Social interactions and recommendations like Twitter retweets and mentions, Facebook shares, likes, and comments, 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 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. Google’s own head of its web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to assessing social media 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 to “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 naturally wants to rank higher in its search engine listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media community in the world. Research shows that a single post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a massive amount of sales on your site, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google processes data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites, like Google+ or Twitter.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second largest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out each day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social 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 interacting on GooglePlus every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other sites worth paying attention to, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search engine rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a URL has, the authority of the person sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus your web page has, 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 signals that can indirectly influence search engine traffic and rankings. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as influential as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze your social marketing in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to help improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your company, brand, or products on social media, take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, identify potential opportunities for engagement, and spy on your competitors. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific topics, brands, products, or businesses.
As a business intelligence tool, being able to monitor social media is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by various people including online reputation specialists, market researchers, marketing teams, professional sales reps, agencies, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, many small businesses do not can’t afford to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different providers have made available affordable tools to facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to track what is being said online about your brand or products allowing you to respond to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have created a comprehensive article where we explore a number of social media measurement tools that are worth checking out and knowing about. More info:
(Are you monitoring your social signals effectively?)
This article discusses a simple, yet effective social media tracking tool for WordPress and growing your social media influence online.
Let’s Review …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social media analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help users increase their social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. The user’s objective is to change all red squares into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any user can operate … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most display green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber or red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro 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 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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, improving your social marketing can dramatically impact your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Really Easy To Install
Social Metrics Pro is quite easy to install. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your admin area and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s job is to change more red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to put more effort and where to optimize.
Track Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to monitor social media activity from networks like GooglePlus, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Digg.
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 are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
SocialMetricsPro offers site owners with many great features. Here are just some of those features:
- Fast and simple to install and set up. Ready to start using in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with built-in and external widgets. Access updated stats from your WP admin bar, add socially popular content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click auto-upgrade functionality. Update the plugin with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also choose to be notified via email whenever a new version is released.
- Plugin works even on the smallest hosting. Reporting is very quickly, using very little server resources. Reports also include the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server resources used to gather and compile data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort, search and filter the information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post authors, category, publishing date, or 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just turn more reds into greens!)
Testimonials
Here are a couple of the testimonials that plugin customers have provided 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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”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
Social Metrics Pro – Useful Tips
A step-by-step, practical guide showing you how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
SocialMetricsPro Support
The software is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, full money-back guarantee.
Software Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This option allows you to install Social Metrics Pro on a single domain. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This enables you to configure SocialMetricsPro on unlimited websites that you own. Price includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Price details for the SocialMetricsPro product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the plugin sells for the amounts shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin developer when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price here:
Additional Product 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 growth of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines have started taking into account various social signals to help determine a website’s ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. Social Metrics Pro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives users immediate feedback on the success of their social marketing strategy and guides them where and how to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to save money on outsourcing your social marketing or train your staff to manage your campaigns in-house.
For more information, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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