Backlinks or Social Signals for SEO?

There has been a lot of talk lately about the importance of social signals for SEO.  For the last several years the push for higher search engine rankings has been to get more backlinks but now there is a new factor making SEO’s think hard about their current strategy.

Like +1 Tweet Signals

Yes, the days of just getting backlinks to your website are over.  It has been much too easy for SEO’s to game the system using blog networks and automation software to build countless backlinks to their client sites.  Now Google is demanding greater proof that a site is actually popular with real people and not just fabricated articles and blog posts.  It’s important to get real people to vote for your site and your posts by getting them to Tweet, Like, and Google +1 your posts.

These social signals are actual proof from real people.  Sure, there are already automated bots doing this type of work as well but it brings SEO into a new phase.  The gold rush for backlinks may be dwindling down as a new gold rush for Tweets, Likes, and +1′s enter the market.  If you own an SEO business, what will you do to adapt to the change?