Thanks for stopping by. I think we are both near enough in agreement, but just to go through some of your points.

In terms of social properties being used in the affiliate world. This is more for link wheels etc i.e. tactics used to gain more links. I don’t feel people use them to try create social signals around their quality, I could be wrong. I used to create link wheels around some of my sites, but they were pretty rubbish. In terms of bots auto social submitting, again, this is usually used to get content indexed.

If you read David Harrys post, there is a lot in it. But one interesting point is how Google “may” use a users social graph to personalise results further. This would mean spamming the results would be pretty difficult. You wouldn’t spam your own results.

In terms of your overall point. I agree there is no indication of how/is Google would use social in the main index as yet and it can be frustrating when you hear people saying it’s happening already, that natural link building is dead.

My point in the above was its very much dependent on the market, competition + site – there is no one size fits all. If people are going make claims that natural link building is dead, it would be good if they backed it up with specific examples of sites they have ranked on social strategies alone.

Thanks again

I mean you know this, since you claim to be an affiliate right? It is alreayd happening. Pligg, WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Twitter bots, etc. It is just not happening on as large a scale because guess what, it is not a huge factor.

Linking will always be the #1 factor, it is the foundation of the algo and will not change. The entire algo would crumble if they devalued linking and the SERPS would be so much worse. Everyone complains but the SERPS are actually pretty damned good right now and have improved over time.

Sorry for the tone, but I just get so pissed with everyone making these wild claims about social media and the future of ranking factors. I smell one huge lot of link baiters when I hear about this stuff, and guess what it stinks. I'd love to hear where I am wrong.</rant>

Thanks for stopping by. I think we are both near enough in agreement, but just to go through some of your points.

In terms of social properties being used in the affiliate world. This is more for link wheels etc i.e. tactics used to gain more links. I don’t feel people use them to try create social signals around their quality, I could be wrong. I used to create link wheels around some of my sites, but they were pretty rubbish. In terms of bots auto social submitting, again, this is usually used to get content indexed.

If you read David Harrys post, there is a lot in it. But one interesting point is how Google “may” use a users social graph to personalise results further. This would mean spamming the results would be pretty difficult. You wouldn’t spam your own results.

In terms of your overall point. I agree there is no indication of how/is Google would use social in the main index as yet and it can be frustrating when you hear people saying it’s happening already, that natural link building is dead.

My point in the above was its very much dependent on the market, competition + site – there is no one size fits all. If people are going make claims that natural link building is dead, it would be good if they backed it up with specific examples of sites they have ranked on social strategies alone.

Thanks again