Social recommendations like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook shares, comments, and likes, etc. are called social signals.
With the increased importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account various 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. Google’s own head of its web spam team Matt Cutts 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 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 sites that provide true value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search engine listings.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media community in the world. It has been estimated that a single post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your website, don’t be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google processes data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on search engine rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter orGoogle+.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out every day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social site, GooglePlus naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are starting to interact socially on Google+ every month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social sites that should not be ignored, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track a number of social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, shares, and comments you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person retweeting your information is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus your URL has accrued, number and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can indirectly influence search engine rankings and traffic. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor and analyze your social performance in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to improve your business results)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to gain insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, spot potential opportunities for engagement, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied customers, and spy on the competition. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific products, businesses, topics, or brands.
As a business intelligence tool, social monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by various people including market research, marketing professionals, digital reputation specialists, social engagement and community staff, agencies, 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 and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately different technology companies have developed a range of tools that facilitate the tracking of a broad range of social media channels, enabling companies to identify and even predict what customers, competitors, supporters, and critics are saying about their brands allowing them to react to conversations and engage with online users in a timely fashion.
To learn more about social media tracking tools that are worth checking out and knowing about, see this article:
(Are you monitoring your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we explore a simple social media tracking plugin for your web presence and increasing your social media presence.
Announcing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin that is designed to help you grow your social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The user’s objective is to change more red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a standard operating procedure that anyone can operate … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with highest number of shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand websites 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”. According to the plugin developers, 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 Social Metrics Pro developers, improving your social marketing can result in better search rankings, more traffic and increased revenue!)
Learn more here:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Fast And Simple To Install And Configure. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro installs just like every plugin. Just upload a zip file that contains the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s job is to convert all the red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to apply more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Select Only Social Signals From Social Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you monitor social media activity across leading social media networks like Twitter, Facebook, GooglePlus, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, and Digg directly from your WP dashboard.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which social campaigns are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular on social media?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly monitors the social media sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
SocialMetricsPro provides many features to web site owners. Below we have listed just some:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Ready to use in minutes.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with external and built-in widgets. Social Metrics Pro displays the latest information from your WordPress admin bar, display social content on your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click updates. Update SocialMetricsPro with a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Low server resource consumption. Metric reports are generated fast, using minimal server resources. The tool also includes the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory used to compile data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search and filter your data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by publishing date, category, post authors, or post type.
- Export Data: You can export and plot data in 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 turn more red squares into greens!)
User Feedback
Here are just a few of the testimonials that users have published about SocialMetricsPro:
”As with any cool plugin, it solves a very simple problem – how to view how well your WordPress posts are being promoted.” Adam Small, Marketing Tech Blog
***
”If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve.” Goes one of the most important sayings in business. And this is particularly true for tracking of your social mentions I found. There were two things that helped me a great deal to increase sharing after installing Social Metrics: First, I was able to see that some of my articles would perform much better on networks I wasn’t particularly using, such as StumbleUpon for example. Secondly, I could filter out the best performing content more easily and analyse what makes my readers share. Since then I have focused strongly on producing and replicating those posts that performed best.” Leo Widrich, Co-Founder of Buffer
Product Tips
SocialMetricsPro comes with a practical, step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, full money-back guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This license option lets you set up SocialMetricsPro on a single website. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License – This license enables you to set up SocialMetricsPro on multiple websites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost to purchase Social Metrics Pro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the plugin retails for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual price charged by the plugin seller when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
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.
We Recommend
As mentioned earlier, social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
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 instant feedback on the success of your social media marketing strategy and shows you how and where to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to shorten your social media marketing learning curve.
For complete details, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
***
***