Last week I posed a question on LinkedIn to find out what people are feeling with regard to SEO & social media.
You can see the conversation here:
I’m wondering with all the buzz afloat about how Google is monitoring how much your content gets tweeted, liked and linked to within social media, how might this affect search engine rankings for those that don’t do social media at all?
I get a mixed bag of responses, but the favorite answer seems to be that both will be important. However with so much emphasis on social media today, will SEO now become less important?
If you look at the latest Google Panda update, it was directed at sites containing extensive advertising with little quality content and spammy backlinks which hurt a lot of websites, and rightly so, but what’s coming next?
Of course, no one knows exactly what Google will do in the future, but it makes sense that if a site doesn’t have good traffic and appear on the social sharing circuit with favorable response, then it could lose it’s ability to rank well in the search engines in future months.
In fact Michelle MacPhearson explains it well in one of her latest videos stating that your SEO strategy now needs to include social sharing.
http://www.michellemacphearson.com/how-to-start-a-blog-that-matters/
Final Thoughts on the SEO & Social Media Direction
I’m thinking that content will always be king but social medial may be the new queen.
If Google is going to give its users the best search experience possible, which is what they claim, they’ll rely more and more on how the public views the content as opposed to how well it’s optimized for the search engines.
Or maybe we should consider that social media will actually become part of the SEO strategy, which many say has already happened.
I’d love your thoughts on this 
Leonard, I do think links and social media will be the things that make or break us. They both indicate approval from readers which is a good thing. Our success or failure shouldn’t be determined by Google alone.
Of course, like any system, it can be gamed, so Google will always be fighting that, unfortunately some of us may get caught in the wake of that.
I say, keep it simple. Write in a manner that readers enjoy, pick topics that they want to read, follow the steps to writing effective SEO copy and spend time socializing and interacting.
Thanks for your feedback
It was an interesting phenomenon when word got out that Google would follow social markers more than before. It started spreading like wild fire, which is great, I like it when society, especially this virtual society, works together and spreads important news. I always think how much strength radio, than TV had before this cyber revolution, and now, we do the sharing of information on our own. In my opinion, relevant backlinks will still be important in SEO, but now the fight for ranking moves to social media sites as well. It gives us more freedom to interact on the platforms that we find more suitable for our own purposes.
Best regards,
Leonard
Your Right content is always a king.We all know that content is very important and specially in blogs and what is in content.Well done Ms Liz
Hey Steve, very well put and I couldn’t agree more.
I do agree that SEO, social media and blog commenting all need to work together, however some of the more social medial enthusiasts are pushing that practicing only SEO without practicing any social media means you’ll lose ranking and status within the search engines, so trying to get a feel for how folks fee about that.
Thanks so much for your great feedback
Twitter: hippoxx
says:
Hello Liz.
As most of your commenters agree, both are important. I personally think that SEO is still a better option if done correctly.
I don’t claim to be a technical expert on SEO although I do have a reasonable knowledge of it. The thing that I see a lot, even from those with strong technical skills, is a hap hazard approach.
SEO is not just about ranking, it’s about focus and understanding the clients of a business.
Blog commenting, social media and SEO all walk hand in hand when done correctly. Ultimately our aim is to drive traffic. If you can drive traffic as part of building your SEO campaign, even better. More importantly, if you can drive lazer targeted traffic while growing your rank, then you are doing it right. This is where many get it wrong in the pursuit for masses of links with no real focus on the business or clients of the business.
Twitter: upsearchuk
says:
Ms. Liz,
I think this is the current question on everyones lips at the moment! I can certainly see the benefits of encorporating social media, not only to boost your SEO efforts, but to build a brand image which is so important these days. I guess we will have to wait and see..
Hi Annette, I agree that both are important, and I recommend doing both, but I’m just wondering how those that rely so heavily on SEO without doing any social media marketing will do. I think it will be interesting to see where all this goes. Thanks for your feedback
Both are important to have a successful business blog. I am most prefer in doing SEO because building more links to other website may help to boost traffic.
Hey Enstine, LOL! I think you’re right
Twitter: enstinemuki
says:
Hi Liz, it’s absolutely important for businesses to start mixing the two as it’s quite obvious that SEO and Social Media are already dressed in their unique wedding gown.