Search Engines and Social Media

The Internet, as we well know, is a diverse and dynamic sphere and change is a constant that we all accept and for people involved in Search Engine Marketing and website seo it is imperative that they keep abreast of changes that will have a deep impact on their Clients and their businesses.

With millions of competing pages to get onto the first page of the Search Engines, a huge industry has been built around Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing and now, for those involved in this market, there are massive changes underway that will impact everybody  who sells, uses or has a related business in the “Search Engine” field.

In its relentless pursuit of excellence for the searcher Google has been leading the way in which it presents results to the searcher. With the recent addition of “Local Search Results” included in most searches it is apparent that this drive to show local and relevant results to the person who actually types in a key phrase is gaining popularity.

The way that people use the Internet now will also start to reflect in the way results are displayed.

The incredible growth of Social Media with sites like Facebook and Twitter means that people now have many connected followers, in one form or another, spread across a number of diverse platforms. This means that they now communicate in different ways and many are becoming savvier of Internet Marketing methods and the often spurious methods that they use.

In the days before the Internet “word of mouth” recommendations were solid gold – and, of course, still are.

Who hasn’t bought a product from Amazon without checking the reviews of actual purchasers first – especially since you know you’re going to get the good and the bad. This trend continues with the plethora of “ask” type sites where people post their questions for individuals to answer.

As people continue to grow their Social neighbourhood online then it’s fairly logical to follow the natural progression that people will look to their online community to look for solutions to their problems rather than to use the Search Engines and that search may not necessarily be on a PC but equally as likely to be on a  mobile phone or PDA as the use of them to access web information goes ballistic.

Now that may take a big leap of faith to believe but already the Big Search Engines are changing their algorithms to better reflect these changes in the search patterns of it’s users.

Consider Google’s recent acquisitions – Admob, Gizmo5 (Skype rival) and Teracent, all mobile applications and then the more recent purchase of Picnik, an online photo editing site that allows users to get their images onto social sites easier. Then there’s Aardvark, a service that simplifies the communication between contacts online – oops – then there’s reMail – a  simplified email client for mobiles – notice how all these tie into doing things in your online community and your mobile simpler – so all these recent acquisitions and yet more planned are all part of a strategic effort to keep them at the forefront of search patterns.

Google are keen to acquire Yelp.com too and it’s not difficult to see how it fits into the pattern – with over 26 million users, 9 million posted reviews and special platforms for mobile users.

Andy Abramson, author of the VoIP Watch blog states, “Google has a very deep investment in voice search, features that enable people to say, ‘find this, find that,’ and then make a phone call,”

Vic Gundotra, VP of Engineering for Google said recently,” locations will be a key element of future versions of Google search”, and went on to talk about the “Near Me Now” feature, due to be released shortly.

Now add to the mix the recent launch of Google Buzz, a social platform integrated with many “friends” type of features but allying itself to search by adding “buzz near your location”, “Buzz post tagged with a location”, “Buzz on a place”, and a “Buzz layer on Google Maps”

So it’s easy to see where this is all leading, if you have a web presence and you’re not represented in “Local Search” then you’re going to be out of the picture in a real big way.

The emphasis is moving swiftly and it’s moving now – Website SEO specializes in getting companies Local Listings and should be a vital element of your Search Engine Marketing future!

Popularity: 2% [?]