How We’re Boosting SEO for a FTSE 100 Company

Posted on 23. Mar, 2009 by in Social Media Strategies

Boosting SEO Using Social Media - a case study by Real Fresh TV

Last week I had a very interesting request from a London-based Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) company.

The company, a well-respected search engine marketing agency called Greenlight requested that I placed a link to two Alliance & Leicester financial products on the bottom of the entry for Alliance & Leicester in this site’s study of social media usage amongst FTSE 100 companies.

The Greenlight representative was also kind enough to offer to compensate me for my trouble.

Now this can only mean one thing.   That blog post is generating some significant traffic for Alliance & Leicester and is now worth a link back to their products and services.

My initial reaction was: I better get on with adding company reviews to the study of FTSE 100 companies using social media!

I have to admit, my enthusiasm for that particular series of articles has waned somewhat; I don’t find them the most inspiring blog articles to write.  But that’s another story…

That request got me thinking though and it would seem like now’s a good time to make more of an effort especially as the BBC is reporting that today’s new appointment on the stock index is a ‘watershed moment for British business’.

In the interests of transparency, I decided to do some quick Twitter research on Greenlight’s request.

I’ve heard of blogs being penalised for paid links within blog posts and after over a year’s worth of articles on the Real Fresh TV site and a respectable and growing PageRank of 4, I don’t really want to do anything to incur the wrath of the Google.

So I put out a quick tweet asking:

“What do you think? OK to accept money to link a FTSE 100 company’s services to their profile on the Real Fresh TV blog? They asked…nicely”

And the responses were positive:

@groovegenerator  (aka David Bird, a senior lecturer in Digital Marketing at Manchester Metropolitan University) tweeted back to say:

@realfreshtv It’s an advert that pays for your site: there’s no recommendation implication is there?

@bookofthefuture, “Gadget lover, pie eater, modern marketer, and happy husband” according to his Twitter profile had this to say:

@realfreshtv linking services to blog doesn’t sound immoral. FTSE 100s spending anything in this market is a win!

So there you have it.   The people have spoken.

The links to Alliance & Leicester services on the the Alliance  & Leicester profile will go up shortly.  I’m still talking business with Greenlight(!)

If you represent a company currently featured in the study and would like a similar arrangement, contact me.

If you think this is all a bit shady, please share why you think so in the comments!

In the mean time, I’d like to put this question to you, dear reader.

What would you like me to cover in forthcoming reviews of FTSE 100 companies ‘doing social media’.

I figure a reader request will make the articles a lot more fun for me to write.

Should I start tracking ownership of Twitter accounts for company employees, for example?

Share your thoughts in the comments.

Photo Credit: Web Solution Centre

Related posts:

  1. Social Media Usage in the FTSE 100: Company Profile – Alliance and Leicester
  2. Social Media Usage amongst FTSE 100 companies: Anglo-American to AMEC
  3. Social Media Usage in the FTSE 100: Company Profile – Alliance Trust
  4. Social Media Usage in the FTSE 100: Company Profile – BT Group
  5. Social Media Usage in the FTSE 100: Company Profile – BHP Billiton

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  • http://www.pr-media-blog.co.uk Jon Clements

    Chi-Chi
    Hi – some questions from me…if you can get at the answers…

    1. Which department(s) in the companies are driving social media activity and why?
    2. Does it have board level buy-in?
    3. How are the company lawyers responding to it?
    4. How much social media expertise is being bought in from agencies and how much is internal?
    5. How are they measuring its effectiveness?

  • http://www.realfresh.tv Chi-chi Ekweozor

    @Jon Clements:

    Wow, pretty long list you’ve got there.

    I’ve compiled each company profile in the study from publicly available info online; there hasn’t yet been a case where a company has provided any direct info about their activity in this space.

    When I come across cases that do, I will contact the company and field those questions.

    Will let you know when I do so… probably via Twitter.

    Thanks for the comment. Pretty challenging!

  • http://www.pr-media-blog.co.uk Mark Hanson

    interesting that they’ve contacted you yet they aren’t actually doing anything in this space, except presumably SEO – do you think they’ve just got a really pro-active SEO agency?

  • http://www.realfresh.tv Chi-chi Ekweozor

    You’re absolutely right, Mark. I think their SEO agency is incredibly pro-active.

    As far as I’m aware, they aren’t doing anything in the social media space…

    Thanks for your comment.

  • http://blog.ecairn.com laurent

    Social media changes the rule of the game for SEO because brands are talked about potentially everywhere and search engine taps where relevance is so optimizing your properties isn’t enough now. Indeed the proportion of blogs returned in SERPs is increasing and I read that 80% access to video comes from blog.
    My guess is that Social Ecosystem Optimization(tm) will become a new discipline where you optimize so that brands make influencers like them and make people who like them more influential ($ may make this task interesting as people will try to abuse it). oops looks like the acronym is also SEO.

  • http://www.realfresh.tv Chi-chi Ekweozor

    “Social Ecosystem Optimization(tm) will become a new discipline where you optimize so that brands make influencers like them and make people who like them more influential”

    Interesting… @Laurent…

    I’m not sure how “brands can make influencers like them” but I do think the practice of optimising 3rd party properties as favourably as possible for brands will become more common place.

    Time will tell how that will pan out. The ethics of either party is certainly something that will come under scrutiny.

    Thanks for your comment!

  • http://www.sunny-kumar.blogspot.com Music Information and Resources

    I know this isn’t the main problem but a SEO contest without rules is what you have to check twice. All the bad result could be happened days toward. Such as hacking, black hat seo, spamming, cheating, and many more.