Mashable
Lauren Indvik reports that people at The Atlantic’s websites have stopped thinking about SEO so they can focus on getting stories to take off on social networks. “Sixteen months ago we received the same number of monthly referrals from search as social. Now 40% of traffic comes from social media,” Scott Havens, senior vice president of finance and digital operations at The Atlantic Media Company, tells her. Now that Google displays relevant results shared by users’ friends, social is becoming more important even among people who are searching. “Social media is becoming an engine that drives more than just Facebook and Twitter’s own referrals,” wrote Poynter’s Jeff Sonderman, declaring, “Say goodbye to SEO.”
Here’s more on what Havens told Indvik at last weekend’s Mashable Connect conference: