I recently read an article about the so-called Web 2.0 and search engine optimization. The writer suggested that while interesting, there's no particular advantage from an SEO perspective to these websites.

I think that's a matter of perspective. In fact, I think she was dead wrong. Blogs, Wikis, social networking sites and all the newest forms of user interaction with various websites are all designed to do one thing. Add content. Hopefully that content is interesting and useful to potential future visitors but for search engine optimization purposes, more content is fantastic.

The reality is if I spend time writing a webpage and Google indexes that webpage, the content that I write adds to my search engine prominence. If however, I have a blog like this one and someone decides to make a comment about something that I say here, then I get my content PLUS your content. Maybe I agree or disagree with what you said, but Google doesn't particularly care about your opinion of this blog.

Google does like seeing more content that has relevant keywords spread throughout.

Of course Google will index what I say AND what you say. There you have it, more content. Best of all, I didn't have to pay you for your comments and you have helped my search engine rankings. Content, for search engine optimization, is king. The more of it, the better. (Feel free to leave a comment about this article!)

So is there an advantage to Web 2.0? You bet! It's free content. There is a balance of course, but type in almost any technical term into the Google search engine and likely the first result you'll get is a Wikipedia entry. Wikipedia is of course completely created by unpaid editors. The most popular sites on the Internet are YouTube, MySpace and Facebook which are all created completely by users.

Should you incorporate Web 2.0 features in your website? Absolutely,as they fit with your particular business. A blog or review section where users can post comments is the most basic and easiest way to get started. If you run a hotel add a place to put reviews (although now you can apparently include TripAdvisor reviews right on your own website!). Start an interesting blog and encourage feedback. Let users upload videos, Youtube style. Start a user group forum if you sell software.

Encouraging participation gets extra content for your website for no charge. This is a huge advantage for search engine optimization. By encouraging participation you also get something even better: an engaged audience. Engaged audiences do something search engines don't do. They actually buy products and services. I'll post a Web 2.0
article soon that will lay out the basics of incorporating the next generation of user interactive experiences to your site.

Labels: search engine optimization, SEO, Web 2.0