Social interactions and recommendations like Twitter mentions and retweets, Facebook shares, comments, and likes, etc. are called social signals.
With the increased importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines now take into account social signals to help determine a website’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners 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 own web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social media, as social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. Without a reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to social signals 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 websites that provide value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social media network in the world. It has been estimated that an average post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a ton of sales on your site, don’t be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google processes data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites, like Google+ and Twitter.
(Number of 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 single day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social networking site, GooglePlus naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting on GooglePlus every year. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social sites that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track various social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person sharing the information is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people follow you, amount of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Reddit, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can indirectly influence search traffic. These include positive and negative factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [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 develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze your social media marketing campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can help improve your business results)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your brand, services, or company on social media, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by disgruntled customers, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, spy on your competition, and identify opportunities for engagement. It can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific topics, products, brands, or businesses.
As a business intelligence tool, the ability to monitor social activity on social media is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various groups that include marketing teams, PR staff, market research, agencies, professional sales reps, 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 different service providers have developed tools and solutions to facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, allowing you to identify consumer behavior around your brand or products so you can respond proactively to conversations and interact with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article on social media tracking tools and technologies that are worth checking out and knowing about here:
(Are you monitoring your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we review a simple, yet highly effective social tracking tool for your website and increasing your social media influence online.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media exposure online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s job is to convert all the reds into greens.
(A system that anyone can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most show up green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand sites over a period of 3 months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping everything “green”. From these tests, they were able to notice 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 they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to the plugin developers, improving your social media marketing can result in higher search rankings, increased traffic and more revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the many benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Fast Installation
Social Metrics Pro installs just like every WordPress plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WP administrator area and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to convert all the reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which social campaigns need more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Track Only Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you centrally monitor social media activity from networks like GooglePlus, Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Digg, and Pinterest.
SocialMetricsPro 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 of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all of this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively monitors social signals from the social sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro provides many features to web site owners. Here are just a few:
- Fast and simple to install and implement. Ready to start using in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with built-in and external widgets. View updated stats right on your WP dashboard, display socially popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- 1-click upgrades. You can update Social Metrics Pro with one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever new versions are released.
- Plugin even works on the smallest hosting. The plugin generates social metrics reports very quickly, using very little hosting resources. The tool also includes the amount of time it took to retrieve information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you 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 filtered 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just turn more reds into greens!)
Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials that plugin users have submitted regarding 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
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”Social Metrics is one of the recipes for Social WordPress. You can integrate it quickly and easily on your WordPress site to view your performance on social networks” Jean-Francois Arseneault, Arseneault Consultation (WordCamp Montreal 2011)
SocialMetricsPro – Useful Tips
Social Metrics Pro includes a step-by-step, practical guide showing you how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Product Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, full money-back guarantee.
Plugin Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This license option lets you set up Social Metrics Pro on 1 website only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Licensing – This edition allows you to install SocialMetricsPro on unlimited web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Current pricing for the SocialMetricsPro plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing shown above was correct at the time this article was published. 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 you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download This 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 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 marketing campaigns and guides them how to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP admin area.
We recommend SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to save time and resources by focusing on under-optimized networks.
For complete details, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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