Social Media Impacts Further on SEO

    With two big search engine names now incorporating social media activity into their results, this is a further step that assimilates existing social media footprints into the world of SEO. Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, announced last week that they will include Facebook “likes” into their return searches and Google recently began including Twitter updates. These new developments will most likely lead to other social media sites like Foursquare, Gowalla and Brightkite being incorporated into search engine results in the not to distant future. The greater display of social media within search engine results could see huge impact on site authority and rank potential. Definitely a natural next step, these new developments will certainly affect strategies for search engine placement. Although the goal of appearing at the top of a search engine’s returned results will remain the same, in the SEO world it will change how client campaigns are run. What it does highlight is how often social media advances require regular rethinks and resets in the SEO world – just think of the impact of Twitter and mobile applications. SEO needs to avoid too much structure and process with regard to social media to continue to find new ways and innovative ways to harness its power. In a way though, the effects of search engines incorporating social media to a greater extent is nothing really new in the SEO world. Yes it’s a new development, however search engines are constantly evolving, and as a result of this, so are SEO specialists. It’s the very nature of the beast. SEO has grown drastically over the last 15 years because of the constantly evolving nature of search engines. SEO is all about growing alongside the changing search engine landscape. It’s about evolving with them to ensure that searchers get the results they need. What it does highlight even further is that companies need to integrate social networking to a greater degree into their SEO plans if they haven’t already. However, it is important to remember that ranking number one should only be part of a company’s goal in the first place. Online presence is equally about managing an online reputation and creating and maintaining a social media presence that’s in-keeping with a brand. BY :Nelly Berova