Although link-building is still the prevailing strategy for companies trying to raise their search rankings, industry experts are now seeing an increase in the significance of social signals, according to this entry on the SocialMediaMarketing.com blog. This is so because of Google's recent updates, which penalized certain underhanded SEO practices designed to boost query results rankings, as well as some studies showing that social signals may have a positive impact on search rankings. As a result, social media may now be essential to the success of an online marketing initiative.