With Google and Yahoo at our Fingertips and a personal network of friends, colleagues, classmates, and family to consult with through various social media websites like Facebook and MySpace, it’s no wonder that so many now rely on the internet to find what they are looking for. 

As we continue to invent more ways to keep our personal and business lives free from distractions like unwanted telemarketing calls, annoying radio ads, and time-consuming TV commercials, many business owners have come to realize they must change their traditional ways of marketing.  

This same trend has changed how major search engines list websites within the organic search engine results. Just as we trust the judgment of those close to us, Google is looking to solidify the relevancy of your content through recommendations of other websites. This includes links from trusted resources amongst the most popular social media websites.    

Recent studies released by SEOmoz show that the ranking algorithm for the top search engines is only 15% for on-page keyword usage, whereas off-page SEO factors contribute to as much as 75% of ranking results.   The numbers say it all: the major search engines are counting on reliable resources and looking at link popularity to determine relevancy.

If you’re not keeping your website up to date with the latest marketing trends, you could quickly fall further and further behind your competition. Don’t wait for traditional marketing to fade away before you update your website and online business to include off-page search engine optimization and begin to take advantage of social media marketing.