by William Harrell

Much has been said about social networking and how it will effect the way we communicate going forward. However some fail to realize how it’s going to effect other things, for instance search optimization and online advertising.

Years ago banner ads were taboo. If you had them on your site then you obviously did not know about the glorious world of Google Adwords. Everyone soon switched to the Google Ad platform and used the paid ads on search platform to boost bottom lines and make life easier. Some companies like Zappos for instance have well documented cases where they relied very heavily on paid ad placement to drive sales. Organic search placement was placed on the back burner and paying to play became the norm.

Now we are in a new era, one where mobile and social will rule the search world. Localization through different channels will be the norm for all good SEO plans going forward and some out of the box thinking will have to be applied to get companies in the position to reap the benefits of mobile search. For instance, if an Apple iPhone user is using the “Siri” search to look for a hamburger place, Siri will use Yelp.com to find restaurants close to that person using the GPS coordinates in their phone. So if your hamburger joint’s SEO plan does not include localization using 3rd party sites like Yelp, meaning only using the major search engines like Google & Bing then your website might not even come up using this method.

Lets talk about social influencing search. Google+ and the +1 feature seems to be a simple way to give a page a little extra klout. What we are really looking at is the evolution of search. Having a social account with a number of influential friends will not only give you tons to read in the form of cute sayings and status updates about other peoples days, you will also get their recommendations (or +1′s) when you are searching. So two people, in the same location, of the same exact demographic will one day produce a completely different search and there is nothing you can do as far as traditional search optimization to stop it. Do not be too worried about your ad placement however because new avenues will open up in the form of paid status updates, mobile ad networks and social network ad placement which will take the place of the mobile Siri search that didn’t include your business.

Marketing your business online has never been easier and there has never been more ways to do it. The trick is finding a company that can use all these new and innovative techniques to engage customers and make them want to be involved with your brand enough to share your message and advocate your brand. This is what the new social web search will be about.