Why SlideShare is SEO magic for your content marketing

As we’ve covered in previous blog posts, providing content that helps and informs should be the foundation for any content marketing program. However, you need to make sure the right people find your content. That’s why content optimization (the term I prefer to “search engine optimization,” or “SEO,” because it includes people as well as googlebots) is crucial.

What if there was a way to create highly targeted content on a platform that’s super sharable, visual, interactive, and has SEO keywords baked into every single page automatically? It sounds like the stuff of dreams! But it’s out there, it’s free, and it’s ready and waiting for your content! I’m talking about SlideShare. Owned by LinkedIn, SlideShare can be one of the most powerful SEO tools in your content toolkit. Here’s a few ways you can make SlideShare’s SEO magic work for you.

Optimize keywords

When you post a presentation or a document on SlideShare, it automatically pulls the copy from your PDF and posts it at the bottom of the page, word for word. This has a huge impact on search. It’s a big step up from the typical infographic, which looks great and is highly sharable, but often is lost to search engines because Google can’t read the words in your .jpg or .png.

When you plan your SlideShare content, build it around a few critical SEO keywords and weave those keywords into every small element of your content – especially in the metadata. A few notes on the metadata:

• Title – This should be highly compelling and engaging, just like an email subject line or blog title. Try to focus on why the content is important or valuable – and use a number if possible to increase the appeal. For example: “7 Key Trends in Subject Matter” would be a great title.
• Tags – Basic SEO logic is to focus on just one or two keywords. SlideShare’s “Tags” section is different. Here, you’ll want to include at least 15 keywords based on your content to help you boost your ranking. I’d encourage you to let SlideShare’s autofill guide you, even if you’re going off-book of your content strategy just a little bit. The autofill is suggesting already trending tags based on your content. Adding several tags is one of the most critical ingredients to the magical SlideShare recipe.
• Topic – Choose your “Topic” from the dropdown with your target audience in mind.
• File Name – When you upload your PDF, the file name will become the URL. This is a critical spot to include your primary keyword.
• Description – This actually appears on the page so it’s not technically metadata, but I’m including it here anyway. The key here is to include a handful of your tags, and focus on the benefit of the presentation to the reader. In many ways, the content should be similar to what you’d include in a content marketing landing page.  

Add outbound links

As with any social network, your profile is going to be one of the higher-ranking pages when you search your name. The great thing about SlideShare profiles is that they feature a gallery of all your SlideShare presentations – a hub for all your content.

When you’re setting up your profile, optimize for search:

• Add links to your Facebook and Twitter profiles
• Add links to you website in the Website section of the profile
• Add a link to your blog in the Company Description section

Inside the PDF of each individual SlideShare presentation:

• Add 1-2 relevant links to blog posts on appropriate slides (just as you would in a blog post)
• Add a call to action on the last slide of your presentation; this can be to your blog, the website, or the contact us page

Pro tip 1: SlideShare will only activate hyperlinks after the third slide. This helps deter spammers and keep viewers on your content to build trust before they click any links away from SlideShare.

Pro tip 2: SlideShare links only work if they’re placed in the middle of the slide. This is so it doesn’t get confused with the “click to advance to the next slide” functionality of each presentation. 

Increase reach with social sharing

SlideShare has the perfect mix of professional, informative, and visual content – the kind of stuff that’s highly sharable. And since SlideShare is owned by LinkedIn, it’s ideal for creating visual and interactive content that’s easily sharable and optimized for search. 

A few notes on why SlideShares are great to share on social:

• When you post a SlideShare on Twitter, you can view your entire presentation without ever leaving their Twitter feed. And it still registers as a view. Sweet! This is an easy way to up your view count on SlideShare.
• SlideShares are also interactive on LinkedIn - typically a great audience for B2B content
• You can add SlideShares right to your LinkedIn profile, effectively combining the two platforms. In personal profiles, they’ll go straight to your “Summary” section
• The only place SlideShares are NOT interactive is on Facebook - Facebook will just grab one of the first slides as an image.

So now you know why OSD often includes SlideShare in our clients’ content marketing plans. It’s another platform to find your target audience and provide helpful, informative content. And on top of that, it’s SEO gold!

Note: Thank you to OSD’s SlideShare goddess, Meg, for making this article awesome.

- Paige

Paige Moore is the content director for OSD. In addition to being our chief word nerd, she handles site architecture for websites and strategy for content marketing programs.