Social interactions like Facebook comments, shares, and likes, Twitter retweets and mentions, 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, 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 media, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to social signals over other aspects of their search algorithm. In short, Google’s strategy is a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide true value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media community on the planet. It has been estimated that one great post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a ton of sales on your website, don’t be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google processes data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence search engine rankings more than other 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 500 million tweets sent out every single day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
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 Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are actively using Google+ each month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other sites that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search engine rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, shares, and comments you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your web page has, how influential the person sharing the posts is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus your site page has, amount and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can influence search engine traffic. These include positive and negative factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as important as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by other users [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze social media performance in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to gain insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, identify opportunities for engagement, spy on your competitors, avert crises, and measure the impact of campaigns. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific products, topics, businesses, or brands.
As a business intelligence tool, social signal monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by a cross-section of people including marketing teams, market researchers, PR staff, social engagement and community staff, agencies, and professional sales reps. Typically, smaller businesses don’t have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately various providers have developed affordable tools and solutions to facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, allowing companies to identify consumer behavior around their brands or products so they can respond to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article about social media monitoring tools and technologies that are worth checking out and knowing about here:
(Do you know how to effectively monitor social signals?)
In this article, we look at a simple, yet highly effective plugin for WordPress-driven websites for tracking social media signals and increasing your social media exposure.
Presenting …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help you improve your social media presence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. Your goal is to change all the reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that any user can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with the highest number of shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber or red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ websites over a period of three 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 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 the plugin developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing can result in higher search rankings, increased web traffic and increased revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Easy Installation
SocialMetricsPro is very easy to install. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your admin user login and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to convert all the red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to apply more effort and where to optimize.
Track Only Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you track and monitor social media activity from social media networks like Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Digg, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest.
Social Metrics Pro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social media 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 on social media?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro offers website owners with many features. Below we have listed just a few:
- Fast and simple to install and use. Be up and running in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using built-in and external widgets. Social Metrics Pro shows updated information from your WP admin bar, display popular content on your sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click updates. You can update the plugin in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to be notified via email whenever new versions are released.
- Low-resource consumption. The plugin can generate reports very quickly, using minimal hosting resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory consumed when gathering the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort and filter information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post authors, post type, publishing date, or by category.
- 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 Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is really simple to use … just change all the reds into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are some of the testimonials and feedback plugin customers have provided for 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
A step-by-step, practical guide on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Product Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This enables you to run SocialMetricsPro on a single domain. It includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License Edition – This enables you to configure Social Metrics Pro on all the sites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Current pricing for Social Metrics Pro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the current pricing when this review was written. This may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin author when you visit the website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing information:
Additional Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
The Bottom Line
As mentioned earlier, with the rise of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account social signals when determining 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 you instant feedback on the success of your social marketing campaigns and guides you how and where to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP admin area.
Get Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to make social marketing campaigns work for you.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin
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