We are only a few weeks into 2012 and the social media world has been revolutionised yet again. This time around it’s Google and its Social Network Google+.Google has launched Search plus your World. This feature has been in the works for a while now and released at the beginning of 2012. As expected it faced criticism on many points including privacy concerns, security, anti-trust, and also the war amongst the big 3 Social Media giants Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
There is much debate about how this is going to affect traffic from news sites, how this will affect users and personalised search.
With Google’s new social search initiative, search results are integrated with a user’s Google+ profile and connections. With the new social search – when are user types a search query, the results will show both private and public instances of the search query which are taken from the user’s Google+ profile and the people he/she is connected to.
So how does this new move by Google affect overall search results on the internet and traditional SEO?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a process by which websites can generate organic traffic through search engine listings. There is no payment involved and search results are based on relevancy. Since search engines are driven by text and ranking high on search engines involved not having a beautiful website design but more about the number of links on a given page, the quality of the links, the content and trustworthiness of the site.
So prior to Google’s Social Search, ranking high on search engines involved, a well research content optimisation strategy and developing the website to cater to the most important search engine ranking factors. Generating traffic to websites prior to the social media age required a scientific approach and the use of keywords.
After the social media revolution, the search centric traffic generation model changed to a referral centric one, where traffic was not just being driven through search engines but also through social media marketing – through sharing and engaging. But the two traffic generation sources (Search engine and Social Media) were kept separate until Google real-time search. After Google’s contract with Twitter ended, real time twitter feeds in Google searches were turned off.
Since the introduction of Search plus your World by Google – this is the first time that there has been a real convergence between social networking and search engine results.
With Search Plus your World, Google is using its social network Google+ to delve deeper and go within user data. Users posts and data are now searched for relevant content and displayed in search engine queries.
This new development changes traditional search engine optimisation and how it was done. It’s no longer about how effective and relevant the content on your website is, it is also about how many people are talking about you, who +1’ed your page and how many have shared your links.
This has lead to the word social search being coined. Although it is still early days to comment on the effectiveness of Google’s strategy, one point can certainly be highlighted – Traditional SEO has changed.
If you would like to leave a comment, ask a question or arrange a one-to-one consultation contact me on logan@logannathan.com or via only of my social media channels using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google Plus.
Social Media Business Consultant | Internet (Web) Marketing Strategist Speaker | Trainer
Based in Sydney, Australia, Logan has been an avid & passionate social media user since the advent of Facebook. Logan runs his own workshops on the social media for business in Australia. He has also written a number of eBooks on the same subjects (Social Media Secrets for your Business, Twitter Secrets for Your Business and Social Media Startup Guide for Business), all of which are now published and available online. Logan is also a passionate speaker on the subject of using ‘Internet and Social Media for Business’ and spoken at number of Business conferences in Australia and overseas.
Watch testimonials from Logan’s latest workshops on http://www.youtube.com/logannathan
Book your seat at the upcoming workshops, refer http://www.ictsocialbusiness.com.au/social_media_education/social-media-training-workshop
