Social recommendations like Facebook likes, shares, and comments, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages businesses 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 web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social signals, as social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. Without a full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much 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 ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social 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 droves of customers to your site, don’t be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on search engine rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter andGoogle+.
(Number of 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 single day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
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 Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are starting to interact socially on GooglePlus every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other social sites that provide important social signals, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search engine rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Google and Bing include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person retweeting your information is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus your URL has amassed, number of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate 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 influence search engine rankings. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as links from authority sites (backlinks) (not as important as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze your social media marketing performance in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can improve your business results)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into your company’s overall visibility on social media, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, spy on your competitors, be alerted to crises, and identify market opportunities. It can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific businesses, topics, products, or brands.
As a business intelligence tool, social 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 groups that include marketing teams, market researchers, PR staff, professional sales reps, social marketing agencies, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, many small businesses do not have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different technology providers have developed tools to facilitate the monitoring of a variety of social media channels, allowing you to identify what is being said online about your brand or products so you can respond proactively to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article on social media tracking tools that are worth knowing about. For more details:
(Can you measure social signals effectively?)
In this article, we review a simple, yet highly effective plugin for WordPress-powered websites for monitoring social signals and improving your social media presence.
Let’s Review …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help users increase their social media presence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The user’s objective is to change more reds into greens.
(A system that anyone can operate … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares display green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro 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”. According to the plugin developers, 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, focusing on improving your social marketing can result in higher search engine rankings, increased traffic and an increase in revenue!)
For more details go here:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Below are just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more right from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Fast And Easy To Install And Configure. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro is quite easy to install. Simply upload it to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s goal is to convert all the red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals so you know which campaigns need more effort and where to optimize.
Track Only Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to monitor social media activity from social media networks like Twitter, Facebook, GooglePlus, Digg, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, and LinkedIn directly from your WordPress admin area.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social networks work best for my site?
- Which social campaigns are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all of this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly tracks social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro provides web site owners with many features. Below we have listed just a few of these:
- Fast and simple to install and set up. Be up and running in minutes.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with external and built-in widgets. View updated information from your WP admin bar, display social content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click updates. You can update the plugin with one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Consumes very little hosting resources. Reporting is in seconds, using little server resources. The tool also includes the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory used to gather and compile the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post authors, category, post type, or by publishing date.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export and plot filtered, sorted data and custom queries 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 all reds into greens!)
Testimonials From Product Users
Below are some of the testimonials and comments that plugin customers have submitted for Social Metrics Pro:
”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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”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 – Tips
Social Metrics Pro includes a step-by-step, practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
SocialMetricsPro Plugin Support
The plugin is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, complete refund guarantee.
Software Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This option lets you activate Social Metrics Pro on one web site only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This edition allows you to use SocialMetricsPro on multiple sites that you own. Price includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost to purchase SocialMetricsPro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the price when this article was published. This may or may not be the actual price set by the plugin seller when you visit the product site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing here:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Our Recommendation
As mentioned earlier, with the increased importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines now take into account various social signals to help determine website 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 you instant feedback on the success of your social marketing strategy and shows you where to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP dashboard.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to measure your social marketing results professionally.
For more details, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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