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Widgets are appearing all over the web, offering new applications, different ways to access content, and some great marketing and SEO opportunities -- what's not always clear is whether a widget is an asset or liability to your site in terms of search optimization, or how to build widgets that are SEO-beneficial to your subscribers' sites. To help answer these questions, we'll tackle the following topics in detail:
This paper is a collaborative effort between Shawn Butler of MassPublisher.com and Nick Urbani of eBoost Consulting. For more information about us and our companies, click here.
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What the Heck Is a (Web) Widget? |
A web widget is just an application you can embed in your website. Google AdSense widgets are probably the most familiar web widget, showing up on thousands of websites around the world. YouTube videos can also be added to websites as widgets. Other examples include everything from basic Facebook and Twitter badges to entire events and jobs pages from portals like Eventful and Indeed. Here are some examples, which are defined in more detail in the next section:
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Google AdSense widgets are advertising bars or banners that you can drop in your site to drive revenues. This is an example of an Ad Widget, one of the earliest and most widely adopted types of widgets on the internet. |
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Google Maps are another example, allowing simple embeds of an interactive map for your business. Maps and other such applications are examples of Content Widgets. |
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Facebook Badges are small widgets used to drive traffic back to Facebook. This badge shows that the author is a fan of West Coast Green, and is one type of Marketing Widget. |
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Twitter Feed Widgets show recent posts on Twitter, and allow viewers to click on individual Tweets to add their own comments. This is another Marketing Widget -- and also shows how marketing and content widgets overlap. |
Some of the major characteristics of widgets are that they are or can be:
- Shareable. This means that a viewer can usually grab the widget's "embed code" and drop the widget onto their website. And then another user viewing that site can grab the same code and embed the widget on their site, and so on. This is what makes widgets truly viral. Ad widgets like Clearspring's "Snaggable Ads" are shareable, but unlike marketing widgets, most ad widgets do not have user-embedding options.
- User Customizable. It's often possible to pick the size, color and other features of a widget when getting the embed code, so that the widget fits in your site and doesn't look out of place.
- Interactive. Because the widget is a dynamic application, it can include everything from a regularly updated RSS feed to an interactive quiz.
There are of course many other characteristic features of widgets, none of which are required or truly define what a widget is or can do. Barring some real security and privacy issues, widgets can do just about anything you want. Perhaps the only defining element is that they manifest through some sort of embed code (even if that code is not visible to users). According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_widget):
"a web widget is a portable chunk of code that can be installed and executed within any separate HTML-based web page by an end user without requiring additional compilation… Other terms used to describe web widgets include: gadget, badge, module, webjit, capsule, snippet, mini and flake. Web widgets usually but not always use DHTML, JavaScript, or Adobe Flash."
And that brings us to how widgets are created. The most common widgets are JavaScript and Flash widgets, which are just the languages in which they're written or embedded. Widgetbox.com, for instance, produces some great Flash widgets, and they can be embedded using JavaScript or Flash object code. The use of Flash, JavaScript and other client-side solutions has a strong potential impact on widget SEO, and will be discussed in more detail below.
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Major Types of Widgets |
We'll discuss three major types of widgets -- ad widgets, marketing widgets and content widgets -- but in reality the "type" of widget is just a question of perspective. Your marketing widget might be a mortgage calculator that links back to your bank or lending company, but it's a valuable content widget on someone else's home buyers' resource site. For our purposes these widgets are defined by their intended function on your site:
- Ad Widgets are defined as widgets whose primary function is to drive revenue for your site on some sort of pay-per-click or other model. Your site's visitors come for the content, then click on the ads (ad widgets) displayed next to the content. Most search engines try to ignore advertising (or at least their own advertising) on pages, so ad widgets have little or no SEO impact and won't be discussed much further. Common examples are Google's AdSense banners and Clearspring's Snaggable Ads.
- Marketing Widgets are widgets designed to bring traffic back to your site using a free viral distribution and click-through model, unlike the paid models of ad widgets. Marketing widgets include social network badges (e.g., MySpace buttons), calculators and feed headlines (e.g., NewsGator widgets). These widgets may contain valuable content that could contribute to your users' sites' SEO, and generate backlinks to your site that is vital to your SEO. This is discussed in the next section.
- Content Widgets are any part of the "content" of your web page, and may even be the entire page. These include third-party marketing widgets, but they also include widgets like, say, entire glossaries and resource lists with no discernable links back to the host site—they are simply reusable content applications provided for a fee or other purposes by a third party, or hosted on a widget CMS like MassPublisher.
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The Design Perspective:
Building SEO-Friendly Widgets |
So you sit down one day and think, "I'm going to build a widget. Thousands of users will put my widget in their site and see my logo. My backlink count will skyrocket. It'll be awesome!" So you build it, and it's popular at first, but then host site webmasters complain that search engines can't see parts of it, and you get blacklisted by Google for doing something "black hat," whatever that means, and your whole site vanishes from search rankings. This is bad.
And it's actually possible if your widget, well, sucks. There are two basic ways you can imbue your widget with suckiness from a search engine perspective. These are:
- If widget content is not visible to search engines
This happens when widets are not SEO optimized by both design and implementation
- If widget loads very slowly
A small delay may be okay, but not if it really impacts page load times
There is a very important third issue that is even worse, and that is if widget content is misleading. This happens if, say, the widget's links trick users into coming to your site when they thought they were getting a free latte on Starbucks.com. However, this is less about widget design than implementation, and is left to the next section.
So let's talk about how to build widgets that play nice with search engines, and avoid both of these design problems.
1.a. Content Visible to Search Engines—The Major SEO Consideration
Search engines are scanning the internet for your stuff. To find it, index it, and rank it, they need to be able to see and understand your site quickly.
Unlike static HTML, which is visible to search engines pretty much as written, widgets are dynamic applications. This means the stuff in the widget is not the same as the stuff on the page that launches the widget and makes it appear in your page. We'll call the first stuff widget content, the second stuff widget embed code. Good widget SEO is about making both visible to search engines in a simple, consistent way.
Make sure your Widget doesn't hide your Content -- by Michael Marshall
One of the most important issues with SEO friendly widgets is the technology used for the widget itself. Most web-based widgets use one of the following technologies (sometimes a combination of these): JavaScript/HTML, Flash, or iFrames. The most important question is whether these technologies will allow you to deliver content in a manner that the search engines can access and/or will index. You may be restricted to having only the content in the widget's embed HTML code accessible and indexed by the search engines.
It is important to understand the server-side and client-side aspects of a web page. Confusion or ignorance on this topic leads to many unwitting mistakes or faulty assumptions on the part of webmasters or web marketers.
- One example of an unwitting mistake occurs when a webmaster finds an RSS feed containing useful information and plans to display it on their blog or web page to include new content that is relevant and fresh. In principle, this is a very good move because search engines like more relevant and fresh content and so do your visitors to your site.
However, in many cases the implementation for including that content is done using some short block of JavaScript code. Your visitors will see it, but the search engines will not because the relevant content is dynamically generated in the browser after the page loads (client-side). What the search engine sees is content rendered on the server-side, what you can see when you click the view source option on a browser.
A good rule of thumb is if you don't see it in view-source, the search engines don't count it as part of your content.
- One example of a faulty assumption is when you click on the cached link for a search result in Google to see what Google has currently in its index from its last crawl of that page. It is often assumed that everything you see in your browser is what Google has in its index for that page.
However, if there is any client-side scripting on that page (JavaScript, ActiveX, etc.), whatever it generates will also be rendered on the page but that client-side generated content is not part of what is in Google's index.
Not everything you see on the page from the cached link is actually what Google has in its index for that page.
Therefore, if your widget uses client-side technologies or implementation and you want to be sure that the search engine sees your widget content or link, you'll need to put it in static embed HTML code for that widget (or in NOSCRIPT tags when using JavaScript).
Ideally, you can use server-side implementation to avoid these problems altogether. Technologies such as PHP, ASP, and so on would be just right for the job. You could also consider "native" plug-ins for WordPress, Joomla, and other blogging platforms as a method for creating your widget. This would also improve the adoption rate for your widget. |
To restate Michael Marshall's point, don't assume that what you see in the widget is indexed by search engines. If a client-side widget technology like JavaScript or Flash is used, the search engine may not see anything other than the widget embed code. This can be partially overcome using SEO-targeted static HTML or NOSCRIPT embed code, but an ideal solution is a server-side widget implementation that makes all widget content visible to search engines.
| Options |
Widget Architecture |
Details |
| 1 - Worst |
Client-side |
Content not visible to search engines |
| 2 - Better |
Client-side + Static SEO Code |
Search engines see content in static code |
| 3 - Best |
Server-side |
Search engines see content in widget |
| 4 - Silly? |
Server-side + Static SEO Code |
Redundant visible content in SEO code & widget |
It may seem like Option 4, where you have both static and dynamic information visible to search engines, is the best option -- but the duplicated information is of little value and you lose the ability to fully update the widget remotely (once embedded, you can always update what's in your widget, but the embed code on other sites never changes unless manually replaced). Still, this may be worth the risk in the case of keywords (see the Keyword Rich Content consideration, below).
And while Option 3 is the best solution overall, it's not perfect; widgets sometimes have multiple internal pages or tabs. The content on these other internal pages probably won't improve your SEO, because search engines can't follow internal links regardless of the widget's design.
On a final note, Michael Marshall wisely suggests rotation of backlink anchor text (in server-side widgets where link is visible) and overall embed content for client-side widgets. This is ideal if you have the widget architecture to do it and the time to implement, but is not necessary if the backlink is to an established brand and domain (e.g., adobe.com/flash) rather than a less established or variable landing page.
Best Practices
- Use server-side widgets that are designed to make content visible to search engines
- And if possible, use server-side widgets that rotate backlink anchor text if link is not to established domain or brand
- If you can't use server-side widgets, use client-side widgets with static SEO embed / NOSCRIPT code
- And if possible, use client-side widgets that allow for rotation of embed code
- In either case, remember than other tabs and pages in the widget are invisible to search engines
- Do NOT use the static embed code to make search engines think the widget is about something it's not, or that it links to a site it doesn't. This can get you banned from search engines entirely.
Warning
- Pure server-side widgets are not nearly as easy to embed as client-side widgets, making them less than optimal for some backlink SEO strategies. We talk about this more here.
1.b. Keywords Visible to Search Engines
This overlaps greatly with the overall content visibility issue, in that you want to make sure your content is as visible as possible -- and keywords are part of that content. However, if there is one place where it may seem like you want to use static embed code to include content that's already visible to search engines in your speedy server-side widget, it's with keywords. As long as you plan to keep the widget content aligned with statically embedded keywords, this should help overall SEO, right? Well, maybe.
There are two real dangers here. The first is that if keywords in the static SEO code are fundamentally different from those in your widget content, search engines may interpret this as a blackhat effort to mislead users and/or search engines. This can result in blacklisting -- the worst possible outcome. The second danger is that even if keywords are thematically aligned but different in the widget vs. the static code, search engines may still see this as keyword stuffing and penalize you. So unless you're very sure what you're doing, it's a good idea not to use additional keywords in static SEO code when keywords are already visible to search engines in server-side widgets.
Best Practices
- Use keywords in static SEO code for client-side widgets (only)
- Do NOT use keywords in static embed code with ANY widget if the keywords do not correspond to the widget's content.
- Do NOT use thematically similar keywords in static embed code with server-side widgets if this could be interpreted as keyword stuffing by search engines
2. Widgets that Load Quickly
Nobody likes to sit around and watch web pages load. Turns out, search engines don't like it either. Matt Cutts recently confirmed that Google may start to consider page speed in search engine results page (SERP) rankings in 2010. Widgets embedded in your pages may be included in overall page load time, and that means they need to be fast.
Having said that, client-side widgets (e.g., the standard JavaScript or Flash widgets) load independently of page load, so they have no impact on page load speed -- at least as far as search engines are concerned. Server-side widgets, which we suggest using for SEO purposes for content widgets, are included in page load times. So if you're going to use server-side widgets, make sure they're fast.
Best Practice
- Avoid slow server-side widgets. They increase page load times and may hurt your SEO
More Info
Five Things to Consider in your Widget Strategy -- by Lawrence Coburn
Widgets need to be built first and foremost to meet the needs of the host site. The best widgets, like YouTube, provide value to both the host site, and to the readers / users of that site. In order for widgets to propagate, they need to be compelling enough for the host site to take the time to implement them.
Before embarking on your widget powered linkbuilding strategy, here are a few best practices to keep in mind.
- Content / Experience
Simplicity, freshness, and self expression are three proven characteristics for winning widgets. If your widget features multiple tabs, it is unlikely that anyone will ever click those tabs. If your widget's content never changes, it is likely to be ripped out quickly (if it was ever added to begin with); Analytics, polls, and vanity widgets are three types that tend to propagate.
- Accessibility
It sounds like a no brainer, but make sure that you choose a format for your widget that works for the demographic you are trying to reach. If blogs are important to you, make sure the widget format you choose works on the major blog platforms like TypePad, WordPress, and Blogger. If you have a widget that will be used primarily in blog sidebars, make sure it fits in a blog sidebar.
- Customization
Every widgetmaster will have to navigate the tightrope between making their widget easy to grab, and providing widget customization options such as colors, styles, dimensions, and customized output code for each of the primary destination sites. Ajax preview tools will help your users visualize what their widget will look like before taking the time copy and paste it in.
- Sharing
In terms of viral marketing, this is the big one. When someone sees your widget on another site, how easy do you make it for them to grab it and put it on their own site? Do you force them to click through to your site to grab the code? Do you force them to click through and register (shudder)? Can you grab the code right from the body of the widget (recommended)? Don't feel like you need to reinvent the wheel here -- make use of companies like Clearspring and Gigya to add best in class sharing tools to your widgets.
- Branding
If the primary goal of your widget campaign is to acquire back links, you should brand lightly or not at all. There's nothing worse than a widget that looks like an ad.
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The Marketing Perspective:
Using Widgets to Drive Linkbuilding |
When you build a widget for your site, the widget plays three distinct roles on the landing page where it's hosted. First, it's content on that page. This is covered in more detail in the next section. Second, it's linkbait for your site (it brings users to the site to grab the widget or to see where the widget was published). This is often the reason the widget is created in the first place. However, it is the third role that is most important for this discussion – that of the widget as a core part of your SEO link building strategy.
1. Why Link building?
With the majority of corporate marketers planning to increase their spending in SEO, link building is rising higher on the agenda.
But maybe not as high as it should be. Among corporate marketer conversations at conferences and conference rooms, most of the discussion surrounds page titles, URLs, information architecture, and keyword rich content.
According to over 70 SEO experts, however, in the 2009 SEOmoz Search Engine Ranking Factors survey 66% of the overall ranking algorithm and 4 out of the top 5 ranking factors are link building related.
In a poker game of SEO, optimized code and keyword rich content is what you have to ante to stay in the game, but linkbuilding is where you rake in the pot.
And as competition for keywords gets more intense as those 55% of marketers increase their spending in SEO initiatives, link builders will have their day as the office super hero.
Referring to SEOmoz's keyword difficulty scale, as you move to more difficult keywords requirements increase from moderate link strength, substantial link strength, robust link strength, and to overwhelming link strength. As marketers invest more in SEO, keywords will become more difficult to optimize for pushing younger, smaller websites with light link strength off the first page. There's a ceiling to how far you can push onsite optimization, but the amount of authority a site can have from quality link building is open ended. Highly optimized on-page content will become the norm, if it hasn't already, so linkbuilding is where the best of the best will duke it out.
There are several ways search engines value links, some of which are in our control more than others. For the cross-functional corporate marketer I think 4 are worth your time:
- Anchor Text
Anchor text is the words used in a link. For example, in the following link: internet marketing speaker, the anchor text is "internet marketing speaker." It was voted as the number one ranking factor in SEOmoz's Search Engine Ranking Factors and is prioritized in Larry Page and Sergey Brin's original Stanford paper on "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine."
- Number of Links
We're all aware that the number of links matters. More links, the better. The question is: which linkbuilding tactics can I use to scale my limited linkbuilding resources to build hundreds or thousands of links? Later on, we'll discuss the scalability of using widgets in linkbuilding.
- Authority of Links
We're also aware that the quality of links matter. The old quality over quantity mantra applies in search engine rankings as well. PageRank and its equivalents at other search engines is the easiest way to understand the authority an individual page has. PageRank is a score assigned to each URL on a logarithmic scale of 0 to 10. So a "6" is roughly 8-10 times better than a "5." Very simply, the higher the PageRank of a linking page, the more impact it will have on your search engine rankings. The authority of the domain linking to your site versus the authority of the individual page linking to your site can be equally important in determining the value of a link. While there isn't a defined metric for domain authority like PageRank for individual pages, but it most likely includes the common sense metrics like link popularity, trustworthiness, and possibly age of the domain. To compare domain authority between sites, use OpenSiteExplorer.org for a relative metric:
- Domain Diversity
The number of different domains linking to your site is ranked as the #3 ranking factor in SEOMoz's Search Engine Ranking Factors survey. It is very difficult to manipulate this metric through SEO tricks. Typically, to get a large diversity of domains linking a website will need valuable, funny, controversial, newsworthy, useful, or entertaining content. For this reason, good domain diversity has a high correlation with strong rankings.
Widget SEO and Backlinks -- by Laura Lippay
Backlinks generated from widgets can help SEO efforts when generated correctly; Using keywords in links, linking to deeper landing pages, using keyword variants, and most importantly, having links that are crawlable and live on the host domain (meaning iFrames might not be as effective since the link will actually come from your own domain).
The way search engines see it, inlinks are like votes. Inlinks from your own domain to your pages are votes for yourself, and inlinks from other domains are like votes for you from other people (usually slightly more valuable). Additionally, keyword-rich links help search engines determine the context of the page that the link is pointing to.
For example, if I link to a page on a news site using the term 'Haiti earthquake', I'm telling the search engines this page that I'm pointing to is about the Haiti earthquake, which helps them put context around that page's content and make it more relevant to searches for the Haiti earthquake.
These two factors are why having crawlable keyword-rich links in widgets that your visitors pick up and put on their pages can be valuable for SEO. |
2. Why Use Widgets for Linkbuilding?
- Scalability
Once you create the widget the marginal cost of obtaining an additional link is zero to nominal -- a good tactic for resource constrained marketing departments.
- Anchor Text
The creator of the widget controls the anchor text and can use target keywords. Use your anchor text wisely. For limitations, read on about "What Google Has Said about Using Widgets for Linkbuilding."
- Target Page
The creator of the widget controls the target page of the link as well. The opportunity here is to link to pages deep within your site that wouldn't normally get link love. Use the same caution with anchor text here.
Widgets and Linkbuilding – by Lawrence Coburn
Widgets are an unusually powerful link building tool due to three factors:
- The widget creator has control over the anchor text (embed code)
- A well executed widget can propagate quickly resulting in hundreds or thousands of organic backlinks
- Widgets tend to show up in the sidebar of blogs, which can mean tens or hundreds of links for every embedded widget
Once you have designed a widget that is compelling, accessible, customizable, shareable, and well designed, it's time to turn your eye to the backlinks.
- Format
Of the three most popular widget formats -- HTML, Flash, and JavaScript -- only HTML widgets are indexed by search engines. So if you put your backlink in the body of your Flash or JavaScript widget, it's not going to help your SEO. The simple solution is to append some bare HTML to your Flash or JavaScript embed code.
Most users aren't advanced enough to know how to delete the backlink HTML without breaking the widget. And of those that are advanced enough, most won't -- if you are providing a compelling widget, most bloggers and webmasters will be happy to link to you.
- Anchor Text and Linking
Once again, widget-powered linking is one of the few opportunities you'll ever get to have total control over the destination and anchor text that point in your direction. Don't be afraid to programmatically alter the anchor text that appears in each widget. Deep linking is also encouraged.
The one heads-up here is to try and keep your links related to the content that appears in the widget -- search engines don't take kindly to off-topic footer links, whether they appear on a web page or at the bottom of a widget.
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3. What Does Google Have to Say About Using Widgets for Linkbuilding?
Since Google is the reason we're here in the first place, let's review what Google has said about using widgets for linkbuilding. In this case, when we say Google we mean Matt Cutts. Matt is head of the Webspam team for Google, has his name listed on many of Google's patents, and is the de facto Google representative to the SEO industry. So when he talks we listen.
Here are the interviews, videos, and written accounts of what Matt has said about using widgets for linkbuilding in chronological order.
Would you like us to read and watch all of this and then give you just what you really need to know? Thought so:
- Keep It Relevant
Don't make widgets with irrelevant content. Keep it on topic with your business, your industry, your customers and closely related topics. A widget showing the most unbelievable sports injuries of all time that links to a mortgage website will not do. Similarly, make sure your link points to a relevant page.
Your best bet is link to the page where other people can grab the widget, which you've strategically placed in your information architecture. Just don't link to an unrelated website where the widget code doesn't reside. Keep the anchor text descriptive of the site and page you're linking too and user friendly. It's okay to include a relevant keyword, but don't keyword stuff.
- Keep Links Visible and Recognizable
Google wants the person using your widget to know that they are linking and what they are linking to. Use text links when you can. Links as clickable images are okay.
- Keep It Optional
Make it clear that the person embedding the widget is subsequently linking to your site. Either let them know the link is mandatory to use the widget or give them the option to remove the link. Google prefers giving the user the option.
- Keep It to One
Don't use more than one link. An exception is an additional link that is helpful and follows the above guidelines. Vimeo includes two links: 1. With the title of the video and 2. A link to Vimeo's homepage.
Make sure your links are optimized -- by Michael Marshall
When you include links in your widget, make sure they are keyword rich. Include the terms or keyphrases in the link text (mydomain.com keyphrase1 keyphrase2 blah blah blah link text) that are important for your SEO strategy. Make sure that the page you link to is related to the keyphrase in the link text. You also want to have a good amount of variation in your link text.
Have a number of keyphrase-optimized link text options and either randomize which ones display or be intentional about how they are organized/distributed in the link text (example distribution: 60% primary keyphrase(s), 30% secondary keyphrase(s), 10% tertiary keyphrase(s))
If you are restricted to static embedded HTML for SEO friendly content in your widget, you will need to figure a way to randomize the embed HTML code generation when instructions for your widget are given to prospective content publishers. When each user receives the code and instructions for using your widget, they will have different links as part of the generated embed HTML code.
It is also a good idea to have a means of tracking referrers from your widget so that you can measure which keywords (and publishers) bring you the best and most traffic. |
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The Conflict?
On-Page SEO vs. Backlink SEO |
Okay, so those of you who've been paying attention may have noticed a conflict between the Design and the Marketing sections above. If you're building widgets to be content on your site or your subscribers' sites, then on-page SEO is paramount and backlink SEO is secondary. If the widget is a core part of your backlink strategy, then virality and simplicity may trump on-page SEO.
The on-page SEO best practice is to use server-sidewidgets so that widget content is visible to search engines. What we mentioned only in passing is that server-sidewidgets can't be dropped on web pages as easily as client-side widgets. In some cases, you'll need admin-level access to properly embed the server-wide widget -- and most CMSs don't give users this level of access.
This means that a server-side-only widget can really slow down widget adoption by subscribers, and that means fewer backlinks and worse off-site SEO.
There is no ideal technical solution to this conflict today -- search engines just need to get better at searching widgets. But you can get close by building widgets that allow for both client- and server-side embedding, and let the user choose what's best for them. Less technical users will choose the client-side(default) embed option. Advanced users may choose the server-side option. Widget platforms like MassPublisher support this option out-of-the-box for all widgets.
| Best Widget Architecture for SEO Redux |
| Option Best for... |
Widget Architecture |
Details |
| 1 - Backlink SEO |
Client-side + Static SEO Code |
More viral, but less visible to search engines |
| 2 - On-Page SEO |
Server-side |
Visible to search engines, but harder to embed |
| 3 - Both |
Client+Server-side |
Most users choose client embed, others use server code |
So while best practices depend on your widget strategy, you can get close to optimizing for both strategies using widgets that allow client- and server-side embedding. For simplicity, the client-side embedding option should be the default.
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Widget Examples |
This Widget SEO Whitepaper
This MassPublisher widget includes both client- and server-side embedding options, modular themes, configurable sizing, sharing and other features. It's also a good example of a content widget because it clearly will not fit in your sidebar -- and is intended to be the main content of the page. Embedding is optional for content widgets like this, as they're often used for simplicity of publishing rather than their viral sharing features. Regardless, the server-side nature of this widget makes its content visible to search engines. |
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Urbanspoon Spin Widget
Urbanspoon is a favorite restaurant review and rating site. Its widget below is very similar to its iPhone app, which allows you to lock in a neighborhood, type of food, and/or a price range to help you design where to eat. Notice the text link back to www.urbanspoon.com strengthening the sites domain authority every time it's embedded. |
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CBSSports.com: NCAA Basketball News
The CBSSports.com widget provides up to date NCAA college basketball news. The title at the top of the widget, “CBSSports.com: NCAA Basketball News” has targeted anchor text pointed to www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball. |
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The Caffeine Test
The Caffeine Test widget starts off as game to see how many times you can click your mouse button in 30 seconds. Once you’re finished it creates a badge showing your caffeine level. It’s a creative way to build links if you’re a coffee company or selling a product with speed as a value proposition. Unfortunately, the website is an online dating site and it's unclear to the user that when they embed the badge that they will be linking to this site. Great format and content, but irrelevant to what its promoting and therefore outside of Matt Cutt’s guidance on using widgets. |
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Zillow Real Estate Statistics Chart Widget
Zillow’s widget pictured here allows you to create custom graphs based upon home values, listing prices, etc for any city. Perfect for real estate blogs and realtor websites. Optimized with target anchor text to the appropriate page on Zillow’s site. |
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The Entire Panera Glendale Website
Every page on this website is a MassPublisher widget. Why is a question for another whitepaper, but because every widget is rendered in an SEO-friendly manner, the entire site behaves exactly like a non-widgetized website. This is an example of content widgets used not only as some website content, but all of it. You'll also notice that even though the pages are widgets, none of the embed code is exposed to users. In this sense, these content widgets are like advertising widgets -- only the creator has access to the embed code. |
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Best Practices for Widgets and SEO:
Summary |
So, that was a whole bunch of stuff. To get down to the grit of it, here is a quick summary of SEO best practices for widgets.
The Design Perspective
- If you can, use widgets that enable both client- and server-wide embedding
- If you can't, and virality is less important, use server-side widgets that are designed to make content visible to search engines
- And if possible, use server-side widgets that rotate backlink anchor text if link is not to established domain or brand
- If you can't user server-sidewidgets, use client-side widgets with static SEO embed / NOSCRIPT code
- And if possible, use client-side widgets that allow for rotation of embed code
- In any case, remember that other tabs and pages in the widget are invisible to search engines
- Do NOT use the static embed code to make search engines think the widget is about something it's not, or that it links to a site it doesn't
- Use keywords in static SEO code for client-side widgets (only)
- Do NOT use keywords in static embed code with ANY widget if the keywords do not correspond to the widget's content
- Do NOT use thematically similar keywords in static embed code with server-side widgets if this could be interpreted as keyword stuffing by search engines
- Avoid slow server-side widgets. They increase page load times and may hurt your SEO
The Marketing Perspective (Linkbuilding)
- Use widgets as a scalable link building tactic
- Keep the widget content on topic with your industry, business, customers, and other related topics
- When relevant to the user, use target keywords in your anchor text pointing to the page you are optimizing for those keywords
- Don’t over optimize by using too many links or hiding links in images that don’t appear clickable
- Link to your site with text links when possible or as a secondary option link with an image that appears clickable and has keyword rich alt text
- Keep up to date on Google’s public statements about using widgets for link building
The Subscriber Perspective (Picking Widgets for Your Site)
Most of the preceding best practices apply to widget developers rather than widget subscribers or consumers. If you just want to make sure the widgets you put on your site are good for your site:
- Make VERY sure the embed code, content and backlink are all talking about the same things and are not attempting to mislead viewers or search engines about what's at the other end of that backlink
- Focus on widgets with compelling content. They should be interesting, interactive and fun
- Make sure they're fast
- If you have the technical chops and access, use widgets with server-side embedding
- If you don't, make sure the widget includes SEO stuff in the client-side embedding code
- Specify the widget width if you can. Some widgets default to auto or 100% width, and in those cases may blow out your layout
- More on this topic in separate papers...
About the Contributors
These brave and knowledgeable souls were kind enough to lend us their time, experience and advice:
- Lawrence Coburn is the founder and CEO of RateItAll, a venture funded consumer ratings site for everything. RateItAll's latest project is called DoubleDutch, a white label geolocation iPhone application for hotels and conferences. Lawrence is a mentor at IO Ventures and blogs at Sexy Widget and TheNextWeb.com/location.
- Laura Lippay is the Director of Technical Marketing for Yahoo! Media, where she and her team are responsible for designing strategies to enhance visibility in Search and Social spaces online for dozens of the top internet properties in their verticals, and working with internal product teams to act on them.
- Michael Marshall has over 19 years experience in information technology covering a wide range of specialties including: web design, software engineering, e-commerce solutions, artificial intelligence, and Internet marketing. He is a member of the World Association of Internet Marketers and of SEO Professionals. He has degrees in Linguistics, Philosophy and Theology.He is also a contributing author to SEOToday.com, the premier website for SEM professionals, and a contributor to "Building Your Business With Google for Dummies" by Brad Hill. He is owner and certified instructor at the North Carolina Search Engine Academy, an SEO certification program approved by the US educational system.
About the Authors
This is just a little about us. The most important thing is that if there's anything wrong in this paper, it's our fault -- our contributors are perfect in every way. Also note that the co-authors' companies are partners; MassPublisher is a widget production partner of e-Boost, and e-Boost is an SEO consulting partner of MassPublisher.
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Shawn Butler is Founder and CEO of MassPublisher, a modular web content management system (CMS). Prior to founding MassPublisher, he built and launched NurseConnect, the leading professional network for nurses, for AMN Healthcare Inc. Before that, he was the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for OneTouch Systems, Inc. -- the premier interactive distance learning company serving the Fortune 500. |
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Nick Urbani is Managing Director of Business Development at eBoost Consulting. He is responsible for creating the strategy and overseeing the implementation of all marketing and business development for the company, including sharing the firm’s expertise and research at industry events and associations. Nick also works with clients that have engaged eBoost Consulting for strategy consulting and persona development engagements. Nick has spoken across the country about digital marketing for the Women’s Presidents Organization, iMarketer’s Beyond Search Summit, Cal Polytechnic University, and SDSIC. Nick’s consulting experience spans across several industries with every digital marketing area of practice. |
This Paper is a MassPublisher Widget
In the interest of eating our own dog food, this paper is available in the form of embeddable widgets from both eBoostConsulting (here) and MassPublisher (here). These widgets were created and hosted on the MassPublisher platform.
That's all, folks! |
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