Google recently introduced their new tool, Google SideWiki to create an annotated web browsing experience for any user willing to install the Google toolbar in their browser. Operators of brand websites are no doubt going to be frustrated by the idea of user-generated content outside their control surrounding the user experience of their website. However, there could be interesting opportunities here for marketers and tremendous advances for the consumer if the SideWiki adoption rate takes off.

Every year SEOMoz puts out a great study of what factors top SEO experts believe to be most important in impacting your rankings. Here is a link to this year’s study which puts a great deal of emphasis on the quality and variety of inbound links to your site. As much as I value the information in a study like this, I’m struck by the fact that SEO experts still remain obsessed with the concept of how to drive people to a single site. With all of the developments in social media content and services permeating the web we need to move away from our obsessions with our own site rankings and develop SEO models that are based on optimizing how we are found within the total search experience of the user.

The term “inbound marketing” tends to bring together the tactics of search and social media under one umbrella.  To me the theme that binds them all together is that they reach people during the natural course of whatever they may be doing online rather than interrupting that process with “Hey pay attention to me now” messages.  So here is my argument for a way to look at search as a social media activity.

Google is now spidering Tweets and pulling them into search engine result pages (SERPs). This means that if you Tweet for a specifc business reason and are concerned about your online visibility you will want to take some steps to make sure that your Tweets are optimized for organic search. Here some tips to help you get Twoogled:

Here is an interesting tool that analyzes the content of your website and reports back to you about what percentage of the content is self-focused or customer focused. It is not entirely accurate but is an intersting way of looking at your site that goes beyond typical SEO tools. I typed in two sites I know well and they both came back as 100% me-focused and 0% customer focussed.  Yikes!  That got my attention. How does yours turn out?
http://www.futurenowinc.com/wewe.htm

Inspired by the notion that many advertisers and marketers feel that they are held hostage by the constantly evolving paid and organic search landscape, an unnamed author has put forth the controversial idea the searh engines require government regulation. Before you whack me on the snout for suggesting such a thing, just give this a read.

Because of the many ways that social media content impacts the experiences of online searchers, we tend to put more emphasis on that area in today’s search optimization strategies. However, in this article by Michael Estrin, he documents several traditional SEO strategies that make solid sense. By paying attention to these principles in concert with an effective social media strategy you will see gains in your visibility via organic search.