Comments on: Have Social Media and Ecommerce Become a new SEO Tool?

By: Erin

Erin — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:09:17 +0000

SEO is not an exact science. Google purposefully changes its algorithms periodically as to avoid anyone taking control over any particular keyword or phrase.

However, there are two things that are consistent insofar as how to achieve high search engine results ranking: keywords and links.

Keywords, as expected, will help people find your site.

Links, as Google and other Search Engines see it, are considered a means to show your “expertise” on a certain subject. The more sites, people, things, etc. that link to you (as well as inbound links and outbound links your site has), the more your site appears to be an expert on the topic. Google and the other search engines report query results based on which site seems like the best “expert” on the topic.

While you could buy billions of visits, the tactic would only work in the short term as Google also has been known to punish (for lack of a better word) sites it feels have abused the system. At that point, the sites who appear to have purchased their way to the top are sent to the back of the search engine line.

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:51:36 +0000

You have a good point here. I know that Twitter is starting to feed the engines with results but not sure what Erin was getting at in that statement.

Erin? Can you clarify?

By: blackhalo

blackhalo — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:43:52 +0000

YOU WROTE:
“The more you entice potential customers to come to your site, the more inbound traffic you’ll receive. This, in turn, results in higher search engine rank.”

This statement is totally wrong…
inbound traffic has nothing to do with Search Engine rankings.

If what you say is true… I could purchase Billions of visits from exit traffic, popunders, etc… and ultimately dominate the number one position for every keyword I choose.

Google and SEO is nowhere near that easy…
the only value in social marketing is word-of-mouth and direct traffic.