Posted by Chelsea Maxwell, Sr. Marketing Coordinator

Does social media participation have an effect on your website’s overall search rankings? This question is top of mind for companies anxious to drink the social media Kool-Aid, and the answer is both yes and no. While having a presence in the social space will not affect your placement in search engine rankings, it does give you visibility for both real-time and social search.

Google, Yahoo and Bing have all integrated social media into their search environments. This often pushes the “regular” search engine results below the fold in favor of real-time updates, meaning that social search is now taking up prime real estate in the search engines.

Participating in social media and receiving backlinks from social sites can have a positive impact on a website’s search engine reputation. However, remember that jumping into social media before you are ready is never a good idea. Get the basics down first. Then, when the time is right, examine what social outlets make the most sense for your company or brand.