The Social Media Revolution Continues To Invade Search

by Jason SiegelFebruary 10, 2011

Social networking and search engine optimization will be forever linked and integrated for progressive marketing strategies. Good marketers know that the two work hand in hand and the linkage is growing more powerful daily. This graphic summarizes the Social SEO cycles in today’s hyper-connected environment.

As innovation in search and social continues, these platforms and ecosystems will continue to find valuable integration pathways between one another. As brands fight for relevancy and stay on the edge of what’s hot, the two systems truly need one another. I believe these brand categories will blur into a consolidated category. Will this just be “media” or will this be truly “digital media.” User experience consultants can help their clients by creating digital media strategies to embrace these changing times.

Here are 10 reasons to rethink your social strategy with a complete SEO integrated layer:

1. Search engines are smarter than ever before. You must embrace their new inteligence. The value of truly earned organic, editorial links will only continue to increase in value.

2. Earned links are the modern media hit factories of yesterday. A strong social strategy will earn a growing amount of editorially-earned links daily.

3. Being fresh with your editorial pace and content will enable you to get more link baits for authoritative domain fish out in the sea.

4. Frequent Updates = frequent visits by spiders, humans and everything in between.

5. Social web success brings increasing returns. Likes and other rating systems influence search algorithyms.

6. Social is sustainable. An honest, well-nurtured community strategy will naturally progress, keep you focused, and build domain authority.

7. Links aren’t good enough. You need strong PR digitally and offline. Strong endorsements contextually to your brand will help your digital reputation strategy.

8. Ride the wave. With 600 million people spending 30 minutes a day on Facebook, your focus should be there.

9. Social scavengers produce links more likely than any other first-time brand user.

10. Stay compelling and of high quality when producing content.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Why should social and SEO be planned together, not separately?

Social signals accelerate discovery while SEO sustains visibility-together they create a flywheel. Shares, comments, and links from social channels generate the editorial signals search engines reward. Meanwhile, SEO ensures your best social content is structured, crawlable, and discoverable long after the first burst. An integrated plan compounds results instead of splitting effort across silos.

What does 'earned links are the new media hits' really mean?

In the past, PR wins created awareness; today, organic editorial links create authority that search engines honor. A strong social strategy increases the odds that journalists and creators will reference your work. Those citations function like modern front-page headlines for algorithms. They boost both rankings and credibility with real audiences.

How does publishing freshness influence search and social performance?

Consistent, high-quality updates invite frequent crawling and habit-forming audience behavior. Freshness gives fans new reasons to engage and gives search engines new content to index. Over time, cadence builds brand reliability and increases the surface area for links. It’s the foundation of a durable social-SEO loop.

Do likes and ratings actually affect rankings?

While platforms don’t share every signal, engagement often correlates with more linking and sharing. Those secondary effects are directly measurable and influence search authority. High-quality interactions also validate relevance, which supports better click-through and dwell time. Together, these signals help pages perform higher in results pages.

What role should PR play alongside links?

Links alone are insufficient without context and reputation. Digital and offline PR provide authoritative endorsements that shape how algorithms and humans interpret your brand. By aligning PR narratives with content strategy, you earn higher-quality citations. That combination strengthens both reputation and ranking resilience.

Where should brands concentrate effort within the social-SEO ecosystem?

Focus on platforms with critical mass for your audience and content type, especially where sharing is habitual. Prioritize Facebook-scale networks for reach, but tailor assets for each channel’s native behaviors. Measure which communities produce editorial links and iterate there. The goal is sustained relevance, not one-off spikes.