Twitter influence on Google, Adsense and SEO

Over the years, I’ve seen my fair share of 5 digit Google cheques and a number of people have emailed me to ask why I didn’t just do it full time instead of being employed.

I remember a very specific email from a friend of mine, Justin, who was also into Adsense and was doing very well. In his email he stated that he was dropping all sorts of things to focus more on Adsense and he was convinced that it was the way forward. My response to him posed the question about relying completely on Google for a future, to which he replied that he didn’t care because Google was safe. This got me thinking a lot about what I was doing and how my career was going; I spent a huge amount of time studying Google’s movements since they first launched and I looked for patterns as well as influences from other mediums such as social media.

Dave Naylor, a search marketing expert published a blog post yesterday stating that they had had a really interesting chat internally as to whether things like Twitter could replace Google:

“When da kidz are looking to see where Kirsty got her kewl Uggs (LOLZ), they possibly – probably – don’t even think to ask Google. They just ask Kirsty. And they ask Kirsty on IM, Twitter, Facebook or probably bloody Bebo for all I know. That circumvents Google altogether. And if youths aren’t growing up with search then that means the next generation of internet users might not use search as their first port of call at all.”

There was a good comment by a gentleman called Allan:

“Social replies on people being assed to reply. Computeres are always there, always ready to answer. Depends how many followers, friends or fans your got really.

Its all in the mix. I don’t think its a death nail, just an evolution. Social will continue to be important, probably increasingly so.”

The two quotes make really good points. I’m seeing people ask people more and more these days for advice – the opinion from someone else is far better than the opinion of a computer, at least in terms of trust. I’d go on the advice of a friend over the advice of Google in many cases. Side note: Don’t you feel like the web went from people being interactive to being very less interactive and now it’s going backwards again? Sort of like the cool kids wanting to wear turned up jeans or really huge sunglasses like in the 60s ;)

This all ties up with my decision to focus far more on my career as an Operations Manager than just a Search Engine Specialist. I do think SEO and SEM will be around for many years to come, but I think it’s important that people don’t drop everything to focus on things such as Google Adsense as a primary source of income. Yes, there’s plenty of money to be made, we’re all still making a bundle, but let’s be honest – if Google changes things, you could find yourself without any income and very little experience in terms of employment.

So sum things up with some advice: Don’t stop your Adsense work, it’s good money and there won’t be a change any time soon, just plan carefully, like you would in any market/job. If you’re considering a career in SEO/SEM, go for it! SEO/SEM will be around in its current form and other forms for many many many years still – All those SEO haters can go sit in a corner, you’re ignorant if you think SEO is pointless or is going to die soon – there’s a reason why Google and Bing are now integrating Twitter social search ;)

Ye, so that’s it from me, bit of a thought piece based on my experiences, hope you enjoyed it!