sign of the system being gamed. Make sure your Facebook page is optimised for your target key phrases.

It's also worth mentioning Social Mentions, total visibility across all social media shows that your content is important to all people and not just the result of a good promotion on Facebook, especially in the Middle East, where there are a lot of blogs and forums. Sekari use monitoring tools that enable us to capture all these mentions and we can identify how positive or negative the comments are about your brand, using this as a starting point to making sure there are more positive mentions about your brand then negative. The general sentiment expressed about your brand will start playing a pivotal role in search engine rankings. Google is investing more money in this area and it will really start to have a major effect in the near future with search results becoming ever more localised and personalised, the results you get when you search for something will be determined by your personal preferences, associated with that of your connections, your friends and what they search for.