Module 4: Social Media Location &
Search Engine Analytics
Search Engine Analytics
Contents
● Types of Search Engines
● Search Engine Analytics
● Search Engine Analytics Tools
Search Engines
● Search engines are tools that help users find information on the internet.
They do this by searching for information that corresponds to a user's
request (e.g., keywords).
● There are billions of websites on the internet, so search engines are
crucial for helping users find the right information quickly.
● There are different types of search engines.
Types of Search Engine
● 1) Crawler-based,
● 2) Directories
● 3) Metasearch engines.
Crawler based Search Engine
➢ Crawler-based search engines create their databases or lists
automatically, without any human intervention.
➢ E.g. google, bing, yahoo, DuckDuckGo
➢ Web crawling involves collecting and storing information about
web pages
➢ Indexing involves categorizing and storing this data in a
database for quick access
➢ Searching involves using keywords to query the index and
provide a list of relevant web pages ranked according to various
factors
Directories
➢ Directory listings are compiled and created by human editors
➢ Website owners can submit their website for inclusion in the directory
➢ The submission is reviewed by the editor before being added to the
directory
➢ Some examples of human-created directories include Yahoo Directory,
Open Directory, and LookSmart.
Meta Search
➢ Metasearch engines compile and display results from multiple individual
search engines. Metasearch engines compiles and display results from
other search engines. When a user enters a query, the metasearch engine
submits the query to several individual search engines, and results
returned from all the search engines are integrated, ranked, and displayed
to the user. Examples of meta–search engines include Metacrawler,
Mamma, and Dogpile.
➢ Local search engines are embedded within a specific website and only
search the content of that website
➢ Global search engines search the entire web and can be localized to
specific websites. Examples of global search engines include Google and
Bing. However, note that global search engines can be localized. Google
search, for example, can also embed within your website to help users
find information on your website.
Search Engine Analytics
➢ Search engine analytics involves analyzing and interpreting data from search engines.
➢ It helps website owners understand and improve their website's performance in search
results
➢ It can involve analyzing various data points such as the number of visitors, keywords
used, pages visited, and website position in search results
➢ Search engine analytics can be used to track the effectiveness of Search Engine
Optimization (SEO) efforts and guide future SEO strategies
➢ There are two types of Search Engine Analytics
➢ 1) Search engine optimization
➢ 2) Search engine trend analysis.
Search Engine Optimization
➢ Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving a website's ranking on a
search engine results page (SERP).
➢ A SERP is the list of the results returned by a search engine in response to a user’s query.
➢ SERPs generally have two types of results: organic and nonorganic results, with organic
results being based on relevance to the user's query and nonorganic results being paid
advertisements
➢ A study tested the effect of sponsored ad ranks on the click-through and conversion rates
for an online retailer and found that top positions usually had higher click through rates,
but not necessarily higher conversion rates.
➢ Social media marketers strive to develop search engine strategies to make their websites
appear at the top of search results. It is important for their websites to appear at top (e.g., in
the top ten) in the SERP, as users pay closer attention to the top results on search engines.
➢ The ranking becomes more crucial when the website is commercial by nature; that is,
selling products or services. High rankings on SERPs can mean more Internet traffic to a
website, which in some cases converts to more paying clients and higher return on
investment.
Search Engine Optimization
➢For social media marketers, it is important to understand the mechanism behind
the SERP ranking. There may be variety of factors search engines take into
account to rank websites, such as keywords and relevance. However, the most
important factor that determines SERP ranking is the PageRank.
➢PageRank is a mechanism (or an algorithm, to be more precise) used by Google
search engines to rank websites’ SERPs. The websites that rank higher are
displayed on the top of the search results page.
➢Google’s PageRank algorithm predominantly relies on the quality of incoming
hyperlinks (or in-links) to rank websites. A website, for example, with in-links
from a famous website (e.g., [Link]) will appear on the top of the SERP if
compared with a website with no quality in links or many low-quality in-links.
➢To understand the in-link quality and number argument, consider Figure 12,
where nodes represent web pages and lines represent in-links (arrowhead pointing
to a page) and out-links (arrowhead pointing away from a page).
Search Engine Optimization
➢ The PageRank algorithm will place page B higher on the
SERP, even though there are fewer in-links to B when
compared to D. The reason for this ranking is that in-links to
website B are from an important website; that is, A. Bottom
line, your objective is to increase the number of qualities in-
links to your website.
➢ It is important for websites, especially commercial ones, to have a
high ranking on SERPs because it can lead to more traffic and
potential customers.
➢ The main factor that determines a website's ranking on a SERP is its
PageRank, which is determined by the quality and number of
incoming links to the website
➢ Tools like Open SEO Stats can be used to check a website's
PageRank and other relevant information such as traffic, hyperlink
status, and page speed.
➢ Open SEO Stats (an extension for Google Chrome available at:
[Link] users can be determine the
ranking of a website based on Google PageRank. Google PageRank
uses a scale of 0 to 10, indicating the importance that the Google
search engine allocates to the page. In addition to page ranking,
Open SEO Stats also provides information about website traffic,
hyperlink status, and speed of the page, among other things.
Search Engine Trends Analysis
➢ How people search for your brand?
➢ When does interest spike in your products or services?
➢ Which keywords drive more traffic?
➢ Which regions are interested in your brand?
➢ What are trending topics over the Internet?
➢ How are your competitors performing?
Search Engine Trends Analysis
➢ Search engine trend analytics involves analyzing and understanding the keywords
used in search engines.
➢ Google Trends is a comprehensive tool for analyzing search engine trends and
predicting future trends.
➢ It can be used to understand how people search for a particular brand, when interest in
products or services spikes, which keywords drive the most traffic, and how a brand's
competitors are performing.
➢ Google Trends data has also been used in various industries to detect early warning
signs and track flu epidemics.
➢ From a business perspective, Google Trends can help answer questions about search
trends and patterns related to a brand.
➢ [Link]
Search Engine Analytics Tools
➢ Google Trends is a search engine analytics tool.
➢ Canopy is a multimedia analytics tool for deep investigation of large multimedia
collections.
➢ Google Alerts is a content detection and notification service that alerts users when
new content matching their search terms is found on the internet
➢ Icerocket is a tool that specializes in blog searches and also captures activity on social
media platforms
➢ Social Mention is a tool similar to Google Alerts but focused on social media sites
and allows users to focus on particular areas such as blogs
➢ TweetBeep is a tool that allows users to receive daily search results via email for
specific keywords on Twitter.
Google Trends
Type of Analytics Provided by Google Trends
● Year in Search
● Trending Searches
● Trending on YouTube
● Top Charts
● Explore
● Subscription
Regional Interest
Customizing the Search
➢ Google Trends allows users to customize search results by country, year,
category, and type of web resource
➢ Users can also select custom data ranges from the date dropdown menu
➢ Trend data is only available from 2004 onwards.
Exercises
➢ Analyze the impact of seasonality on search trends:
➢ Select a product or service and
➢ observe how search volumes change over time.
➢ Identify patterns and trends based on the season, month, or day of the week.
➢ Compare search volumes for different keywords: Compare search volumes for two or more keywords related
to your business or industry. Analyze which keyword is more popular and what the trend is over time.
➢ Study the effect of a news event on search trends: Observe how a significant news event impacts search
trends. Identify any spikes or dips in search volumes and the duration of the impact.
➢ Compare search volumes for different languages: Analyze search volumes for different languages related to
your business or industry. Identify any trends or differences in search behavior based on language.
Exercises
➢ Observe the impact of advertising campaigns on search trends: Analyze search volumes before and after
launching an advertising campaign. Identify any changes in search behavior based on the campaign's
messaging or tactics.
➢ Study the effect of a new product launch on search trends: Observe how a new product launch impacts
search volumes. Identify any spikes or dips in search volumes and the duration of the impact.
➢ Analyze the impact of social media on search trends: Observe how social media platforms impact search
volumes. Identify any correlations between social media posts or activity and search trends.
➢ Study the impact of trending events on search trends: Analyze search volumes during trending events such
as a holiday, sporting event, or cultural celebration. Identify any spikes or dips in search volumes and the
duration of the impact.
➢ Observe the impact of weather on search trends: Analyze search volumes during different weather
conditions. Identify any patterns or trends in search behavior based on weather conditions.
Questions
● What is the function of a search engine?
● Explain different types of search engines.
● Differentiate between local and global search engines.
● What is search engine analytics?
● Explain the two main categories of search engine analytics.
● What is the purpose of search engine optimization?
● What is the purpose of search engine trend analysis?
LOCATION ANALYTICS:
LOCATION ANALYTICS:
➢Location Analytics, also known as spatial analysis or geo-analytics. It
is concerned with mapping, visualizing, and mining the location of
people, data, and other resources.
➢All sectors, including business, government, non-profit, and
academia, can benefit from location analytics.
➢Thanks to the GPS (global positioning systems) embedded in mobile
devices, providing location-based services, products, and information
is becoming a reality.
SOURCES OF LOCATION DATA:
➢Location information can come from a variety of sources, including
the following:
➢POSTAL ADDRESS: Most business analytics applications rely on address
information of their customers, including city names, locality names, and
postal or zip codes.
➢LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE: In geography, latitude (shown as a
horizontal line on a globe) and longitude (shown as a vertical line on a globe)
are used to find exact location on Earth.
➢GPS-BASED: GPS is a satellite-based navigation system that can be used to
find exact location of people and resources. Mobile analytics mostly rely on
GPS-based location data. GPS-based location analytics can provide us the
most accurate location for social media users.
SOURCES OF LOCATION DATA:
➢IP-BASED: Public IP (Internet protocol) can be used to determine the
location of Internet users. A public IP address is an exclusive numerical
address (like a home address) assigned to a device connected to the Internet.
Different regions in the world are assigned a specific block of public IP
addresses; hence, it can be used to mine approximate geo-location of Internet
users.
CATEGORIES OF LOCATION ANALYTICS:
➢Based on its scope, location analytics can be broadly classified into
two categories:
➢1) business data-driven location analytics,
➢2) social media data-driven location analytics
1. BUSINESS DATA-DRIVEN LOCATION ANALYTICS:
➢Business data-driven location analytics deals with mapping, visualizing, and
mining location data to reveal patterns, trends, and relationships hidden in
tabular business data.
➢Capitalizing on the data stored in a business database, location analytics, for
example, can map and capture vast among of geo-specific data to provide
information, products, and services based on where customers are.
➢Using the location of customers, for instance, it is possible to recommend the
nearest convenience store, coffee shop, taxi, or even probable social relations.
➢Or it can be used for any other business decision, such as, what is the best
potential new site for a business warehouse?
Applications of Business Data-Driven Location
Analytics:
➢Business data-driven location analytics has several applications, including the
following:
➢ Powerful Intelligence: Simple maps have been widely used, but they are limited in providing
insightful details. Using sophisticated mapping techniques, such as clustering, heat mapping,
data aggregation (e.g., aggregating data to regions), and color-coded mapping, can generate
powerful business intelligence.
➢ Geo-Enrichment: Simple data maps can be enriched with customer data, including
demographic, consumer spending, lifestyle, and locations. For example, where do my loyal
customers spend most of their time?
➢ Collaboration and Sharing: Maps are easy to understand and are good communication and
collaboration tools. Location analytics can map business data for collaboration across
organization. It can also be used for information sharing purposes with customers. At the end
of this chapter, a step-by-step tutorial is provided to map sample tabular business data using
Google Fusion Tables. With Google Fusion Tables, you can map data and display and share
the results as maps, tables, and charts.
2. SOCIAL MEDIA DATA-DRIVEN LOCATION
ANALYTICS
➢Social media data-driven analytics relies on social media location
data to mine and map location of social media users, content, and
data. Social media location information comes mainly from GPS and
IP.
Uses/ Applications of Social Media-Based Location
Analytics
➢Social media location–based services are becoming a day-to-day reality. Organizations use
location-based services for a variety of purposes, including the following:
➢ 1. Recommendation Purposes: Organizations can harvest location data to recommend products,
services, and social events to potential customers in real time as they approach certain localities. For
example, [Link] recommends potential groom / bride options based on the location of users.
➢ 2. Customer Segmentation: Social media location data can be used to segment customers based on
their geographic location. Tweepsmap ([Link] for example, can be used to geo-
locate your Twitter followers by country, state, or city.
➢ 3. Advertisement: Location-based advertisement allows targeted marketing and promotion campaign
mostly delivered through mobile devices to reach specific target audiences.
➢ 4. Information Request: Based on their current location, customers can request a product, service, or
resource (e.g., the nearest coffee shop, restaurant, or parking lot).
Uses/ Applications of Social Media-Based Location
Analytics
➢5. Alerts: Location data can be used to send and receive alerts and
notifications, such as sales and promotion alerts traffic congestion
alerts, speed limit warnings, and storm warnings.
➢6. Search and Rescue: Location data is vital in search and rescue
operations. For example, Agos, a geotagging and reporting platform
that enables communities deal with climate change adaptation and
disaster risk reduction.
➢7. Navigation: Mobile-and GPS-based navigation services and apps
assist us in finding addresses. BE-ON-ROAD, for instance, is a free
offline turn-by-turn GPS navigation app for Android devices.
LOCATION ANALYTICS AND PRIVACY CONCERNS
➢While location-based services bring ease, convenience, and safety to
customers and value to business, they also raise serious privacy issues
related to collection, retention, use, and disclosure of location
information (Minch 2004).
➢Tracking, mining, and storing location information can endanger
some fundamental human rights, such as freedom of movement and
freedom from being observed.
➢Minch (2004) raised several issues arising from location-based
services, including the following:
LOCATION ANALYTICS AND PRIVACY CONCERNS
➢Should users of location-enabled devices be informed when location tracking is in use?
➢Should users of location-enabled devices be permitted to control the storage of location
information?
➢Should location information as stored be personally identifiable, or should the user have the
option to preserve degrees of anonymity?
➢What legal protection should a person’s historical location information have against
unreasonable search?
➢To what extent should users of location-based services be allowed to choose their own level
of identifiability/anonymity?
➢What level of disclosure control should be dictated by government regulation?
➢ By the affected individual customers, users, etc.?
➢ By other parties?
➢What governmental legislation and regulation is appropriate to assure citizens’ rights of
privacy in an era of location-aware mobile devices?
LOCATION ANALYTICS TOOLS
➢Google Fusion Tables: Google Fusion Tables is a web service to geo-tag, store, share, query,
and visualize tabular business data overlaid on Google Maps.
➢Agos: Agos is a geo-tagging and reporting platform that helps communities deal with
climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction: [Link]
➢Tweepsmap: Tweepsmap ([Link] maps your Twitter followers by country,
state, or city.
➢Trendsmap: Trendsmap ([Link] is real-time tool that maps the latest trends
from Twitter, anywhere in the world.
➢Followerwonk: This tool helps you perform basic Twitter analytics, such as, who are your
followers? Where are they located? When do they tweet? The tool can be accessed via
[Link]
➢Esri: Esri’s GIS (geographic information systems) is software to map, visualize, question,
analyze, and interpret ([Link]
Topic of Debate:
“Does Location Analytics Improve Society More Than It Threatens
Individual Privacy?”