Is SEO Dead?

I have to ask the question, although I know that the answer is a big NO! SEO has definitely evolved from just keywords and description attributes though. I have been seeing big gains in the SEO department due to social media. The basics of SEO is still relevant but it has taken a twist. After you have put all that work into creating a beautiful site that validate as HTML 4.01 and CSS 2.1 we still need inbound links. This is where social media plays it's role in a big way.

One of the best ways to get inbound links is to get users to share our web pages with their friends, and the easier it is the better it gets. I have found two noteworthy tools that do just that. Both are extremely easy to implement and extremely easy for users to share bookmarks. I can't even count the number of sites that have several different buttons cluttered together to enable sharing. This often looks pretty bad but they serve there purpose. But there are better ways!

AddThis
AddThis is an awesome service. It allows for anyone to put a small amount of Javascript on to their site and automatically allow users to share bookmarks on over 250 different services. It shows up as a single customizable button and expands a new frame when clicked so that the user can pick from several different services. It is also important to note that if you register for a free account you can receive analytics data for the button. Now you know which services you are being shared to most and can start targeting users of these services! The API is also great, it is easy to use and lets you customize absolutely everything about the button. I fully recommend using this service and I am starting to see it more and more.

Meebo Bar
Meebo Bar is very similar to what you find at the bottom of Facebook. It is very customizable and has some good features. What I like best about it, is that it allows for your users to chat to their friends in real time. If they are chatting to friends while on your site there is a good chance they will mention it to their friends. Although it doesn't have as many options as AddThis for sharing, the providers are working on ways to improve this. The API for the Meebo Bar is also very detailed and I am planning on integrating the AddThis button to it. After I am finished I will post a tutorial on how to do it, then I can have the best of both worlds! The Meebo Bar also includes analytics for your perusal, they are a bit slow to populate though but the bar is still in beta at the time of this writing. The last point is the absolute best feature though, you can link the bar to your Meebo account! This gives your users the ability to instantly message you about something on your site. I do a lot of work for real estate agents and many have asked for this feature, now I can finally get back to them and say "Yes we can do that!". If you want to try it out go to my personal site How to Program and give it a try (I am not online during the day as my current employer doesn't like that). The only draw back is that each account is only limited to one site right now, but I am hoping that after the beta this will change.