by Zakary Venturo

Created on: November 04, 2010

When something is hot, it is hot right now, not tomorrow. Traditional SEO techniques are tactics designed for the long haul. To be overly simple, traditional SEO is about links, domain age, and the right mix of keywords without the content sounding robotic. The real world just does not have the patience to wait for breaking news and hot gossip. Neither does search.

While Google, Bing, or Yahoo can monitor headlines and provide a chronological list on any topic, search bots are not capable of understanding what makes a hot page hot. Think Data from Star Trek the Next Generation, no matter how advanced his algorithm, grasping why a joke was funny eluded him.

Social media provides a way around these limits of logic in a can. Links can be diligently counted on Twitter, Facebook is already totalling the number of likes, and bookmarking sites are giant repository for what is popular both today, last week, and even last year or longer. It does not take a genius to realize these numbers have something to do with serving up relevant results people will want to connect with.

This reality has already begun changing how SEO works. Sure, the basics still matter. Search engines still need to index the page, but SEO companies have already begun adding their content to social media sites, complete with automatic abilities to Tweet and/or update a Facebook page and a variety of other sites.

Yet a tweet has no real value unless it is part of a wave of tweets, re-tweets, Facebook likes, and Diggs. SEO has long placed tiered value on links as most links on the web contain a “no follow” attribute, and while this attribute might mean something in the scheme of things, “no follow” is a distinction which becomes meaningless as the hit counts rack up.

What it all really means for SEO is there is no substitute for talent as search engines are beginning to key into a statistic measuring real people’s interest in web content. It is not enough to satisfy the bots, the only way content gets passed around the web is if it peaks the interest of real people.

It also means a niche networks focusing on a specific topic might be a far better target than Twitter or Facebook to gain popularity. A site like DIYDrones, for instance, is a far more suitable place for harnessing popularity with UAV hobbyist. Sure those links might end up back on Twitter or Facebook, but with the potential for huge exposure.

The bottom line is the practice of SEO still needs to keep a well trained eye on the basics while realizing as the web grows, so does it social components. Hubs of activity are everywhere these days, being blinded by the social media giants like Twitter and Facebook will only limit an effective SEO campaign. Want to talk sports? Go to ESPN. The rise of social media means SEO has to gain people skills.

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