Social recommendations like Facebook likes, +1s on Google+, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social presence 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 media, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a perfect ‘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 sites that provide real value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites 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 monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social community on the planet. Research shows that an average post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your site, you should not be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search engine rankings of all social media sites.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out every day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries a significant degree of 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 GooglePlus each week. 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 rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person tweeting is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ your URL has accrued, number and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes 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 desirable and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by other users [negative].
As a business 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 and analyze social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can help improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, identify opportunities for engagement, avert disasters, and spy on the competition. It can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific topics, products, businesses, or brands.
As a tool for business intelligence, social 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 marketing professionals, PR staff, market researchers, social marketing agencies, sales teams, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, many small businesses do not have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many providers have developed many tools to facilitate the active monitoring of a wide spectrum of social media channels, enabling companies to identify consumer behavior around their brands or products allowing them to respond to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article about social media tracking tools that are worth checking out and knowing about. To learn more, go here:
(Can you measure your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we discuss a simple, yet highly effective WordPress plugin for tracking social media signals and increasing your social media influence online.
Our Recommended WordPress Product …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help you improve your social media exposure in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. Your task is simple … convert all red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that any website owner can operate … 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 are colored amber and red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin 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 Social Metrics Pro developers, improving your social marketing can impact your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
Learn more about the plugin here:
Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Really Easy To Install
SocialMetricsPro installs like any plugin. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s job is to turn all the red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals so you know which social marketing campaigns require more effort and which ones need to be better optimized.
Track Only Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you centrally track and monitor social media activity across leading networks like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, and StumbleUpon directly from your WordPress admin area.
Social Metrics Pro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which posts are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular on social media?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all of this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly monitors social signals from the social media sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro offers many features to WordPress users. Here are just a few:
- Quick and easy to install and configure. Be up and running in very little time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with built-in and external widgets. Social Metrics Pro shows updated information from your WP dashboard, display popular content on your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click upgrades. Update the plugin in a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive email notifications whenever a new version is released.
- Plugin uses minimal server resources. The plugin can generate social metrics reports very quickly, using minimal hosting resources. The tool also displays the amount of time used to retrieve the information and the server memory used to compile data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by category, publishing date, post type, or post authors.
- 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 the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just change all red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Product Customers
Here are just a few of the testimonials plugin users have published about the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
”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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”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
Plugin Tips
SocialMetricsPro includes a practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, full refund guarantee.
Product Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This enables you to activate Social Metrics Pro on a single website. It includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License Edition – This license lets you use Social Metrics Pro on unlimited sites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost of purchasing the Social Metrics Pro software depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the price when this article was published. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the software author when you visit the product website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing details here:
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, with the increase in importance of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google are now taking into account social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
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 users instant feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and guides them where to improve their 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 WP admin area.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to improve social visibility and see more of your keywords getting better rankings on search engines.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin
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