Social recommendations like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook shares, likes, and comments, etc. are called social signals.
With the increase in importance of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account social signals when determining website ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their brand on social media 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 the 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 perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to the social sphere 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 true 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 and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social media network on the planet. Research shows 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 site, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google processes data and information from Facebook to help determine 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 active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second largest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
Google’s own social media 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 socially on GooglePlus every year. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(A number of social sites provide important signals that can affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines track a number of social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, shares, and comments you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the number of people sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ a web page has, authority of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number 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 factors that can influence search engine traffic and rankings. These include desirable and negative factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only find ways to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social media campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can help improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your brand, company, or products on social media, be alerted to crises, assess competitor activity, spot new market opportunities, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. It can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific brands, businesses, products, 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, typically carried out by a cross-section of people including digital reputation specialists, market research, marketing teams, sales teams, agencies, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, smaller businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately different technology providers have developed a range of affordable and even free tools that facilitate the active tracking of a wide spectrum of social media channels, allowing you to identify and even predict consumer behavior around your brand so you can react to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely manner.
We have created a comprehensive article listing over 30 social media monitoring tools and technologies that are worth knowing about. Visit this page for more details:
(Can you track social signals effectively?)
In this article, we review a simple social media monitoring tool for your website and increasing your social media presence online.
Presenting …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media presence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. Your task is to convert more reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any user can operate … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most are colored green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ websites 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 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 SocialMetricsPro developers, improving your social marketing can result in higher search engine rankings, more web traffic and increased revenue!)
Learn more here:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
Social Metrics Pro is really easy to install. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your goal is to change all reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to invest more effort and which campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you monitor social media activity from social networks like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Digg directly from your WordPress dashboard.
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 of this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly monitors social signals from the social sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro offers many great features to WP users. Here are just some of these features:
- Quick and easy to install and implement. Be up and running in very little time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using built-in and external widgets. Access updated information right on your WordPress admin bar, display popular content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- One-click upgrades. Update Social Metrics Pro with one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification whenever a new version is released.
- Low server resource consumption. Social metrics reports are generated very quickly, consuming little hosting resources. The tool also displays the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort and filter your data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post type, post authors, category, 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 simple to use … just convert more red squares into greens!)
Testimonials
Here are a couple of the testimonials plugin users have written about the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
”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 Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Plugin Tips
Social Metrics Pro includes a practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Product Support
The plugin is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, full money-back guarantee.
Product License Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This enables you to configure SocialMetricsPro on a single site. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Licensing – This enables you to configure SocialMetricsPro on unlimited domains that you own. It includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Current pricing for the Social Metrics Pro software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the product retails for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual pricing set by the product developer when you visit the plugin site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, 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. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives website owners immediate feedback on the success of their social marketing strategy and shows them where and how to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to make social marketing measurable.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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