Meet a typical SEO expert and they will tell you how to get on Google’s first page through content creation and other on-site tactics. These two area of search engine optimization (SEO) definitely rank high with increasing page rank but most SEO experts will overlook the important of social search and it’s impact on search engines.
The search engines have incorporated social search results from Twitter, FriendFeed, Google Buzz and others into the natural organic results. This is a powerful change for business, bloggers and webmasters.
Google is not the only search engine to incorporate social search. Really, Google adoption was late compared with several other social search engines that started the trend back in 2009. With this change though come a number of social search tools that put the power of the search engines back in the hands of many users – geek and human alike.
To help, I’ve compiled a list of my Top Social Search Tools for SEO:
Step 1: Learning About Social Search
Features: Google Social Search
Google Social Search helps you discover relevant content from your social connections, a set of your online friends and contacts. Content from your friends and acquaintances is sometimes more relevant and meaningful to you than content from any random person. For example, an online movie review is useful, but a movie review from your best friend can be even better.
Google Blog: An Update to Social Search
Today we’re taking another step forward—enabling you to get even more information from the people that matter to you, whether they’re publishing on YouTube, Flickr or their own blog or website.
Facebook Integration Now Live in Bing Social Search Results
Microsoft search engine Bing has just launched a new social sub-site (http://www.bing.com/social), allowing users to search through Facebook Page updates and links publicly posted to personal profiles. These results are posted alongside tweets on the Social home page, which Microsoft hopes will become the new destination for social search.
Step 2: Learning the Social Search Tools
- Topsy – Real-time search for the social web
- Rollyo – Create and search your own custom search engine
- SimilarPages – Surf the web with our add-on to find up to 300 webpages similar to each site you land on.
- SimilarSites – Easily find more sites like those you like. Similar Sites helps you find related sites and alternatives based on community recommendations and computer analysis.
- Blekko – Search your friends’ likes using custom search engines
- SideStripe – The SideStripe widget enhances your search by giving you information from your friends during your search.
- Wajam – You and your friends share lots of useful links every day. Find them in Google when you need them.
- Greplin – The search engine of third party sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
Step 3: Understand Social Search Issues and Trends
Google’s Creepy Social Search
Is there anything Google won’t search? It already indexes our Web pages, chats, e-mails, photos, voicemails, planets, and stars. Why not your social circle, too?
5 Assumptions About Social Search
Facebook: The Missing Manual” author E. A. Vander Veer considers some of the deeper implications of social search.
Shoppers Combine Search, Social Media to Fuel Decisions
A whopping 86 percent of consumers say search engines are very important in the buying process, while just one percent use social media alone.
Are Social Search Updates About to Change How We Shop Online?
You may have seen over the last week or so Google and Bing launching Social Search Result updates to include comments, posts and likes from a user’s social network into their search results.
As I’ve said before in blog posts and speaking events, SEO is not dead but it has changed. Today, SEO has become more of social media optimization (SMO) as search engine have noticed the impact of social media network websites and the data shared. Embracing social search places companies, bloggers and website owners at a greater advantage. What once was “word of mouth” has turned into “word of web”. The human aspect of networking and sharing information is still the same – it’s just the tool that has changed. Success comes from accepting this change and implementing the strategies necessary for success.
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