Social recommendations like +1s on Google+, Facebook comments, etc. are called social signals.
With the increased importance of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account a range of social signals when determining website ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their brand on social media 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 own 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 full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide true value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites 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 over 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most influential social community in the world. Research shows that a single post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google processes data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second largest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries great authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are actively using Google+ every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other sites worth getting to know, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(A number of social sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines track various social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your web page has, the authority of the person tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people follow you, amount and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can influence search traffic and rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to find ways to grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze social media marketing campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, be alerted to disasters, identify market opportunities, and assess competitor activity and market dominance. It can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific topics, businesses, products, or brands.
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, often carried out by a cross-section of people including online reputation specialists, marketing teams, market research, professional sales reps, social marketing agencies, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, smaller businesses don’t have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many technology companies have developed tools to facilitate the monitoring of a wide range of social media channels, allowing companies to track what is being said online about their products or brands so they can respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely fashion.
To learn more about social media tracking tools that will help you keep track of online trends, monitor competitor activity, see what online conversations are taking place that could affect your business, etc, see what online conversations are taking place that can affect your business,etc, refer to this article:
(Do you know how to effectively monitor your social signals?)
This article discusses a simple, yet highly effective plugin for WordPress users for monitoring social signals and growing your social media influence.
Presenting …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics For WordPress
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the plugin measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. Your objective is simple … convert all the red squares into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that anyone can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that get shared the most show up green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro on a network of 2,000+ sites over a period of 3 months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping their metrics on “green”. From these tests, they noticed a 360% improvement in traffic for their top 10 performing sites, 410% more keywords ranked in the first page of Google and they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to SocialMetricsPro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing can dramatically impact your search engine rankings, traffic and revenue!)
Learn more about the plugin here:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Below are just a few of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Be Up And Running In Very Little Time
Social Metrics Pro is very easy to install. Simply upload a zip file containing the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s job is to turn reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know where to apply more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Track Only Social Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you monitor social media activity across leading networks like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Digg, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and StumbleUpon directly from your WordPress dashboard.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social media 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 this information can be accessed with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro offers many features to website owners. Below we have listed a few of these:
- Fast and easy to install and use. Ready to go to work in minutes.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. SocialMetricsPro shows the latest information right on your WP admin bar, display socially popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click upgrades. You can update Social Metrics Pro with one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications when a new version is released.
- Plugin uses very little server resources. Social metrics reports are generated in seconds, using minimal server resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort, search and filter the data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post authors, publishing date, post type, or category.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export filtered, sorted data and custom queries 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.
(Social Metrics Pro is simple to use … just turn all red squares into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are some of the testimonials that plugin customers have published about SocialMetricsPro:
”Our entire marketing strategy relies on social media. Each post on the site has viral potential, but we needed one place to see which social networks are performing the best for us…We went ahead and got the PRO Version of Social Metrics.” Syed Balkhi, Founder of List25 and WPBeginner.com
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”I give Social Metrics a big thumbs up and I recommend it to anyone who’s serious about tracking their social sharing analytics.” James Johnson, Senior Editor at The Inquisitr
Product Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to 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 risk-free, 60-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This license option enables you to install Social Metrics Pro on one domain only. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License Edition – This enables you to set up SocialMetricsPro on multiple sites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost of purchasing SocialMetricsPro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing shown above was correct at the time this article was written. This may not be the actual pricing set by the software author when you visit the plugin website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing details here:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install This Plugin
As mentioned earlier, with the growth of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account social signals to help determine a website’s ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore how important social media is to their online success. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives you immediate feedback on the success of your social marketing strategy and guides you where and how to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP admin area.
We recommend getting Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to shorten your path to success with social media marketing.
For more information, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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