Social Search Optimization – Case Study

RSS feeds make it easy for third parties to syndicate your content, creating high-quality inbound links to your website. Because inbound links are the primary determinant of page rank, RSS feeds can significantly improve your search engine ranking. In 2009, RSS feeds became even more important after a well-known secret became public knowledge: Google uses RSS feeds for page discovery and rank. Now that leading search engines incorporate Twitter tweets and Facebook updates into their real-time search results, it’s even more critical that your company syndicate content to web and social sites if you want to be discovered and win on keywords.

  Business Challenge: Improve Search Ranking
Orvis, a leading sporting goods and apparel retailer, wanted to improve its search engine rankings – and extend its connection with customers beyond its website – by publishing content based on business rules to RSS feeds and Twitter.

  Solution: Quick, Cost-Effective Content Syndication
Using SimpleFeed, Orvis automatically pulls in web and data-feed content and then publishes it to RSS subscribers. Customers get information on new and discounted products as well as up-to-date fishing reports. SimpleFeed also publishes targeted Orvis product content to Twitter via the Twitter API.

  Results: Boost in Marketing Efficacy and Search Ranking
Not only is Orvis reaching new customers, its content has been syndicated by Fly Fishing enthusiast sites. The company has gained one-to-many marketing distribution points and high-quality inbound links that improve its search results (see image 1). Since Orvis started publishing to Twitter, its products appear in emerging real-time search results for leading search engines (see images 2-4).

Image 1: The True North Fly Fishing blog syndicates Orvis content.

Image 2: Orvis content published to RSS.

Image 3: Orvis publishes content to Twitter.

Image 3: Same Orvis content appears in Google Real-Time Search.