Social Media Metrics coming to an algorithm near you - Part 1
March 18, 2008
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Lets face it, the underling algorithms used by the top players in search are slowly becoming archaic. We are fast approaching a time when the need for new algorithmic
measures are becoming more and more important. Gaming is as rampant as ever, and the playing fields are getting more skewed by the day. In many industries, if you do not have deep pockets, then you will not be able to compete. No matter how great of a product offering you have, nor how exceptional your content is.
Social media metric integration into the algorithms can potentially alleviate this ever growing problem we are seeing today.
Most people don’t think of Social Media as having a direct impact potentially on the more traditional form of search engine rankings. This is an ever evolving field and I can ensure you as time goes on the big 3 will be looking into integrating these metrics more and more.
Hand checking every single website on the face of the planet simply is not possible, even though Google is trying. The real power is letting the user do this, and integrating an algorithm around it that allows sites to be ranked via textual queries, at the same time not being easily gamed.
The time is approaching that the big players will start utilizing other metrics to take the weight off of backlinks. The backlink mechanism that has created what we see today when we search for queries has done a great job so far, however is becoming outdated and stale. There are many different kinds of social metrics that the search engines could possibly use. If you are wondering what specific metrics they could use, you will just have to wait as I unveil some of the potential technologies in my follow up post.
Comments
2 Responses to “Social Media Metrics coming to an algorithm near you - Part 1”
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Nice post Brian. Social media/web 2.0 sites are *already* influencing rankings—and you’re right, as time goes on, I think we’ll see more of this. In some markets, you can claim the top 10 spots (or more) by using parasite SEO and getting backlinks from social bookmarking/social media sites. There are a number of people nailing the SERPS using this strategy:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ip-eBjlEJGg
http://www.conversationdomination.com/sneakpeak.html
New web 2.0 sites (i.e. Weebly, Scribd, Yuku, Swik) are cropping up every day—and most of them rank well with a handful of backlinks from social bookmarking/social media sites. I doubt that adding social media metrics into search algorithms will do much to deter gaming. No matter what the engines do, there will always be loopholes and gaming. Good stuff - keep writing.
P.S. That’s a scary-looking caveman.
@ Christy
There are two issues you brought up.
First off the parasite conundrum, Google is going to have to get its arms around that one before it gets out of control. I have done tests myself that have taken up 7/10 spots pretty easily.
Mainly what I am suggesting is that Google (and others) are going to start incorporating other metrics into the algo that will lessen the impact backlinks have. The data is being collected, it’s just a matter of time tell it is incorporated properly, and like you said, cannot be easily gamed.