Webmaster and online marketers are scrambling about to ensure that all bases are covered when it comes to social media sharing. Surely, 7 times out of 10 this is now more because of SEO – shifts in the Google algorithm are now ensuring that unsociable link builders get all sociable!
However, if your content approach hasn’t changed, then sharing in some areas of your website could be virtually zero. Critically evaluate you content with the following points:
– What is the most compelling content in this industry space and do my efforts measure up?
– Can we carry out primary or desk research to provide new findings to our users that will spark debate and advocacy?
– Have I adhered to the perfectly optimised page layout (now including sharing icons – this article is a little bit old now…Google moves on pretty quickly!).
In a nutshell, Google tested over 6000 different aspects when devising the well publicised Panda update. Future updates will weed out more low quality sites and reward truly compelling, informative content. This is the sort of thing that has been blogged about for years but I do believe that it will be more common to see site doing well in the SERPs with smaller link profiles that enjoy high amounts of social media interaction…I have seen a few examples of this already.
So content isn’t completely king, but it ain’t far off now.