Social networking sites have taken over the world with pretty much everyone in the world being a member of one. The three most popular and well - known are Bebo, Facebook and Myspace. It is hard to believe that a couple years ago social networking was almost non existent whereas today the biggest website in the UK is one of these sites.

Bebo is the most popular website in the UK and unbelievably even bigger than Google. In August Bebo had 8.6 billion page impressions whereas Google had 8.45 billion. Even stranger is that these sites don't rely on search engine optimisation and clever search engine marketing to get visitors. In fact, if you type 'social networking website' into Google, Myspace doesn't feature until the second page and Bebo and Facebook aren't even on the first 10 pages.

Bebo was founded in January 2005 by husband and wife team Michael and Xochi Birch and can now be used in most countries around the world. It is unlikely that either Michael or Xochi knew anything about search engine marketing when they first started the site. It is more likely that they had an idea which took off and they never anticipated the success it was going to have.

With Bebo being the most popular website in the UK it is the first time ever that the largest site in the UK has been run by a company that is actually based in the UK. For those who are not familiar with the website, it is a high school and college social network site than makes it easy for high school and college students to stay in touch with their current friends, find long lost friends and meet new people. As well as this you can upload photos, write blogs, add applications and much more.

The popularity of these social networking sites is attracting the attention of advertisers who can see the massive potential to reach huge audiences. With 80 percent of people who use social networks having either talked about, commented on or reviewed a brand or product on an online forum, it's hardly surprising that advertisers are targeting them.

It is a wonder if these websites that defy all search engine marketing is going to change the way SEO works. It is evident that people aren't typing anything into search engines when they go onto these sites which means that search engine optimisation and search engine marketing aren't required.