Recent studies have found that social media can have an impact on search results, to include
sites like Facebook and Twitter. Perhaps the most profound result, though, that that Google’s
plus 1s were most successful in driving traffic towards sites. Of course, social media marketers
will be all too familiar with the concept of using these tools to promote their sites, but these
findings show the extent to which social networking can effect search engine results.
Social media marketing in the coming year
How we respond to this information is important. Search
is not currently fully integrated but there are obvious
advantages of marketing in this way. How this social
media marketing and search marketing relate to one
another will become a key issue in the coming year.
Replacing link-building
It might not fulfil the role that link-building has to play,
but social media does allow people to share links on
their networks for their friends to see, which can
ultimately drive traffic. How these social shares
subsequently impact search results requires
further investigation.
Why social searches are important
Social searches are relevant to the extent that they can help target a larger audience and
obtain useful information about how users are engaging with social shares back to the
search engine. In this way the search tool is using social media to connect people with the
sites they are visiting via the actions they are performing, for instance, ‘liking’ a site and
sharing it on their wall.
Personalising the search experience
Being able to personalise the search experience looks to be the way forward for search
engines. Search plus allows people to personalise their search experience to also include
recommendations from friends. Search plus can raise the rate of click throughs and direct
more traffic towards sites too. It is a fact that people tend to trust recommendations put
forward by friends because they know the people who are putting them forward. Far
fewer people trust recommendations that are put forward by search engines, which is
why the personalised experience is set to become far more lucrative for Google.
Google’s personalisation strategy
Google’s strategy to become social is important to its future success and so it is crucial
that they get it right. The algorithm that they create must be able to incorporate social
activities, which Google is currently working on. Up until now the search engine has
found it difficult to enter into the social world but the expansion of social networking has
made it necessary for Google to focus on their development in this area, so that their
search results are as relevant as possible.
The future of SEO
As search become more involved with social networking, search engine optimisation
focuses more on people and their activities. Those who work in this field, therefore,
will need to focus more on building up an image of their target audience in addition to
possible keywords. Those who work in SEO will become very relevant to companies
who want to perform well in Google’s personalised search engine results providing
their skill level can accommodate consumer profiling as well as current SEO
marketing methods.
