When it comes to Internet marketing, Social Media marketing is all the buzz. While having a strong social media presence is important for any digital marketing campaign, there are also technical benefits that exist to help Google put together a full picture of your website. This blog post is not about how to time your social media for maximum exposure, but rather, why you need the signals in place for Google to find you.
Let’s take a step back and give a bit of history first. In May of 2012, Google announced a new feature called the “Knowledge Graph.” Many searches include this incredibly impressive feature and the image below shows what the knowledge graph looks like.
The table to the right is the knowledge graph. In this particular example, we see information from four different sources- one of which is Google Plus, a social network.
Before we continue, the obvious must be stated. Google owns Google Plus, so of course there is going to be information pulled from this source. We must keep in mind that Google’s intention is to compile the world’s data so it can present answers to the end user, and Google Plus is a major source for that goal.
As you can see, by having a Google+ profile, House of Lies has specific episode visible in the Knowledge Graph and this results in other information feeding in as well. This is due to Freshness, which is just as important as having a blog on your website. By posting frequently, not only do you get the inherent benefit of providing your message to your readers, but you also take advantage of the fact that Freshness is used as a ranking signal by Google.
In the end, if we take a step back and recognize Semantic Search is all about answering the user’s questions, we clearly see that capitalizing on the features Google already has in place is a great way to succeed at Semantic Search.
