Social recommendations like Facebook likes, +1s on Google+, etc. are called social signals.
With the rising importance of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines are now 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 the web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social media, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a perfect ‘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 sites that Google wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social community in the world. It has been estimated that one great post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your website, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites, like Google+ and Twitter.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide great value to readers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are starting to interact socially on Google+ each month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that provide important social signals, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(Social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search engine rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Bing and Google track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person sending a tweet is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people follow you, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can indirectly influence search engine traffic and rankings. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can improve your business results)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to gain insights into your company’s online visibility on social media, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, assess competitor activity, identify new opportunities for engagement, and avert impending crises. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific products, brands, topics, or businesses.
As a business intelligence tool, social monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various people including marketing teams, market researchers, online reputation management companies, social engagement and community staff, agencies, and professional sales reps. Typically, many small businesses do not can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately different service providers have developed affordable tools that facilitate the monitoring of a broad spectrum of social media channels, allowing companies to identify consumer behavior around their brands or products so they can react to conversations and interact with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article where we explore several social media tracking tools and technologies that you may want to check out. Go here to learn more:
(Can you measure social signals effectively?)
This article explores a simple social media tracking tool for your WordPress-based website and increasing your social media exposure.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help you grow your social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The user’s task is to change all the red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a standard operating procedure that any website owner can operate … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with highest number of shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro 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 their metrics on “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 SocialMetricsPro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing campaigns can positively impact your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
More info:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Set Up. Be Up And Running In Very Little Time.
SocialMetricsPro installs just like every plugin. Simply upload it to your Plugins folder via your WP admin area and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to change all the reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals so you know which social marketing campaigns need you to invest more effort and where to optimize.
Select Only Social Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you monitor social activity across leading networks like GooglePlus, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer 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 actively monitors the social sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
SocialMetricsPro offers WP users with a number of features. Below we have listed just a few:
- Fast and easy to install and use. Ready to use in very little time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with built-in and external widgets. Social Metrics Pro displays the latest information from your WordPress admin bar, display socially popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click upgrading. You can update the plugin in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email when new plugin updates are released.
- Minimal hosting resources use. The plugin generates social metrics reports very quickly, consuming little server resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server memory consumed when gathering the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search and filter the information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by category, publishing date, post authors, or by post type.
- Export Data To Excel: 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.
(Social Metrics Pro is really simple to use … just change all the reds into greens!)
User Testimonials
Below are some of the testimonials customers have written about the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
”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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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Useful Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a practical, step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Product Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, full money-back guarantee.
Software Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This license allows you to activate SocialMetricsPro on a single domain. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License – This allows you to install Social Metrics Pro on unlimited domains that you own. Price includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost to purchase this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the plugin sells for the amounts shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the software developer when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install The Plugin
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 the importance of social media. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives you instant feedback on the success of your social marketing strategy and guides you how and where to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend getting this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to avoid wasting resources on over-optimized social media marketing campaigns.
For more information, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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