The age of social media has taught us all to be very economical. Look at Twitter: looking to emulate the 160-character limits of SMS, updates are limited to just 140 characters (leaving the extra 20 for usernames), forcing us to be very sparing with our words. As a result, completeness is traded off for frequency, as information now comes in short bursts.
In response to character limits, users have adapted by getting creative with words, images and video to convey information. After all, a picture may be worth a thousand words, but long and convoluted URLs eat up precious character space. Services such as Bit.ly, Ow.ly and TinyUrl have come to the rescue, though, offering a way to truncate URLs while still leaving room for clever commentary.
Goo.gl, Google’s URL shortening service, is the latest entrant into the market. In a landscape saturated with competitors, Google is hoping to stand out by:
- Promising its three S’s: stability, speed and spam protection.
- Delivering the service complete with analytics, providing valuable data on traffic sources and demographics.
- Generating a QR code for the URL, which allows you to scan it with your Smartphone and directly access the link.
As usual, now that the 800-pound gorilla has come on board, it’s time to pay attention. With Google Realtime and now Goo.gl, Google has shown it’s serious about dedicating substantial resources to social media, rather than just treat it as a subset of traditional search. Read: this indicates that Google feels that social media is the future of search. Rather than valuing static content, it’s likely that Google will increasingly look at the frequency and spread of content in its ranking algorithm.
Goo.gl reflects an undeniable trend: social media is an integral part of SEO.
Therefore, while a service like Goo.gl might seem a little innocuous – “it’s just a URL shortening service, right?” – its presence alone reflects an undeniable trend: social media has become an integral part of SEO. No longer just about sending out timely updates or listening to customer conversations, social media has extended its reach to influencing rankings and visibility, and that means smart marketers need to act accordingly.