There’s a lot of craziness surrounding the search industry at the moment, and a lot of it’s caused by Facebook. Will the well known social media platform take Google’s dominate position in online search? And should we (SEOers) be worried? I believe that we should be, but only in part, and I am going to explain to you why.
First, let’s talk about the direction in which Facebook is heading. With the implementation of the “like” button, and other features such as automatic page creation on just about any thing that is likeable, Facebook is not just taking over the internet, but they are becoming their own smaller version of it. Here’s what I mean…
If I add to my profile that I work for Melbourne SEO Services for example, instantly, an optimised page is created on Facebook for that business. This leaves this page open for “liking” and the second that I declare that I work for this company, the promotional rollercoaster starts all on its own. This information is then sent your your friends, appearing your their activity feed. In effect, users now receive up to date recommendations from their friends for products, services and just about anything you can think of.
Now, before you go assuming too much, keep reading!
Now, if we look at what Google does. Google simply delivers the best possible result per query based on their own algorithm. If you search for something, then it will query its own index, and produce the most relevant results, not judged on your friends. There is no “like” button in Google, there is a simple measure of link popularity and other on and off page factors that will deem a website being more relevant for a particular keyword or search query.
Which would you consider more relevant to the user… something a robot services up or recommendations from your friends and family? Are the way of recommendations the way for the future? Should we all give up SEO? Short answer is no. SEO still works and provides a positive ROI… that said, we (as SEOers) should be placing more emphasis social media marketing since there is a change brewing.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
While I consider the recommendations of my family and friends important (I would go with their suggestions maybe 90% of the time), however, I doubt if they can always have a recommendation for everything that I’m looking for.
For example, if I need to know which article directory submission software should I buy, none of the people in my Facebook friends list know anything about it. So how can they help me with that?
My best bet would be to use Google to find relevant information and reviews for the product that I intend to buy.
So I think while Facebook is a fresh addition to searching for info online, it still will not beat Google.
FB offers that ‘spice’ that Google missed to offer internet users, I am thinking along the lines of it being different in terms of function (FB-social media, Google-search engine). But I still believe that Google doesn’t have to worry about FB’s existence. I’d still go to Google since I won’t find everything that I need in FB anyway.