Web Resources & Great Links

It is rather astounding to realize that of all time spent online, nearly one quarter of it is devoted to the use of social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook. Social media signals are now incorporated into the way search engines function, and marketing gurus have adjusted their practices so as to take full advantage of the influence of Facebook, Twitter and the like. Social website signals now play a significant role in search engine page rankings, marking a substantial shift in the way web marketing is done. In what ways might these developments impact your work?

The link graph, a concept initially promulgated by Google, is becoming increasingly imprecise. The premise of the link graph is the notion that page rankings are determined by the number of links associated with any given site. The graph has long been vulnerable to savvy spammers interested in exploiting the profit potential represented by search engines. Essentially, search engines such as Bing and Google have the ability to thwart spammers in the realms to which they devote attention, but cannot do so in areas they tend to ignore. This situation results in exasperation for web users and the search engines themselves, because search results can become skewed almost to the point of irrelevance. The value in social signals, therefore is that they are less susceptible to the efforts of spammers, and they provide search engines with additional methods of directing users to quality content. Influence and perceived clout are critical in the use of social signals, as the more important one’s followers are, the greater authority cited content will be thought to have.

As an example, Facebook has enhanced its connectivity to search engines by virtue of its “like” button. Facebook users have the ability to see which of their friends had a positive reaction to certain content. The more “likes” content achieves, the better the search engine ranking it is likely to achieve. The impact will, however, only be felt by the individual user, and not necessarily the content’s overall rankings. Google’s +1 button serves a similar function, and offers marketers the ability to make the most of this type of integration.

Functions such as “like” buttons, Facebook wall posting buttons and share buttons are all useful tools for making the most of search engine connectivity. Swapping a traditional blog comment function for a Facebook comment alternative helps guard against spam, while also taking advantage of the power of social networks with common interests.

Rankings are heavily impacted by positioning, as links achieving the first position garner the best click through rate, with the lion’s share of all click throughs emanating from three top-ranked links. For this reason and more, social signals are playing an increasingly important role in online marketing. If mastered, they have the potential to boost profit and web traffic tremendously, and can do so while eluding spammers and optimizing page rankings.

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