Good post and seriously LOL’d at the puppy kicking reply. Most of my LOLs really aren’t ‘out loud’ IRL…this one was.

“I want to apologize for kicking your puppy somewhere in another life. I didn’t mean it. I’m just not smart enough to know that puppy kicking is not proper behavior. I promise to buy you a goldfish sometime to make up for it.”

I want to nominate this for the mythical coffee table book on ‘best blog or forum comment responses ever’

:)

Browse outsourcing/crowdsourcing/microworker sites – you’ve gotta admit that a lot of social media is gamed as well. Or should I say “manipulated to hell”? Ok. Maybe not quite as much as linkbuilding.

But… using microworkers to build fake buzz? Gotta ask… what’s honest, what’s real?

If only Joe Consumer knew…

Z..

2. Social media links are much more expensive in time/labor/money than other link types.

3. Social media traffic is worthless unless you are exceptional (which is what I think Aaron was referring to).

4. No damn person in the world is going to be loyal and socially commited to my viagra/diet pill/casino site, so unless you are making millions on SEO across numerous websites, I don’t want to hear about your “social media for SEO” crapola. Again, proving the point that those who know dont talk, and those who talk ….

This article is a superb example of why you’d make an IDEAL SEO.

Most of my clients who are on the first page of Google are there even with a smidgen of links. One of the reasons I am as successful as I am is because I come from a broader business management background. I’ve never given links the credit Aaron and half the SEO geniuses do because to me it’s always all been about the quality of the content, and the brand identity.

Like the dot-com bubble, and the economy bubble, focusing so much on links is a doomed strategy based on falsely believing “the tricks that work today work so well, I don’t need to consider whether the model will change tomorrow, and thus I can put all my focus on this one…”

Instead, the longer term history of business success, financial success, have always been about the core value. And the core value for any company on the web is their offerings and brand identity, which can today only be communicated through quality content and as of late, social media.

Properly evaluating keyword phrases goes so much futher because of that very fact- those phrases are a snippet out-take of what the offerings are or the brand identity is all about, and it’s going to take a massive paradigm shift in how the internet works (if ever) to get away from that reality. And social networking is to the web what out in the world events are from a brand building perspective.

You keep doing what you’re doing – or alternatively, if you want to one day become an actual SEO, call me – I’d hire you in a heartbeat!

First of all social media is a great means of building links. Now I don’t mean submit your site to Digg.com and you have an instant high PR backlink. The true link building value comes from when great content goes popularor goes viral on a sites like digg.com, reddit StumbleUpon, Twitter etc. and thousands of people are exposed to it. Then the links come naturally. So in other words I’m not concerned about the platform itself giving ma a backlink. The true link building value comes from people that are compelled to link to your content because the quality is high.

Now that being said I also agree that social media has enormous value other thank just link building. Such as building a brand, networking, getting your name out there and so on. I have so many great friends from around the world due to my involvement in social media. This is much more valuable to me than a high PR backlink.

In summary the benefits of social media can be enormous and many. I can’t imagine someone shunning a particular social site because it is no follow. I think that is a pretty narrow viewpoint. Not to mention even no follow links can hold some value. Maybe not from a page rank perspective but as you said the obsession with page rank has gone too far.

Great article! I tweeted to my 11657 followers just now. @the_gman ;-)

Well agree .. or hope … links have a declining influence on rankings.

As goes for Twitter the SEO people are really into this at the moment, and “spamming” with content and links to content.

Steen Ohman
Öhman Research – online marketing