> BlogIn 2010 we saw a lot of changes to the way that Google display search results particularly with the release of Google Caffeine where “Realtime” results were included. These results include the latest Tweets and Facebook posts amongst others.
Another search results change was the integration of Google Places listings within organic results, where reviews and ratings are also visible to the searcher and have therefore become more and more influential.
These things can all relate back to Social Media – and confirms for us the fact that Google are using Social Media means in their ranking algorithms (take a look at Matt Cutts Google Webmaster Central video). Google utilise user’s experiences through things like Hotpot ratings & reviews, Google Places pages reviews & ratings, Twitter Re-Tweets and Facebook posts as a way of defining how much quality your site/business gives to their searchers. By having a friend recommend a certain website or place, means that someone can vouch for that particular business – which could very well be yours.
The online world is becoming more and more like the offline world – people only use your services or buy your products if they know someone who can recommend you, if you have a well-known brand, if you are doing enough promotion and if you offer enough to get someone to walk into your shop or give you a call. Times are changing online!
Search Engine Optimisation remains much the same, in that you still need your site to be effectively optimised with keyword phrases which your potential clientele are searching, but Search Engine Marketing is forever changing. No longer is it just about traditional reciprocal link building done by your expert SEO – it’s now also about what you can do to build up your social profile/s.
We’ve all heard of Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare and LinkedIn by now and these amongst many others, which are currently more popular overseas, are all part of the Social Media mix. Whilst not all of these options will suit you or your business goals, it’s worth considering at least one of these.
It’s important to remember though that it’s not just about who you are friends with or who you follow, it’s about your influence and authority to other users on these Social Media platforms. The age old saying of ‘Content is King’ is still valid for Social Media Marketing – so long as you are engaging and sharing information with your friends/fans/followers then you are doing the right thing. When you start just adding friends/fans/followers and Tweeting/posting one uninformative link/post after another none of which catch your users eyes, that’s when you need to reassess your Social Media goals.
Because searchers can now select ‘realtime’ or ‘blogs’ etc to search by, it’s not always your organic listing that they are looking at. Ranking reports are becoming a thing of the past with all these changes and it is because of this that the focus on SEM should be traffic to your site and how they are interacting with it rather than just where you are ranking at any given time.
Social Media does take time to learn, participate in and reap the rewards, but like riding a bicycle – the more you practice the better you get at it!
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