Social interactions like Facebook shares, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their social media presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, instead of 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 social media, as social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. 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 to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide true value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signals – Which Social Media Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most influential social media community in the world. It has been estimated that a single post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t 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, Facebook seems influence search engine rankings more than other social media sites.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next largest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out every day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide great value to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social networking site, Google+ naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting on GooglePlus each month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 social sites listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search engine rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a URL has, the number of people sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on Google+ a URL has accrued, amount and growth rate 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 factors that can influence search rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to find ways to grow 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 marketing can help improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your services, brand, or company on social media, spot potential opportunities for engagement, assess competitor activity and mind share, take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied customers, and measure the impact of campaigns. It can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific businesses, topics, brands, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, being able to monitor social activity, trends, and conversations on social media channels like blogs, forums, news sites, micro-blogging platforms, discussion boards, video sites, and user-generated content is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by various groups that include online reputation management (ORM) companies, market research, marketing professionals, social marketing agencies, social engagement and community staff, and sales teams. Typically, many small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately various service providers have made available tools and solutions to facilitate the active monitoring of a wide spectrum of social media channels, allowing companies to track what is being said online about their products or brands allowing them to respond to conversations and engage with online users in a timely manner.
We have written a comprehensive article listing over 30 social media monitoring tools that are worth checking out and knowing about. For more details, go here:
(Are you tracking social signals effectively?)
This article discusses a simple plugin for WordPress-powered sites for tracking social signals and growing your social media influence.
Our Recommended WordPress Plugin …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to make growing your social media influence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – the system tracks and measures how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. The user’s goal is simple … change more red squares into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any website owner can operate … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that receive the most 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 over two thousand websites over a period of three 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 SocialMetricsPro developers, improving your social media marketing can significantly affect your search engine rankings, traffic and revenue!)
More info:
Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more right from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Installation Is Easy, Simple & Fast
SocialMetricsPro is very easy to install. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s goal is to convert all reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to apply more effort and where to optimize.
Select Only Signals From The Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to track and monitor social activity across leading social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer 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 SocialMetricsPro, all this information can be accessed with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively tracks the sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
SocialMetricsPro provides a number of features to WP users. Below we have listed just a few of these:
- Fast and easy to install and set up. Ready to start using in minutes.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. Social Metrics Pro shows the latest stats from your WordPress admin bar, add social content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click updating. You can update SocialMetricsPro with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications when a new version is released.
- Minimal server resources consumption. The plugin generates social metrics reports fast, using little server resources. The tool also includes the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory consumed when gathering the data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort and filter your data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by category, post type, post authors, or by publishing date.
- Export Data To Excel: 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 the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is very simple to use … just turn all the red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Here are a couple of the testimonials that users have submitted for the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
“Social Metrics Pro is the essential plugin we use to monitor how our content performs on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It’s simple, neat and works precisely as you would expect it. When we work with our clients such as T-Mobile, the .Me domain name registry and others, Social Metrics Pro is the plugin we use to create reports as well as keep track on each bit of content to optimize it for future performance.” Ivan Brezak Brkan, Editor of Netokracija.com, TechCrunch EU Contributor
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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
Useful Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Social Metrics Pro Plugin Support
The software is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Software Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This license option lets you use Social Metrics Pro on 1 web site only. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License – This license lets you activate SocialMetricsPro on unlimited domains that you own. Cost includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost of purchasing this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the product is being retailed for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the software seller when you visit the product site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price here:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, Google has been tracking 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 you instant feedback on the success of your social media marketing strategy and guides you how and where to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP dashboard.
We recommend getting this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to track your social signals automatically.
For full details, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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