Social networking web sites might assume greater importance in the future in determining the listing position of web pages for search engine searches, and PageRank might assume lesser importance.
Before discussing that in more detail, Google holds the copyright for the term PageRank, and for that reason I shall henceforth refer to it as page rank.Google has publicly stated that the page rank of a web page is a significant factor in determining its listing position for any specific web search. However, recent Google activity has indicated that there might be some doubt as to how long this situation could last. There is already a buzz going round regarding the significance of Google acquisitions of Dodgeball and Meetroduction, and it has also been rumored to be interested in Facebook. Taken in context of Yahoo’s acquisition of Del.icio.us this indicates an increasing involvement of the major search engines in social network web sites.
There are now whispers that Google might be considering reducing the importance of page rank in favor of the relevance of your web pages to social networking and social bookmarking sites. Take Twitter, for example. This is run by Google, and there are thoughts in some quarters that the number of Twitter followers, the number of friends and comments and the number of such aspects of these sites as photo downloads and update frequency might all one day become relevant algorithm factors.
For those of you not au fait with social networking, Twitter is a relatively new site that allows people to tell each other what they are up to right now. It is termed a ‘micro-blogging’ service and it uses SMS and Instant Messaging as well as the online blog posts. Facebook is used a lot by college students and others to contact absent friends, but has also been used to stalk absent lovers and the like.
Del.icio.us is one of the better social bookmarking sites, though it is the existence of these sites that is significant, rather than how good or bad they are, or how they are being used. Even now, many of the search results on the major search engines are containing pages from these sites that provide little or no value to the searcher. They should have been filtered out, but have not been, which is why algorithm changes have been suspected.
Is it ethical for algorithms to be manipulated by major search engines such as Google and Yahoo to give preference in search results to social networking sites that these companies are associated with? They will likely argue, if indeed that is what is happening, that they can do what they wish with their own search engines. There is, however, no direct proof of this, only the fact that some strange results have been reported as appearing lately.
It might be that in order to maintain your position in the listings you will have to register with these sites and participate in them. Not that this is a bad thing, because I have registered with a large number and make regular postings, and it is fun. Some of the social network web sites are very interesting with lots of good information available. Each is different, and you can apply them according to what use you want to put them.
Much of the content might be juvenile and amateurish, such as is the case currently with Twitter, but others such as del.icio.us, dig and blinklist are pretty good. Technorati is a great site for developing backlinks and keeping your blogs up to date.
In my opinion, for what it is worth since I am by no means either an expert on the subject nor a seer, page rank and search optimization will always be important aspects in the calculation of search engine listing positions, though aspects of social networking web sites will be added. Keep an eye on Google acquisitions since as more of these sites join the Google network, then the more likely it will become for activity in these sites to become more relevant in the listing algorithms.
Get acquainted with Twitter. Google are unlikely to ignore it completely in their algorithms, although there appear to have been no changes yet. However, the buzz is there, so don’t bet your shirt that changes will not be made in the future.
It is my belief that article marketing will remain one of the best ways to develop page rank and attract visitors, but that elements of social networking web sites will creep into it.If you want to get ahead in the race, and be prepared if or when Google do make these changes, then you have just been given a clue as to what you must do.
It might be years away or it might be tomorrow. Who knows but Google? However, when it comes, if comes, I will be ready and you should be too unless you want to fall behind and find your websites and pages suddenly disappearing from the listings.
You don’t have to join all these social network sites, but you should become familiar with them and know that they exist.
