SEO and Social Networks

Although Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was first developed in the mid- 1990's,
its site grading methodology did not become essential until the present decade.
Google's popular search engine was the first instrument used for SEO, through its
"Pagerank" Algorithm that ranks every internet page by its number and quality of
links to it. Site promoters aimed for high- pageranked links, and started playing by
Google's rules to achieve the high pageranks. With time, the promoters developed
more sophisticated techniques for achieving high ranks, and developed a new field
called link building, which is used to promote their sites. In response to the quick
development of the SEO, Google invested tremendous efforts to defeat SPAM and
set different quality levels for the links. In addition, Google has created filters, that in
specific incidents, will completely cancel a link, if for example that link came about
due to duplicated information, In order to prevent the copying of existing content.
Eventually, Google developed a more sophisticated algorithm and many of the
previous search parameters were no longer significant. Although the use of Google
by the SEO's is still widespread, it has definitely become much more difficult to
promote sites using Google.

Nowadays, social networks have become an inseparable part of our life and it seems
that sooner more than later, site promoting will be done not only through Google,
but increasing through social networks as well. The estimation today is that Google
will have no choice but to considerate unbelievable amount of information existing
in the social networks in order to grade internet websites. Google has already made
some steps in that direction, such as integrating reports from "Twitter" into its
search results.

The social networks enable through different methods the promotion of websites
through their network; the professional term is called "Social Media Optimization"
(SMO). The network "Delicious", for example, is designated for surfers who are
interested in promoting websites. It enables them to add sites and tags that
represent them, by division into groups and key words. In the same way, a more
common site, "YouTube", serves as a kind of social network that enables the
promotion of websites and different products. By filming yourself or a product you
are interested in promoting, distributing the film on YouTube is a very efficient
commercial promotion, where the public can find the product by them searching the
key words and the title that were defined for it.

Today, all the traditional ways to connect, such as Email and SMS, are considered to be old-
fashioned and are barely used. Many people and most of the young population manage their
personal and business relations through social networks such as "Facebook" and "Twitter".
That is what leads marketing people to the inevitable conclusion that in order to keep up
with the rest, you have got to be there too, and to take place in these networks.
The relation to our course is that the thought that the Internet is a network of computers
connected with cables is no longer true. It is people that constitute the motivating power of
the Internet; people that are represented by little points in space, from which their
connections branch out to connect with other people and other content. The social
networks offer the ability to manage all our connections in one place, enabling us to use all
the connecting branches for business purposes. The nature of the networks has made them
a preferred method in the SEO field. The ability of approaching potential consumers'
population segments such as age or personal preferences criteria, enables direct personal
access to the consumer and allows businesses to focus their advertising. Marketing through
social networks is personal and sensitive marketing; it is usually carried out by friends'
recommendations, making it effective and influential. For example, one of the best ways for
a business owner to promote his business is to create a fan page on "Facebook". The
advantage is that the page appears on search engines, and moreover, every update you
make on it will appear automatically on your friend's account.

To conclude, it appears that the networking structure created by the social networks,
provides the SEO's with a variety of promotion possibilities, and a sophisticated but simple
method to promote their websites and products. Although it seems that SEO has reached its
peak and has fully exploited its ability, the different methods and techniques are progressing
correspondingly with the changes that occur every day and specially with the evolving social
networks. It is hard to predict what will be next.

Ayelet Handelman

http://net.nana10.co.il/Article/?ArticleID=693588

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