With the increase in the number of people using social media to help increase their online presence some have said there will be less of a need for search engine optimization (SEO), but at the SES San Jose conference this week the assessment was that SEO is not dead.

InfoWorld’s Paul Krill writes that at the "Search: Where to Next?" panel discussion, panelists agreed that there are benefits to social media, but there is still a need for search engine optimization in a web 2.0 world.

In what might be a combination of search engine optimization (SEO) and social media, Krill notes that Eli Goodman of comScore says there are more than 3 billion searches each month on YouTube, meaning people are becoming more accepting of performing searches outside of traditional search engines.

"[What] you have to remember is that the places where people are comfortable in getting relevant results is spreading out," he said.

The combination of search engine optimization (SEO) and social networking is already in the wild as Twitter has made search a large part of its appeal and Facebook recently announced a new search function it is rolling out to users. With more people using these search features, companies may be more inclined to make sure they are using search engine optimization for their tweets and Facebook posts.

Katherine Griwert is Brafton's Marketing Director. She's practiced content marketing, SEO and social marketing for over five years, and her enthusiasm for new media has even deeper roots. Katherine holds a degree in American Studies from Boston College, and her writing is featured in a number of web publications.