Open Data and SEO - Government sources

[Carla_Dawson]

Hi Everyone,

Does anyone know of a connection between open data  and SEO? I think this is a very interesting topic to explore.  Lots of governments are jumping on this trend and it seems like Google and other search engines would be interested in this kind of authoritative source. Here are some examples -

USA OPEN Data examples

• Palo Alto, California USA: paloalto.opendata.junar.com
• Cupertino, California USA: cupertino.opendata.junar.com
• San Jose California USA: data.sanjoseca.gov

Other international Open Data examples

• Chile: recursos.datos.gob.cl
• Bahía Blanca, Argentina: http://bahiablanca.opendata.junar.com/dashboards/7844/medio-ambiente/
• Lima, Perú lima.datosabiertos.pe

[Carla_Dawson]

Thanks Alex,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I sent Matt Cutts a tweet about Open data and SEO but got no response...no surprise but at least I tried.

Thanks for the info above...I am going to be watch this SEO variable..

Cheers! Carla

[Alex-Harford]

Some companies/websites have already used open data to great SEO effect. If some interesting data can be presented in a unique and interesting or useful way it has a great chance of attracting interest.

I clicked on the Chile link and these ideas came to mind immediately:

• Data on traffic accident statistics - perhaps a car insurance firm or road traffic safety campaigner could present that data on their website, with further research into why certain locations are accident hotspots and what could be done to improve the safety.
• "Consumer Prices of Fruits and Vegetables" - a travel website could present this as a guide for backpackers visiting Latin America - for new visitors to a country it's always difficult to know what you should be paying for products.
• "Polling stations in Santiago" - a political candidate looking for votes and increased publicity could have an interactive map for voters to find their closest location.

I did have a link listing some awesome presentations of public data but it seems to have disappeared. Here are a couple of cool uses I remember:

• Live London Underground Map - Page Authority 64, 231 referring root domains, 6000+ Facebook likes, 5600+ Tweets. You can track worldwide flights too - it's scary seeing how close so many planes look over major cities: http://www.flightradar24.com
• Hills Are Evil phone app - Overlay Media created an app to help people with "restricted mobility find the best and easiest route between two places" - it overlays gradient and even surface (e.g. cobblestones) data onto Google Maps.

There are lots of good Google Maps Mashups using public data - Google [google maps mashups] to see!