Search Engine Domination

As we approach 2010, the buzzwords in cyberspace are full of “social media”, “SMO” and “social networking”, but how does this impact on you?

Many organisations perceive themselves as too small to make use of social media and cannot see the real benefit of utilising these powerful sites.

Traditionally, the role of an SEO has been to achieve first page results for certain keywords. And why not? The holy grail for all businesses is the “position 1 in Google”.

The traffic and confidence that a position 1 result generates is tremendous, but how much thought goes in to the other 9 results?

The average business has a number of routes to achieve high first page results for a particular keyword. On-page optimisation, off-page optimisation and pay-per-click all play their part in good ranking for certain phrases. But each of these carry their own positives and negatives for reaching the end goal.

Social media has changed this. There are now many different ways to achieve a first page listing and Google is loving Web 2.0 properties at the moment.

From real time Twitter results to the pure Page Rank of social media sites, the first page is now a battleground for SEO’s.

Hubpages, Squidoo Lens’, Facebook groups are all being indexed and ranked highly if optimised correctly and each is a result in its own right.

Whereas the traditional SEO will optimise your site to rank highly, the real objective should be to dominate the SERP’s for a particular search term. Why have one position when you can have 30 out of the top 50?

By utilising Social Media correctly, your website could be ranking for its blog posts, a hub page, a squidoo lens, a facebook group, your linked in and twitter profiles. Each one referencing your primary site, but also occupying the results page.

Not only does this lead to more traffic and therefore sales, but it prevents your competition from even getting close.

Who wants a first page listing? I want the first 7 positions!