The joys of social search. And regular old search, too (Small Business E-commerce Link Digest – October 23, 2009)

Lots of interesting bits this week in the world of social search, search engine marketing and social marketing. So, let’s get right to it:

• The big news this week is the coming of social search, with both Microsoft and Google signing deals with Twitter. We’ve been wondering when social search was going to happen for a while now. Nice to see the big boys get in the game.
• Speaking of search, SEOmoz offered an amazing look at top factors driving rankings. While they get into some (truly) gory details, it’s well worth the read because of some of its counter-intuitive findings. And I quote:
  

  • Links are important, but naive link data can mislead. It seems wise to get more sophisticated with link analysis.
  • H1s (and H2s-H4s) probably aren’t very important places to use your keywords
  • Keyword stuffing may be holding you back (particularly if you’re outside the top 15 results and overusing it)
  • Likewise, overdoing it with (not-so-great) links might be hurting you

  Good stuff.

• Of course, one of the biggest measures of social success is engagement. Google Analytics offers some outstanding new reporting tools for measuring engagement. Well, in beta, anyway. Though, as it’s Google, it’s all in beta, isn’t it?
• And, finally, Mashable ties it all together with an overview of five small business successfully using social media. Well worth the read.

Have a great weekend, Big Thinkers. We’ll see you back here on Monday.

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