by Nick Roshon, Sr. Strategist, Natural Search, iCrossing

ICROSSING POV:

Are the top-ranking and most visible websites the most credible? Not always. But as search engines get

more advanced and user-generated content grows more sophisticated, visible content is also more likely to

be credible. This white paper examines how recent updates to Google harness credibility to help determine

visibility, as well as how social and other online channels are using credibility to influence visibility.

Bottom line: you need to be credible to build a connected brand. And the good news is that Google and the

major social platforms are rewarding the most credible content by making it more visible.

DOES VISIBILITY MEAN CREDIBILITY ON THE WEB?

HOW CREDIBILITY INFLUENCES SEO VISIBILITYGoogle was created based on a premise that Google had a better way of determine the credibility of a website than other search

engines. By examining the number of links pointing to a particular website or webpage, Google could determine how credible

the site was. The more links a website earned, the more credible the site was. This advancement worked very well, and soon all

search engines used links as a ranking signal. Determining credibility through links has advanced quite a bit in the past 10 or so

years, but having high-quality and relevant links pointing to your website is still the most effective way to establish credibility to

search engines.

Recently, Google has released a number of algorithm updates targeting sites that were using black-hat tactics to appear more

credible than they really were. For instance, the Panda Algorithm Update (launched in February 2011) aims to demote lower-

quality content even if it’s on credible domains with many high quality links. (Panda is now a rolling update.) More recently,

Google announced the Penguin Update, which strived to be even more aggressive against websites that were faking credibility

through tactics such as buying links. Between those major algorithm updates, Google has enacted a number of smaller algorithm

changes to favor sites with better spelling and grammar, fresher content, and other signals of credibility. Not to be left behind,

Bing (and other search engines) is also working hard to help better understand credible content and credible links.

Moreover, with the launch of Authorship Markup, Google aspires to rank content not just by the quality of the website that the

content resides on, but who wrote it and the author’s level of expertise in relation to the subject matter (more on this here).

Authorship Markup is an exciting development that should allow Google to be even more picky about the quality of content and

the validity of the opinions expressed.

DOES VISIBILITY MEAN CREDIBILITY ON THE WEB?

2© ICROSSING, INC., A HEARST COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

JUNE 2012

Google also recently announced the Knowledge Graph update. This update presents basic facts about a search query by summarizing

key information found across the web from sources such as Wikipedia, the CIA World Fact Book and other resources that Google

determines to be algorithmically credible. Rather than relying on one resource to gather these basic facts (as a consumer may do),

Google will fact-check across multiple resources and provide only those facts that are determined to be highly likely to be true

and verified across the web. Doing so gives people high-level information so that they can focus on more specific information and

details with the basic facts readily at hand and displayed directly within the search results. To some people searching the web, the

Knowledge Graph update may even help them choose better search results – because they can skip the sites only displaying basic

facts (such as Wikipedia) and go into more detailed research pieces and editorials.

To put it simply: one of the main goals of a search engine’s algorithm is to find credible websites on a particular keyword topic

and rank those sites higher. One can trust the sites that rank well as generally they exhibit the characteristics of a trustworthy site.

HOW CREDIBILITY INFLUENCES SOCIAL VISIBILITYSEO no longer lives in a vacuum. Social media both influences your search visibility and stands alone as a significant source of

traffic and branding. The big three players in social media – Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ – use a number of approaches to

ensure the most credible content is the most visible.

FACEBOOKFacebook uses the EdgeRank algorithm to determine how visible a brand’s post might be

in a person’s feed, as described here. The EdgeRank algorithm takes into effect how often

someone interacts with the page, such as liking, commenting or sharing posts, as well as how

often that person’s friends interact with that page. Being Facebook means building a large and

active fan base where friends and friends of friends go to leave comments and share and enjoy

the content you’re posting. If the content you’re posting isn’t credible (as deemed by other

people) or engaging, you’ll have low visibility within this network. Likewise, Bing is working

hard to translate Facebook credibility to search engine credibility with its new layout. So your

Facebook credibility will translate directly to Bing visibility for logged-in Facebook users.

TWITTERGaining followers and spreading your message in Twitter requires a lot of credibility. Most

Twitter users only want to follow the brands they find the most interesting and worthy of their

attention in a network that thrives in real time. Producing meaningful tweets that are connecting

with followers rather than shouting at them will ensure visibility in Twitter through the means of

retweets, mentions, and DMs.

DOES VISIBILITY MEAN CREDIBILITY ON THE WEB?

3© ICROSSING, INC., A HEARST COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

JUNE 2012

Credibility also determines the visibility of your PPC and Display Ads, primarily through what search engines judge as the

“Quality Score” of your ad. The Quality Score of your ad is largely determined by how relevant your landing page is, the historical

performance of that ad and keyword, and other signals of the credibility of your ad.

Smart search marketers optimize their campaigns to take advantage of the subject

areas for which their websites are most credible, as that credibility will translate into

lower costs and higher rank within their paid search campaigns.

Likewise, a well-designed display campaign will enhance credibility by building

brand awareness on topically-relevant websites, as well as reinforce your message

and authority to visitors who have visited you previously though retargeting. Google’s

Display Network goes one step further by allowing people to +1 display ads, bringing

social credibility to display and making your ads more effective when people publicly

approve of them in the form of a +1.

GOOGLE+Google+ offers a number of opportunities to translate your social media credibility into

enhanced visibility, both within Google+ as well as spanning across all Google products such

as Search and YouTube. Content you share on Google+ is likely to rank higher for logged-in

users via the “Search, plus Your World” feature in Google Search. And the level of interactions

you get (+1s, shares, and comments) translate directly into visibility within Google+. Likewise,

Google Authorship Markup may contribute as a ranking factor in the future, giving a boost in

visibility to more credible authors regardless of the domain to which they’re contributing. For

more information on the opportunities of Google+, check out The CMO’s Guide to Google+.

HOW CREDIBILITY INFLUENCES PPC AND DISPLAY VISIBILITY

WHEN DOES VISIBILITY NOT EQUAL CREDIBILITY (AND WHAT SHOULD WE DO)?Despite all of the ways that credibility translates into visibility, both within search and social media, sometimes visibility does not

equal credibility. When does visibility not mean credibility?

Very long tail searches: keywords with little competition provide opportunity for less credible websites to rank well, as the

websites they’re up against are generally weaker and even less credible. In the past, so-called content farms have taken advantage

of the low competition among long-tail keywords to generate traffic, but the Panda update in Google has cut down on this problem

significantly. Even still, ranking for a longer-tail keyword only requires you to be slightly more credible than the next person to win.

When prevailing wisdom is wrong: a common misconception, a smear campaign, or even hate-speech can sometimes rank

well in search engines if enough webmasters and bloggers are mobilized around the cause. As the saying goes, “not everything you

read on the Internet is true,” and we often experience examples of less-than-truthful content gaining popularity.

When credible sources take shortcuts: every newspaper, magazine or online journal has some articles that are particularly

well written, and other articles that may lack the rigorous investigation and fact checking a story deserves. This is especially true on

websites that cover a lot of ground, such as Wikipedia. While by and large a site like Wikipedia is full of great information, one would

be making a huge mistake to rely on Wikipedia alone to formulate an opinion on a complex issue. It’s important that consumers read

a variety of sources (perhaps including Wikipedia, but never just Wikipedia alone) to truly understand an issue.

When your search query is biased: search results are only as good as the keyword you enter into the search box – in other

words, “Garbage In, Garbage Out.” While search engines do their best to provide diverse and personalized results when the search

query is very broad, the search results can often be very generic and sometimes unhelpful to very broad keywords. Likewise,

keywords that have an inherent bias in them (for instance, searching for “why gun control is good” versus “why gun control is bad”)

will often return results that are equally as biased, as its presumed that’s what the searcher seeks.

DOES VISIBILITY MEAN CREDIBILITY ON THE WEB?

4© ICROSSING, INC., A HEARST COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

JUNE 2012

CONSUMERSExpanding your online research to include multiple resources and vantage points is an obvious first step. Many youth are

accustomed to citing multiple resources within a resource paper (in fact, many teachers in the United States require a certain

number of sources in a bibliography). The same concept should be applied to any research being done online. In fact, it’s even

more important to consult multiple resources when doing online research. Web content often does not have the same high

standards of editorial review and fact checking that printed text books or journal articles have, for instance.

MARKETERSFocusing on building credible content is critical. That advice is nothing new but is worth reiterating. Likewise, marketers can

uncover opportunities when they see low-quality content ranking well from authors who are not credible on the subject matter.

Rather than complaining that low-quality content is outranking you, re-examine your content and make it twice as credible,

twice as robust, and twice as useful. The visibility will follow. And if the particular content area you’re focused on is complex

and nuanced, you should remind your audience to consult multiple sources. You may even want to provide a list of additional

resources and related articles for your audience to check out and further educate themselves on the topic. Providing additional

resources will not only be helpful to people but will improve your credibility as an impartial resource that encourages your

audience to learn more.

HOW CREDIBILITY SHOULD FIT INTO YOUR DIGITAL MARKETINGYou should always make credibility a top priority across all channels. Being credible is essential to building

your brand. For consumers, knowing when to trust a resource as credible is essential to doing research

and learning. Credible content leads to greater visibility in search engines, social media, and even display

networks. Likewise, sustainable SEO requires true credibility. The kind of short cuts to credibility that some

websites take (e.g., buying links, using hidden content) work in the short-term at best. True credibility

produces benefits that endure both algorithm updates and the test of time. Credible and trustworthy sites

are also more likely to generate action – from something as simple as a retweet to as enduring as creating

a new lifetime customer. Any marketer can see that value in those outcomes.

STAY CONNECTEDFind out more at www.icrossing.com

Call us toll-free at 866.620.3780

Follow us on twitter @icrossing and @thecontentlab

Become a fan at facebook.com/icrossing

When your social network is biased: as search engines use your Google+ and Facebook networks to personalize results, it

is possible that your results will become biased towards websites and articles that your friends like. If you tend to associate with

people who are similar to yourself, your social network may bias your search results towards content that like-minded individuals

enjoy, rather than a more diverse set of opposing opinions and viewpoints.