There is so much talk on the internet about developing friends on facebook, twitter and other social media. Many people tout the social media as being a great way to find people to develop relationships with, or a circle of "friends" to market to. I sometimes think that the most important reason for having accounts with the social media is overlooked.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is something we all should strive for when marketing. As much as it is wonderful to have a following on Twitter or Facebook, there is nothing that can take the place of a surfer who found your website through a search engine. I know what I am talking about. Since Waiora launched their WaiFIT weight management products, I have managed to have my www.WeighFit.com site at number 1 position in Google for the search term WaiFIT. I even come in ahead of the corporate site WaiFIT.com, and for Waiora Waifit I rank #2 (although I am working on that. )

Why is that important?

Search engine placement is crucially important for anyone who is building an online business. When talking about WaiFIT, in keeping with my example, consider that a few people worldwide who search for waiFIT are searching because a distributor told them about it. Those people landing on my site are likely going to go back to their distributor friend to order. What about those people who heard about it from a friend of a friend, or through someone’s advertising. (Believe it or not, there are people who advertise without offering clear directions to people on how to find them). I get a lot of traffic from those sources every day BECAUSE I am in the #1 or #2 position on Google.

This is very good for business now, but consider that the product only launched a few weeks ago. If I continue to work on my SEO (search engine optimization) imagine the traffic a year from now when hundreds of people have had positive weight loss experience using WaiFIT.

Ok, so this brings me back to my topic..

Using Social Media for SEO

We’re not talking about gathering a bunch of strangers to market to. I am simply referring to links that appear on facebook, twitter or other high traffic. It’s as simple as that! Google LOVES social media because they get HUGE amounts of traffic. Since Google strives to provide relevent search results, it makes sense that their robots will actually find and index your site faster if the link is on a social media site, and it will also give your link a heavier weight, than if it is found on a site that gets little to no traffic.

The idea isn’t to tweet your link, although tweeting your link WILL help google find your page. What you really want is to put your clickable link right in your profile. Create a facebook profile, a myspace profile, a DIGG and a Stumble profile… place your link and description in all of these profiles… and don’t overlook the power of Technorati, and Blog Catalogue if you have a blog. so the next time you are tweeting, remember that QUALITY is king whether talking the size of your networks OR link backs for SEO.

If everyone valued quality as much as Google does, there wouldn’t be a need for 23,087 followers!

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