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Last week, Google announced that they were moving Social Search from experimental status to beta and making it available to the public. As Google’s Social Search grows in popularity, search engine marketers are starting to ask, “How do we optimize for it?”
Before we talk about optimizing for Social Search, we’ll first talk about what it is. Google explained that they created Social Search to help users easily find content created by people in their social networks.
Right now, Social Search can only work for users signed in to Google because Google has to use their profiles to build a “social circle” of their trusted network of contacts. Users’ social circles consist primarily of people they’re connected to through social media accounts attached to their Google profile, but it also includes blogs they subscribe to in Google Reader and their Gmail chat contacts. Once Google determines a user’s social circle, it will start inserting content created by trusted contacts into search results.
So if I type “SEO” into Social Search, I may see a blog post by Danny Sullivan, a Matt Cutts Tweet about a new Google development and a Flickr album posted by my co-worker from his trip to the Social Networking Conference in Miami. I’d get these results because I subscribe to Search Engine Land in Google Reader, follow Matt Cutts on Twitter and communicate with my co-worker in Google Chat. Pretty cool, huh?
Watch this video from Google for a visual demonstration of how Social Search works.
While Google’s universal search broadened the amount of content that appears in search results, social search limits it. This function of Social Search has the potential to change the way Internet marketers think about SEO.
To optimize for Social Search, SEO professionals should start:
Establishing a strong social media presence
Simply put, the more connections you have, the more people you’ll be able to reach through Social Search. It’s not enough to set up Facebook and Twitter accounts that you never touch; you need to build a strong network by regularly posting valuable content. While this requires plenty of extra time and work, it will eventually pay off by providing you with a strong base of supporters who care about what you’re going to say.
Creating quality content
If you’re able to produce original, insightful and useful content, you’ll do well in Social Search. As you create quality content, people will start connecting with you because they’re interested in what you have to say. If your content is really good, your readers will start linking to you from their social media profiles. Pretty soon, you’ll start appearing in the Social Search results of people who have never even heard of you because one of their friends liked your content enough to link to it.
Connecting with bloggers
By convincing bloggers to talk about you, you’ll have a better chance of showing up in the Social Search of people who would not otherwise be connected to you. Try to connect with bloggers by sending them great content and ideas, not generic pitches or shameless self-promotion. Just like anything, you’ll have to give something of value to receive something of value.
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1 Comment so farOne Response to “How Does Social Search Affect SEO?”
Social Search may be a breeding ground and faster distribution system for viral content. Just imaging how fast a video or website could spread through large friend networks if it starts coming up in all the users' related Google searches. Wildfire!