SEO is, by nature, fundamentally unstable. Sudden changes in search trends, competitor SEO practices and search engine filters (not to mention radical changes in the core code of a search engine algorithm as we saw taking place in 2009 with BING and 2010 with Google) can destabilize months of work. Expert optimizers make up for this inherent instability in their work by applying a host of test techniques on Google, Yahoo! And BING and using the results they get from their test sites to optimize their customers’ websites. Over the course of a year or two the instabilities are cancelled by the applied work and the results can be guaranteed.

Google has a history of changing the game rules and ruining everyone’s day however and in this case there is no exception. The integration of Social Search in the Google algorithm and the personalization of the search results is the next, totally natural and not entirely unexpected step in the way the web is developing. Google was born on the web and it’s only natural they would follow the trend by allowing users of the world’s largest global search engine to personalize it the way they can personalize the activity feed on Facebook.

Cue for a commercial break, or at least a Google video which explains what the Google Social Search parameter really is (don’t forget to read on after the video is over to see exactly what it means for your SEO efforts). 

Dim lights Embed Embed this video on your site

Ok, now that you are wiser (and know at least the same as I do on the Google Social Search feature) you want to ask, ‘so what?’. Why is there such a big deal being made in the SEO world of something which seems so innocuous and, well, well-planned and user-responsive.

For a start let’s understand what the Social Search feature does. It enables the user who has set up his Google Profile to customize his search results according to the preferences of his own and his friends’ activities. Pretty cool if you really want to take advantage of “your friends’ trusted knowledge” as the Google video on the Social Search feature explains, but not so cool if you want to SEO your website to appear high, naturally on the Google organic search engine results pages (SERPs).

Suddenly your SEO efforts which were tailor-made for global search parameters (those defined by the search engine algorithm) became useless when faced with end-user defined ones (those defined by your preferences and those of your friends). To understand the impact of this imagine that you are selling SEO caps (I know not highly imaginative but SEO is a three-letter word which beautifully can be stencilled on a cap). Usually in order to reach your target audience (and find new customers) you would optimize your website for (you guessed it!) ‘SEO caps’ and related keywords. Now, however, this is no longer enough because the possibility exists that a large segment of your target audience is not really looking at the global search but is looking, instead, at the results to their ‘SEO cap’ query as defined by their friends and their preferences.

Nightmare! Instead of convincing the search engine that your site is cool (which is not that hard) now you need to convince individuals all over again (which is infinitely harder). It also takes the guaranteed nature of the result out of the equation (at least in the short-term) as success on convincing one of your friends to include your site on their preferences does not guarantee that the others will be equally convinced.

You now begin to see the picture. From a democratic, fair point of view the change is good. SEO and the web, after all, were (and are still) about the democratization of knowledge and the levelling of differences and this change in the way search will work is the monkey wrench in Black Hat SEO and even White Hat SEO and those who have pockets deep enough to afford either.

While this may make for a fairer web it does not much help your online business. You still need to be found, you still need to attract targeted traffic and you still need to publicize your website to those who may be interested in its products and services. This now requires twice the effort it did before (or at least it will once the Social Search feature starts gaining in popularity), you will need to optimize your website using conventional SEO techniques and, at the same time, employ a detailed social network outreach program designed to gain your site the popularity you need amongst real people so that it enjoys the high-profile presence you need it to.

Bottom line this makes SEO a little harder, a lot more labour intensive (which means more expensive if you decide to outsource it) and makes the results even longer lasting. It also firmly removes truly successful SEO from the purely mechanical (if it ever was that) to techniques which truly engage your target audience incorporating your site’s unique selling points (USPs) and business identity. For those who truly add value to the web this is a win-win scenario and, possibly, an end to spam sites who only have deep SEO pockets and no real claim to high positions on the search engine results pages.

David Amerland is the author of the Search Engine Optimization book: SEO Help: 20 steps to get your website to Google's #1 page published by New Line Publishing and available to buy from Amazon.com and any quality bookshop. The ebook version of the book is available for Amazon Kindle as well as  Mobipocket, smartphone and Sony eBook Reader formats and available to purchase from any quality ebook retailer. You can also purchase it directly from this website. He masterminds winning SEO strategies for complex online business and helps the average webmaster get their site to the position it deserves. David has been instrumental in taking websites to the top of Google's first page in a way that has kept them there year after year. If you would like David to work on one of your SEO projects drop us a line with your request.