SEO World:

Social Media, Web 2.0, Social Marketing, Social Search, Social Networking, Gadgets, Apps, Widgets, Ajax, Web Services, Open Social–what does this all mean for your online business in 2008?

From 2004-2007, I spent serious time in search engine optimization, product research, technical application development and online marketing (SEO, PPC, link building, e-mail marketing, affiliate marketing, landing pages, copywriting) and delivery. What I learned is that there really are no secrets, just hard, continuous work: changing, tracking, monitoring and not ever giving up, no matter how frustrating (yes it is!). This work has helped me immensely. I wrote about many aspects of this and more than 15 years of learning in the Ultimate Guide to SEO, coming out in the spring.

However, without the work of other people and the networks I belong to, I would not be where I am today. The headline of this post references research from a group of people that I consider to be leading the online marketing space. Not only have these people made a serious dent in the online marketplace themselves, but their goals are similar to mine: educate, and provide stellar information that you can use for yourself.

Therefore, a combination of all the strategies you’ve learned should be included in your internet-marketing and search-marketing work (which includes search engines). But do not miss out on the single most important aspect of growth online: the social medium.

Look at the stats on this traffic graph. Can you see how fast Facebook has risen in 2007? Look at the red line–this is compelling data.

The toughest part is not understanding the importance of this data. Rather, it’s understanding how to execute within this fast growing, social media space.

For example, if you are in the B2B space, how can you leverage and take part in this huge growth and future explosion? Is it only meant for B2C? For example, does the ad network in Facebook even matter to a corporate business, since most believe it’s only for kids and teens anyway?

You may have it all wrong, as I am learning as well.

I wrote an article on social search and social media optimization awhile back, updated for 2008–I felt the movement, but had really no clue.

The proof of 617 million people that may help navigate the online chaos in 2008 is found below.

Click to download and see the controversial, but proven, results.

It might make your strategy and thinking change drastically for 2008.

The search landscape is changing. That’s nothing new. In fact, it changes all the time, for reasons you may not expect or even think about in your daily online work.

Your competitors are changing, the search engines are updating their algorithms and finding new ways of providing the best opportunity for relevancy (and sales). And - you (hopefully) are also adapting; adding content and tuning your sites for optimial organic results placement. Talk about a moving target!

On top of that, spammers and black hat seo artists are constantly trying to beat the search engines - creating a volatile place for any sense of normalcy.

Example: I was doing some research using geo-targeted keywords. I noticed that a previously #1 page listing on Google was pushed to page #2, and it seemed so sudden.

What the heck happened?

Answer: Universal Search - a new search engine results format, a new way of presenting data - capturing video, maps and more from the emerging “social” aspects of the web.

How do you fix your ranking problem in this diversified way of looking at data?

• Get a blog, post regularly - read more on how to start here: blogging tips & setup.
• Get your business into “local” - go to Google Maps Local Business Center and check free or paid
• Mobile Search - early adopters are finding this an exciting area to play - watch for more in this blog.
• Video - Create and Upload to Google Video, YouTube, MetaCafe, Blinx.tv - use keyword rich filenames + video sitemap. If you are launching these videos from within pages, make sure to apply all normal SEO rules - TITLE, META + content with keywords.
• Images - A highly underused (!) area for optimization. Imaging corporate logos or branding lost via image search, or worse yet - a completely inappropriate image next to a news release. ALT attributes and filenames are very important to describe the image. You should also look at “watermarking” these exposed images. A popular service is flickr.com
• Press Releases/News - Use a service like prweb.com and make sure to make it newsworthy - include special mentions of product releases, local conventions you will participate in, training, etc
• eCommerce - make sure to include your product feeds into the ’shopping engines’.
• Logs - check your metrics and watch for increased traffic from these new sources - and continue working.

(disclaimer: just adding these tactics will move you in the right direction. However, there is ongoing work needed in this area, and it’s a long term committment). Don’t exclude this emerging and important new wave - and make sure to optimize for the social media.

A good example of how to see multiple entry points in Google results, is the famous Darth Vader example. (scroll up/down the page to see entries from images, news, products, video and more).

If you are only applying the old SEO strategies - you will be left behind in 2008 and the competition will race past you.