what is the value of Social Signals in SEO

SEO or Search Engine Optimisation has come a long way since it first became a necessity in getting your information listed near the top of SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages) In the beginning it was purely in-page SEO, and that was fine.

but things have changed drastically see video at bottom of page

Along came the advent of Facebook and the social media revolution which changed the way that we as people communicate in ways that are still being investigated and documented. Many other social media platforms jumped up and started having an influence on information sharing and information flow between people at alarming speeds. People were suddenly sharing a whole lot of stuff online that did not make sense to businesses as it was purely of a social nature with people discussing things like

• where they would be spending the week end
• what we will be eating for lunch
• who is having an affair with my cousin
• what colour dress should be worn to a party
• what music is pleasant and what is crappy to listen to
• their personal love life
• their personal thoughts and social affairs
• whats going on at the office when the boss is out
• what movies to watch
• where I waste my spare time

This information was indexed in search engines and because of the size of the base web site that the social media platforms operated, and the size of the user base of these social platforms, results suddenly started appearing at the top of SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages) for many keywords and keyword phrases, which carried very little value to the person making the search request. 

Soon the marketing world stepped into the social media arena and started direct online marketing within the social media with alarming  results. These results were at first confusing to many within the search industry, especially those involved in SEO for web sites. The major search engines picked this up and started adding the value of social signals to their algorithms with strange results as they were very experimental.

As the search industry came to grips with the impact of the social media on search patterns things started to settle down and an understanding of how social signals should be interpreted by search engines began to emerge. At Info4u we realised that these changes required an integrated approach to all online marketing, as most SEA's (Search Engine Algorithms) use a large variety of issues from different locations to determine the value of any specific page before placing it in any SERP (Search Engine Results Page)

Info4u thus coined the acronym FUFISM or Functional User Friendly Integrated Social Media  to describe the our approach to all online marketing, as the Search Industry now requires a lot more information from you to place your online information anywhere near the top of its SERP's.

This short video by slingshot (www.slingshotseo.com) found at http://www.business2community.com  discusses some of the related issues focusing on social media issues around social signals and SEO