Well, it’s official. Google announced last week that they will be incorporating “social” into mainstream search results, placing more emphasis on the social connections that you have in addition to serving up relevant content pages. Translation: most likely, no two people will get the same results when they search, and they’ll also find results from the people who matter to them prominently placed!
The Importance of Your Online Reputation
Recently we wrote a post entitled “Why Online Reputation and Influence Matter More than SEO“, which emphasized aiming for the social sharing of your content versus focusing on traditional SEO. The post also discussed the importance of shaping your personal and business online reputation. What do you see when you Google yourself? From that perspective, it’s important to build keyword optimized social profiles, claim your local listings pages (Google Places), and blog about topics that are of interest to your target markets. All of these efforts can help you get discovered by your ideal clients and allow them to learn more about you. (Get the FREE ebook about “Taking Control of Your Online Reputation).
Social Search Results and What It Means for You
The implications of social search results are extremely important because it means that you can actually generate relevant traffic and leads to your blog depending on who you are connected to, who they are connected to, AND who they are connected to! (the social graph) What it boils down to is this: who is sharing your content with their respective networks, and what content are YOU sharing that is relevant to your connections?
Traditional SEO
Prior to Google integrating your social graph into search results, you had to focus solely on optimizing your content. You should still commit to SEO fundamentals for your blog, which includes producing great content for your target markets, but I think it’s safe to say that most of us would much prefer to generate relevant traffic and leads from our extended social connections than having to rely heavily on traditional SEO techniques. The return on that investment is not great for professional advisors who depend on referrals to grow their practices!
The Size of Your Trusted Network and Your Participation Matters
The size of your network and your level of participation are both going to be crucial for getting found online. How active are you in participating and engaging with those people you are connected to? Social media also allows you to build visibility and trust with people whom you’ve never even met, particularly if you’re creating valuable content on topics that matter to your community. It’s not just who you know, but who knows you?
If you haven’t created and optimized your social profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, and Slideshare to begin building your trusted network, do so as soon as you possibly can (or get help with building your social media portfolio). Even if you can only participate on a personal level due to the regulatory environment, do so. We build relationships around shared interests and that is no different online. Being “connected” to a high quality network in the age of social media will be the foundation for your future business success, no doubt about it. The longer you wait, the further behind you are going to be. It takes time to build those connections and grow your influence!
How to Get Found Through Google Social Search
How do you make sure your getting included in Google’s social search?
1)Make sure you’ve created a Google Profile account and that you’ve linked up all of your social accounts. This is how Google determines the make up of your social graph.
2)Share high quality, relevant content with your social connections. That content can be created by you and shared from your blog, or it can be content that others have produced across the social web. The point is, make sure you carve out time to commit to social media participation.
3)Participate more heavily on sites such as Twitter and Quora, a new Q&A site. These real-time updates are getting indexed by Google!
Whether you are a thought leader creating your own content or someone who prefers to curate high quality content, focus on becoming a resource to your niche markets.
A Relevant Example
I recently conducted a Google search using the keywords “retirement planning for business owners“. The number 4 result underneath the ads on Google page one was an article from a financial advisor blogger, Jeff Rose, who also happens to be a part of our Wired Advisor Blog Network. Because I’m connected to Jeff in various social networks, his search result ranks higher for me. The new “social” search results included a tiny thumbnail image of Jeff, and a comment that says “Jeff shared this”. The link leads directly back to the relevant article that matches my search terms on his blog. I am much more likely to click on the result from someone who I know, like, and trust than the other results!
Search results from my social network connections
Imagine this same scenario with the friend of an existing client. Your client’s friend searches for the term “producing retirement income” in Google, and your client pops up in his search results showing that he’s shared an article on this topic from your blog with his network! Are you following me? The possibilities are endless but hopefully you are beginning to understand how this can work for you.
(One thing to keep in mind is that search results can vary depending on whether or not the searcher is logged into their Google account, but realize that there are potentially a couple of hundred million people or more with Google accounts.)
Create Share-worthy Content for Your Connections
What if you have no original content to share? I thoroughly believe that the content creators are going to have the upper hand in a wired world. Just like this blog contains original content created specifically for our target audience, it is key to getting found online and for generating traffic where people can learn more about our us. We also participate in curating high quality content from others that we believe to be valuable to our network.
Now it’s more important than ever to consider blogging as a strategy for building your online visibility because you can and will attract relevant traffic and leads into your business via social sharing. Not only that, but it gives you tremendous credibility and authority in your target markets.
Another great article was written about Google’s new social search over at Duct Tape Marketing entitled “The New SEO is About Relationships and Relevance“, by John Jantsch. I would highly recommend that you read it!
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