Are Relationships Now the Key to Relevance Online?

Are relationships finally becoming the new direction for SEO or search engine optimisation? Google has really taken social media to the next level with the enhancements made to Google Social Search. I tip my hat to Google, they have recognised the way people now interact online using social media and have evolved their search engine to include this relevant information. Relationships are now even more important online as a result of the changes they have made.

New and Improved Social Search

Google has developed their Social Search further by making sure you will be provided relevant information from people that you have relationships with. For example, if you are thinking of going to Melbourne for dinner and your friend Adam has already done so and written about it on his blog, his post could be included in the search engine results along with an image and a note. You can even see the links your friends, colleagues, associates and family share on sites such as Twitter.

Google has also provided you more control and convenience in connecting your accounts. You can publicly connect your accounts on your profile in Google and you also now have the option of doing it privately if you prefer.

Google have even made it easier for us. If the algorithms find a public social media account that could be yours because it has the same username, they will invite you to connect that to your profile. Although you will only be able to get social results when you are logged into your Google account, you can expect that search results will be more personalised according to your interests and your relationships with others. You can be sure more and more people will start logging on to Google as a result.

Relationships is the New Relevance

Looking at these changes from an SEO perspective, you can safely say social media and relationships are even more important when it comes to online marketing and search.

If this is the direction that SEO is headed, shouldn’t you take advantage of it? What can you do? For starters, you cannot enjoy the benefits of Google’s Social Search if you do not have a Google account. If you already have one, then update your Google profile by adding more connections. Once that’s done, make use of Google Reader to share information. This is bound to make you more visible in real-time search results. Although Facebook results may not be as likely to appear, you should certainly capitalise on Twitter since these results tend to appear rapidly. And of course, keep on blogging!