Google and Bing have both now changed their algorithms to incorporate social media. Google uses more than 200 different ‘signals’ to rank the pages, in response to any search. Some of these signals are well-known, such as:

·      how authoritative a page is deemed to be

·      anchor text pointing at a page

·      HTML title tags, and whether the words you searched for appear within them

Many other factors play a part and Bing also uses a complex recipe — or algorithm — of signals to determine ranking. Social signals are often included in this mix. For example, both search engines have ways to determine if someone seems to be an “authority” or a trusted figure on Twitter, which they use within their social search features.  Google + is also increasing in its influence.

Similarly, Facebook’s social data is coming to search in a big way. The use of key words and tags is more important than ever in social networks, blogs and micro-blogs like twitter, as are the accumulation of other sites pointing at yours. Whilst social media is only a part of the way these search engines rank sites, it is nevertheless an important part and one that you need to be involved in.