Social Media Really Is Important to SEO
Social media definitely enters the SEO equation. “Effective social media management can be a tremendous source for generating buzz, those all-important inbound links and just plain direct referral traffic,” says Mike McDonald of WebProNews, as he discusses a recent interview he did with SEOmoz CEO Rand Fishkin.
Copyblogger has an interesting article about how Facebook is “killing SEO.” I think that’s a bit sensationalist, but the points made by author Mike Wasylik are valid, nonetheless.
“The rise of Facebook creates a growing segment of the web that’s completely invisible to search engines – most of which, Facebook blocks – and can be seen only by logged-in Facebook users,” he says. “So as Facebook becomes ever larger, and keeps more users inside its walled garden, your web site will need to appear in Facebook’s feeds and searches or you will miss out on an important source of web traffic.”
“What’s the best way to keep your links in front of Facebook users?” asks Wasylik. “The ever-more-important linkbait strategy.”
The term linkbait sometimes carries a negative connotation, but generally, again, it’s just good solid content that people want to link to.
Twitter has gone from a confusing (to many) communication tool/social network, to that plus a way to find information in real time. This means that it is a good idea to tweet regularly. When someone performs a search on Twitter, they are searching right now. The fresher the tweet, the more likely they are to see it.
But Twitter’s search implications are not limited to its own search. “Although Twitter is a social media tool meant to create community and relationships, it does have an SEO value,” says Mihaela Lica at Sitepoint. “For example, Twitter can affect positively your Alexa rankings by sending visitors to your pages. Usage data is a sign of quality for Google and all the other search engines. If you can make people come to your site via Twitter, then this is an SEO advantage you cannot afford to miss.”
With both Twitter and Facebook, good content that you create will be shared. The links within the social networks may not boost your rankings, but they can lead to more links outside of them. Either way, it is added exposure.
Wrapping Up
The roots of search engine optimization really haven’t changed that much. Creating great and fresh content is still your best bet. That’s what people will share, and that’s what will be considered relevant for searches it pertains to. For some great SEO tips and items of note, check out these recent articles:
What’s the Future of Search?
SEO Checklist with Vanessa FoxSEO Ranking Factors for 2009Could Comments Hurt Your Search Engine Rankings?
Google Improves Flash Indexing Capabilities
Google Changes to No-Follow on the Horizon?Are SEOs the ”Bad Guys?”
Google vs. Bing – Side by Side
Courtesy of WebProNews.
Great, I never knew this, thanks.
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