Social interactions like Twitter retweets and mentions, Facebook shares, etc. are called social signals.
With the rising importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines are now taking into account various social signals to help determine a website’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their social media presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, rather than 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 assessing social media signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a reliable ‘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 a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide real value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to display higher in its search listings.
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 largest social community on the planet. It has been estimated that an average post on Facebook 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 business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook when determining 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 biggest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence 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 every single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social media site, GooglePlus 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 starting to interact socially on Google+ every day. 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, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, 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+ your site page has, number and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can influence search traffic and rankings. 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 poor quality by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only find ways to grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track and analyze social media marketing in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, assess competitor activity, identify opportunities for engagement, take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by disgruntled customers, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. It can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific brands, topics, businesses, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, social media signal monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by various people including market research, marketing teams, PR staff, agencies, professional sales reps, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different service providers have created affordable tools and solutions that facilitate the active tracking of a broad range of social media channels, allowing you to identify consumer behavior around your products or brand allowing you to respond proactively to conversations and interact with online users in a timely fashion.
We have written a comprehensive article on social media measurement tools and technologies that will help you identify new business opportunities, track competitor activity, see what online conversations are taking place that could affect your business,etc. For more details, go here:
(Can you track your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we look at a simple, yet effective social tracking plugin for WordPress and improving your social media exposure.
Presenting …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social media analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help you improve your social media presence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – the system measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The user’s task is to change all the red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that anyone can follow … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro on a network of over two thousand websites over a period of 3 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 marketing campaigns can result in higher search rankings, increased traffic and an increase in revenue!)
Learn more here:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Fast And Simple To Install And Set Up. Ready To Use In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro is really easy to install. Just upload a zip file that contains the plugin to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s goal is to change all the red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know where to apply more effort and which ones need to be better optimized.
Track Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you track and monitor social activity across leading networks like GooglePlus, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Digg directly from your WordPress dashboard.
Social Metrics Pro 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 can be accessed with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly monitors the social sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
Social Metrics Pro provides WordPress users with many features. Below we have listed just a few of these:
- Fast and easy to install and configure. Be up and running in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using built-in and external widgets. View the latest stats right on your WP dashboard, add social content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- 1-click auto-upgrade functionality. You can update the plugin with one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also choose to be notified via email when new plugin updates are released.
- Plugin even works on the smallest hosting configuration. Reporting is very quickly, using minimal hosting resources. Reports also display the amount of time used to retrieve the information and the server resources consumed when gathering the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter information as 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 publishing date.
- Export Data: 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 really simple to use … just change all the reds into greens!)
Testimonials From Customers
Below are a few of the testimonials plugin users have provided for the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
”Our entire marketing strategy relies on social media. Each post on the site has viral potential, but we needed one place to see which social networks are performing the best for us…We went ahead and got the PRO Version of Social Metrics.” Syed Balkhi, Founder of List25 and WPBeginner.com
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”Social Metrics is one of the recipes for Social WordPress. You can integrate it quickly and easily on your WordPress site to view your performance on social networks” Jean-Francois Arseneault, Arseneault Consultation (WordCamp Montreal 2011)
Plugin Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
SocialMetricsPro Plugin Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, full refund guarantee.
Software Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This edition allows you to configure Social Metrics Pro on 1 site only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Edition – This lets you use SocialMetricsPro on all web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost to purchase the Social Metrics Pro software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the product sells for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual price charged by the plugin seller when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
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 immediate feedback on the success of your social media marketing campaigns and shows you how and where to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress admin area.
Get SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to improve social media visibility and see more of your keywords getting better rankings on search engines.
For more details, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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