Do social networking websites work with or against search engine optimisation?

It is undeniable that social networking websites are having a greater influence on internet users and that the popularity of these websites is consistently increasing. More and more users are logging in to these websites to communicate with others and user numbers are soaring. Facebook recently announced a new record number of users and this is no surprise. Facebook and Twitter are currently two of the most successful social networking websites and because they are online, they are also having a big influence on search engine optimisation.

Businesses are utilising these social networking websites as SEO tools and some are doing so effectively with great results being achieved. As these websites are so popular and because they receive such a large number of visitors, pages from these websites are ranked highly in the search results of the major search engines such as Google and Bing. This provides businesses with an attractive SEO opportunity. If a business creates a profile on these websites and this profile features relevant and high quality content relevant to the business, it is likely to be ranked highly in the search results when a relevant search query is carried out. Regularly updating a profile with genuine and interesting content will help to attract the attention of the search engines and to be ranked accordingly.

Social networking websites can also be advantageous for site owners because of high quality links that can be established from websites like this. Again, a popular website will be viewed as a website of high quality and so links from a profile and from the profile of others on the site could be significant for the way the links to a business website are evaluated and how the website is ranked by the search engines.

While it is clear that social networking websites are helping businesses to improve their rankings in the search results and increase the amount of traffic that visits their sites, it is also the case that social networking websites are providing a suitable environment for users to find businesses without the use of search engines and therefore without SEO being relevant. So many different users within these online communities can recommend businesses and so many review businesses and services that it is quite easy for a user to find what they are looking for. Users make so many associates that it is possible for them to find businesses for their needs without having to try so hard. This means that search is actually taking place within the social networking communities and is not just reliant on search engine optimisation.

Social networking websites are currently working with those in search engine optimisation and also against those in search engine optimisation because of the way these systems operate.

At SEO Consult, we assist our clients to understand how social networking websites can help their SEO campaigns.  We advise them on how best to create and maintain effective business profiles that will help gain their websites more exposure and acquire more targeted traffic too.

Related posts:

1. Are your competitors using social networking websites successfully?
2. How to use social media websites in search engine optimisation
3. Two signs you should not be representing your business in social networking websites
4. NBC using social networking websites to promote new television show
5. How will information from social networking websites be ranked by Bing and Google?

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 10:47 am and is filed under Social Media SEO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.