When Google rolled out its own social media network in Google+ it was easy to predict that this would be the model to drive the search engine forward in the future. So it is no surprise to discover that in a new study carried out by Searchmetrics, that social media activity is at the forefront of how search rankings are defined.
The main influence on page ranking, according to the study, are Facebook shares, which is basically anytime someone shares content with their Facebook network. Fellow social media giant Twitter is not too far behind their rivals either with their share functions.
Google Plus also represented some promising correlations between the amount of +’s a site had received, to where they appear in the search results but currently do not boast enough users to make a genuine judgement on it.
Other telling factors in regards to search engine ranking are the more traditional SEO indicators such as backlinks, keywords within content and URL keywords.
Google recently announced that they would be altering their approach to how search ranking is decided, largely due to the amount of website owners abusing SEO ‘tricks’ such as keyword stuffing and link schemes, in an attempt to improve their page rank.
The move is towards improving web content for the user and going into the future Google’s algorithm will be looking at the quality of the content and links created in regards to their target audience, rather than how close to the guidelines it is in terms of the quantity of keywords and backlinks.
As Matt Cutts, head of Google’s webspam team, says in his blog Another Step to Reward High Quality Sales Google are aiming to reward sites who provide quality sites for users and not those who are simply creating algorithms to get results. After all Google was created for the user in order to get the very best and most relevant information about their chosen search topic. Not about stroking the egos of web designers looking to manipulate the internet for the cheap buck.
Not only will this improve Google as a search engine but it will also improve the quality of website that the website developers are producing so it really is a step in the right direction.
So it would appear in conclusion that over the next few weeks, months and years that the two components that will grab an influence on the online marketing world are social media networks and quality content. Tie the two of these together and you company are bound to have a marketing strategy that can’t go wrong.
For more information or help setting up the perfect online marketing campaign for your website contact Barsbank and speak to one of our online marketing specialists.
