Social interactions like Facebook comments, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
With the rise of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines are now taking into account social signals when determining website ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, rather than aiming for short-term benefits like search ranking placement. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to assessing social media signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to social signals over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social community in the world. It has been estimated that an average post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence search rankings more than other social media sites, like Twitter andGooglePlus.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out every day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social media site, Google+ naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are actively using GooglePlus every week. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(A number of social sites provide important signals that could affect your search engine rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your URL has, the number of people tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ a web page has accrued, authority of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can influence search engine rankings. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by other users [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can help improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, be alerted to impending crises, measure the impact of campaigns, spot market opportunities, and spy on your competitors. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific topics, brands, businesses, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, social signal monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by a cross-section of groups that include digital reputation specialists, marketing professionals, market research, social media marketing agencies, social engagement and community staff, and professional sales reps. Typically, many small businesses do not can’t afford to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately a number of technology companies have developed a range of affordable and even free tools that facilitate the monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to track what consumers are saying about your brand or products allowing you to respond proactively to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely fashion.
We have written a comprehensive article listing several social media monitoring tools and technologies that are worth checking out and knowing about. More info:
(Do you know how to effectively measure your social signals?)
In this article, we look at a simple, yet highly effective social monitoring plugin for your site and growing your social media influence.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to make growing your social media influence online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – the tool measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The user’s task is simple … change all the reds into greens.
(A system that anyone can operate … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares display green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber or red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ websites over a period of three months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping everything “green”. According to the plugin developers, they noticed that their top 10 best performing sites saw an improvement of up to 360% more traffic, 410% more keywords ranked in the first page of Google and their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to the plugin developers, improving your social media marketing campaigns can result in better search engine rankings, more web traffic and more revenue!)
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Be Up And Running In No Time
Social Metrics Pro installs like any regular plugin. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s task is to change all reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals so you know which social marketing campaigns require more effort and where to optimize.
Select Only Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you track and monitor social activity from social media networks like Twitter, GooglePlus, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest directly from your WP admin area.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social networks work best for my site?
- Which social campaigns are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all of this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly tracks the social sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro provides many features to web site owners. Here are just a few of these:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Be up and running in no time.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. Access the latest stats right on your WordPress dashboard, add popular content to your sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- 1-click updates. Update SocialMetricsPro with one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive an email notification whenever a new version is released.
- Minimal hosting resources usage. Social metrics reports are compiled in seconds, using very little hosting resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by category, post authors, publishing date, or by post type.
- Export Data: You can export data to Excel for further analysis. Data can be exported in tab-delimited and comma-separated file formats, and imported to Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is really simple to use … just change red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Plugin Users
Here are some of the testimonials and feedback customers have published about Social Metrics Pro:
“Social Metrics Pro is the essential plugin we use to monitor how our content performs on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It’s simple, neat and works precisely as you would expect it. When we work with our clients such as T-Mobile, the .Me domain name registry and others, Social Metrics Pro is the plugin we use to create reports as well as keep track on each bit of content to optimize it for future performance.” Ivan Brezak Brkan, Editor of Netokracija.com, TechCrunch EU Contributor
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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Useful Tips
A step-by-step, practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Software Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This lets you configure SocialMetricsPro on a single web site. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site License – This allows you to use SocialMetricsPro on unlimited websites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The price of Social Metrics Pro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the product sells for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual pricing set by the product developer when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing information:
Additional Product Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
No website owner can afford to ignore how important social media is to their online success. Social Metrics Pro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives WordPress users immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing strategy and guides them where to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend getting Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to monitor which social networks are working for your business.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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