Last month, I had the pleasure of attending several sessions during Social Media Week #SMWDC. The session with the most valuable lessons was entitled SEO & Social Media: A Winning Strategy. 

We all know by now that it's important to make ourselves discoverable on the internet. And we're smart enough to understand that one like or retweet does not necessarily translate into profit. But how do we maximize our online potential? Some of the answers might surprise you.

There are two keys to online visibility these days: Search Engine Optimization (#SEO) and Social Media. The key to establishing the best online presence for your #localgov is finding where they intersect.

After some review of the basics. a more in-depth discussion of SEO revealed some more detailed strategies, based on recent updates to Google's search algorithm, called Google Panda and Google Penguin. The two updates created more sophisticated and refined ways to find content, based on quality and authority.

Low-quality Content:

Duplicate content (articles or posts that appear on multiple sites)

Shallow content (content that is designed and written only for SEO, and not for the site user)

Fake blogs (blogs that people pay to post on)

No contact info (a site which asks for money but does not provide any sort of contact information)

Code Errors

Too many ads (especially home pages that have ads above the fold--meaning, in view before the user scrolls down)

Duplicate content is not always a bad thing; people will want to see relevant information. But if your site is solely based on non-original content, the sites from which that content originated will be more likely to be higher in search results than yours. For example, the Knowledge Network's Documents section is largely made up of content that users have submitted from their own local governments or other businesses. However, there is also a significant amount of original ICMA content in Documents, and other parts of the Knowledge Network (such as Questions) contain plenty of unique material.

Shallow content is anything that is written with tons of buzzwords that are supposed to make the content more discoverable by search engines. It's not hard to avoid this problem; just make sure after you've written something that it looks like something a human being would read. If I'm writing about how synergy can maximize profits and how there's no I in team when we're cooperating to fight for a common goal, I sound ridiculous. Instead, I should talk about the ways different departments of my organization have contributed to our success. As with duplicate content, the use of strong keywords is often necessary in moderation, however over-use can hurt your visibility.

High-quality Content:

Unique content

Domain history (sites that have been up for a long time are more discoverable)

A brand name (a reputable name that people can immediately recognize when viewing your content)

Validated and accessible code

Content createdfor people, not search engines

Authoritative content checklist:

Would you trust the information presented?

Is it written by an expert/enthusiast who knows the topic well?

Is the site a recognized authority?

Is the site worth sharing?

SEO is also driven by linking. If you provide links in your posts, it will show that you are commited to quality content, rather than just site traffic. Links to other sites can show your commitment to quality; while it may seem counterintuitive at first to direct users away from your site, it can both show Google that your intentions are to help your users, and it also increases the chances that the sites you link your content to will link some of their content back to yours. Do not, however, look to link things just for the sake of linking (each of those links directs to a Google search for that word), as it will have the same effect on the quality of your writing as the issue of including too many keywords. 

A good example of linking in a blog can be if you are writing about an event in your city. You can link your city's homepage, the sites for the event and the event's host (if they exist), and a couple of links to Twitter searches for hashtags you are trying to promote, such as #localgov or #Healthcare. If other things worth linking come up in your post, then you should include the links; just don't force anything.

Similar to over-linking, over-optimizing can be a serious issue. Too many site tags can show Google that you're trying too hard to optimize your content. A perfect example of that is the Knowledge Network's Topics and Other Tags. While tagging is very important for visibility both throughout the Knowledge Network and search engines in general, too many tags can arouse suspiscion from the Google algorithms. The perfect number of topic tags on the Knowledge Network is 3-5.

Here's where social media comes in. Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and LinkedIn are the biggest drivers of site traffic on the internet, and your content appearing on these sites will lead to a big increase in your visibility. And the more your content is shared by authoritative users, the better it is for your visibility and search engine stock; @ladygaga is the most popular person on Twitter, with over 35 million followers. One share of your content by her, and you'll see a huge jump in your search engine results. 

Now, we can't all expect Lady Gaga to retweet every single item we put on the internet. But it is important to create content that seems worthwhile for a person of her popularity to deem worthy of retweeting. Which brings us back to the need to avoid shallow, over-optimized content. 

In short, the goals of SEO and Social Media are very similar. In order to guarantee the best results, we must ensure cooperation and teamwork in both ventures, and have a unified strategy for both.