Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook shares, comments, and likes, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their brand on social media as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, instead of 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 signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. 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 normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media community on the planet. 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 a massive amount of sales on your website, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites, like Google+ or Twitter.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out every day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide great value to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social site, Google+ 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 interacting socially on Google+ every month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other sites worth paying attention to, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search engine rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a web page has, how influential the person sending tweets is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – 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 StumbleUpon, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can indirectly influence search traffic and rankings. 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 website owner, it’s important to not only develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can help improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into your company’s online visibility on social media, take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied customers, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, spot market opportunities, and spy on the competition. It can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific products, brands, businesses, or topics.
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 various groups that include market research, digital reputation specialists, marketing professionals, sales teams, social engagement and community personnel, and social marketing agencies. Typically, small businesses don’t have the budget to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately various technology companies have developed tools to facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to identify and even predict what consumers are saying about your brand or products so you can respond proactively to conversations and engage with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article where we explore a number of social media monitoring tools and technologies that will help you identify new business opportunities, track competitor activity, see what conversations are taking place online that can affect your business,etc. To learn more, visit this page:
(Are you searching for an effective way to measure social signals?)
In this article, you will learn about a simple, yet effective plugin for WordPress users for tracking social signals and improving your social media presence online.
Announcing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics plugin that is designed to help you increase your social media presence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro measures how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. Your objective is simple … turn all reds into greens.
(A system that any website owner can follow … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts that receive the most shares display green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber or red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ sites 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 the plugin developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing can significantly impact your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Installation Is Easy
Social Metrics Pro is quite easy to install. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your administrator login and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your task is to change all the red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know where to apply more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Only Social Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro provides a powerful dashboard to track and monitor social activity across leading networks like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, StumbleUpon, Digg, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social networks work best for my site?
- Which posts are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively monitors social signals from the social media sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
SocialMetricsPro offers web site owners with many features. Here are just a few:
- Quick and easy to install and use. Ready to use in minutes.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. Social Metrics Pro shows updated information from your WordPress dashboard, add socially popular content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click upgrading. You can update the plugin in a single 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 server resources consumption. Reports are generated fast, using minimal hosting resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server resources used to gather and compile the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort and filter the data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by category, post type, post authors, or by publishing date.
- 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 the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is really simple to use … just convert all the reds into greens!)
Testimonials From Product Customers
Here are a few of the testimonials plugin customers have published about Social Metrics Pro:
”Social Metrics is the easiest way to see at a glance which posts have performed well on social networks.” Kevin Muldoon, Founder of WPMods.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
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Product Support
The plugin is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Product Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This enables you to set up SocialMetricsPro on a single site. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Licensing – This allows you to configure Social Metrics Pro on unlimited websites that you own. Price includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost of purchasing the Social Metrics Pro plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the current pricing at the time this review was written. This may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin developer when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
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.
We Recommend
As mentioned earlier, with the increase in importance of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google now take into account social signals when determining 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 users instant feedback on the success of their social marketing campaigns and shows them where to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend getting this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to save time and resources by focusing on under-optimized social campaigns.
For more details, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin
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