Social interactions and recommendations like +1s on Google+, Facebook comments, likes, and shares, 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 brand on social media as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, instead of 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 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 the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In short, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide real value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search engine listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most influential social community in the world. Research shows that an average post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one seems to be buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites, like Google+ or Twitter.
(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 each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide value to readers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social site, Google+ naturally carries great 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: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth getting to know, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones 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 shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the number of people sharing the posts, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people are following you, number and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can influence search engine rankings. These include positive and undesirable 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 other users [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, spot opportunities for engagement, take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by online users, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and spy on your competitors. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific brands, products, businesses, or topics.
As a tool for business intelligence, being able to monitor activity on social media is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by various groups that include digital reputation management companies, marketing teams, market researchers, professional sales reps, social engagement and community staff, and social marketing agencies. Typically, many small businesses don’t have the budget to pay a social media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately various providers have created affordable tools and solutions to facilitate the monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to identify and even predict consumer behavior around your brand allowing you to respond to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article on social media monitoring tools that are worth knowing about here:
(Can you track social signals effectively?)
In this article, we review a simple social media monitoring tool for your online presence and increasing your social media presence online.
Our Featured WordPress Plugin Is …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help users improve their social media exposure online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – the system measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The user’s job is to turn all the red squares into greens.
(A system that anyone can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts that get shared the most display 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 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 everything “green”. From these tests, they noticed 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 the plugin developers, improving your social marketing can result in higher search rankings, increased traffic and an increase in revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Below are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Set Up. Be Up And Running In Very Little Time.
SocialMetricsPro is quite easy to install. Just upload it to your Plugin folder via your admin account and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s task is to turn more reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which campaigns need you to invest more effort and which ones need to be better optimized.
Track Only Signals From Social Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro provides a powerful dashboard to centrally monitor social media activity from networks like Twitter, GooglePlus, Facebook, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Digg, and Pinterest.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to 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?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information can be accessed with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly monitors social signals from the social sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
Social Metrics Pro offers website owners with many unique features. Below we have listed a few:
- Fast and simple to install and set up. Ready to go to work in very little time.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. View updated information right on your WP admin bar, display popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click updating. You can update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification when a new version is released.
- Minimal hosting resources consumption. Reporting is in seconds, consuming very little server resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort, search and filter information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post type, publishing date, category, or post authors.
- 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 the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is really simple to use … just turn more reds into greens!)
Testimonials
Below are a couple of the testimonials and feedback that customers have written about 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
Social Metrics Pro Plugin – Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Plugin Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Software Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This license lets you activate SocialMetricsPro on one domain only. Price includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Edition – This license enables you to set up Social Metrics Pro on all the websites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Current pricing for SocialMetricsPro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current pricing when this article was published. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the product author 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 current pricing details:
Additional Product Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get The Product
As mentioned earlier, with the increased importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines are now taking into account social signals to help determine a site’s ranking.
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 you immediate feedback on the success of your social media marketing strategy and shows 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 dashboard.
We recommend getting Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to make social media marketing measurable.
For more information, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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