Hello and welcome to another edition of ‘7 Days of Search and Social‘. It was fairly quiet out there last week as there are a few conferences/seminars and the like. No drama. No algo changes… nada. Man, this feels like th emiddle of August out there (usually the quiet time).

On with the news….

Lead Story

Understanding Search and Social

Oddly enough, for the first time in a long time, there really wasn’t a ‘lead story’ last week. There was no drama. There was no ‘big news’. Maybe its because the conference season is swinging, not really sure.

So, this week I thought I’d touch on something we talked about in our SEO training chat sessions (held each Friday) – getting a grip on social and SEO.

Far too many people seem to get focussed on the links… the followers… metrics that aren’t likely to mean much. On the other hand, very few seem to be talking about the updates Google made to its social search. More here;

Google Updates Social Search

This is an important oportunity because Google is actually adding and re-ranking sites in the top 10 of query spaces where your social circle might appear. This is no small change, but not really talked about much. If you’re not adapting for it, do so NOW.

Now on with the rest of the weeks news and views.

Quick Nav Links – Talk of the Town – Geek Central – Social Search – Going Vertical – Videos – Tools – Patents –

Talk of the Town

3 Content Strategies To Target Decision Makers By Search Intent – one of the areas I like to talk about that really isn’t much is; user intent. Meaning assessing WHAT the query is seeking to accomplish. This was a great post along that line which offers some interesting insight.

Google’s Page Segmentation Patent Granted – I bumped this one into the main section, from the geeks section, because it’s an area also not talked about much out there. This is an important concept which both Google and Bing are very interested in. Learn it now!

Headsmacking Tip #18: Use Discussion Search as Competitive Intel – Rand had some advice on using the discussions vertical (in Google) for doing some competitive research. Interesting stuff that I hadn’t thought of before (hate it when that happens).

Five Visionaries Sum Up The Future Of Search – sure, I wish they’d asked me so I could be a ‘visionary’ but ya can’t win ‘em all right? Some great insight here including my pals from Surf Canyon.

Link Building With Elizabeth Taylor – while a few folks gave her a hard time about riding the coat tails of the event, this post from Debra certainly is not. It does show not only a few good ideas, but an understanding of how to get the most from recent headlines.

Product Page SEO tips – was an short but important post via the Vertical Leap Blog. This is one area I also haven’t seen enough on and thought it was worth adding. Ecommerce SEO can be a very trying time, add this to your mandatory reading.

How SEO Consulting Has Changed – Jennifer wrote a thought provking post, via SNC, which looks at how our job has changed over the years.