MoneyOnComputer

It is out and it is the way to go ...!

Backlinks is not the main focus for search engines and now you need to turn your focus more and more to social media, social networking, and social signals ...!

Only high, quality PR backlinks will still play a real role in your rankings ...if you do not feature on the social channels with your websites, products, and services, you have no chance of featuring high in the search engines!

I am interested in responses on this topic please - what have you heard thus far?

Sounds like you may have some worthwhile information up your sleeve, where did this infomation come from, would be good to hear more.

At some point you are true but for me and rest of 90% internet world,Google is the only search engine.And in context of google,unless it gets google+ or google buzz running smoothly there is no point in integrating social networks activity for SEO,it will only promote Facebook/Twitter so why should they do?

Some of this is true, but I have to tell you I do not get much in the way of traffic or even links back to my site from these sites. I just know they are a pain to keep updated all the time!

Rackermann wrote:It is out and it is the way to go ...!

Backlinks is not the main focus for search engines and now you need to turn your focus more and more to social media, social networking, and social signals ...!

Only high, quality PR backlinks will still play a real role in your rankings ...if you do not feature on the social channels with your websites, products, and services, you have no chance of featuring high in the search engines!

I am interested in responses on this topic please - what have you heard thus far?

Featuring high on search engines means nothing if your product is no good and you do not know your niche. Savvy shoppers do not look at the links on the top half of a search results page, they look at the lower half where businesses have not paid for the ranking, used little tricks for higher placement, and have fewer affiliate links on any blogs associated with their websites.

Social media might help, but your website or blog has to be more than search engine fodder.

Also.....

Social networks are great if you send folk directly from the social website to your "storefront". Starting a niche group on a social network builds your target audience faster than trying to jump through 2 extra hoops between lead and sale.

Keep things simple and focus on your product because word of mouth has more impact than being on the top of a Google page, IMHO.

I think social media helps but other posters are right. Google still has power too but that part takes work. So many people are so concerned with getting thousands of backlinks and ranking high in their niche that they tend to ignore the things that are really important (i.e. having a site that looks like trash or has nothing on it). You just have to do the best you can to get it out to the people that whatever you're trying to promote is really good and would be worthwhile to your target audience without coming off like you're spammy or you just made everything look pretty with no substance. That's the slow way but it works.

Well, dag MercyL, you really broke it down and what you've said makes a lot of sense. I'm glad about that because I am looking at some of these terms and tricks and I've been wondering if it was even worth trying to start a blog or forum. I go to places because when I do a search, they look like they have what I want and if when I get there, it looks squirrelly or poorly done, I'll leave.

I was beginning to wonder whether the content played a role in this anymore.

Social Signals are getting in trend today but yeah, that's also true that social signals are just one element of many that decide the final ranking of a website in Google. I think, content syndication is also has worth in SEO that can bring traffic and update your ranking.