Social interactions like Facebook comments, likes, and shares, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account various social signals to help determine website ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses 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 social media, as social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. Without a full ‘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 to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide true value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social network in the world. Research shows that one great post can reach up to 150,000 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 online business strategy, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter orGooglePlus.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide value to readers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting socially on GooglePlus each week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other sites that should not be ignored, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines track various social signals, including:
- 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 tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people follow you, amount of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Digg, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can indirectly influence search rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [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 find ways to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to 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, be alerted to crises, identify new market opportunities, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. It can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific products, topics, brands, or businesses.
As a business intelligence tool, the ability to track activity on social media 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 groups that include market researchers, online reputation management companies, marketing professionals, social engagement and community personnel, sales teams, and agencies. Typically, smaller businesses do not have the budget to pay a social media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many providers have created tools and solutions that facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, allowing companies to identify and even predict what is being said online about their products or brands allowing them to respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article about social media monitoring tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing initiatives here:
(Are you tracking social signals effectively?)
This article explores a simple social media tracking tool for WordPress and growing your social media influence.
Presenting …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help you grow your social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The user’s goal is to convert reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a standard operating procedure that any user can follow … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that get shared the most are colored green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand sites 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 Social Metrics Pro developers, focusing on improving your social marketing campaigns can result in higher search engine rankings, increased web traffic and more revenue!)
Learn more here:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Fast And Simple To Install And Use. Ready To Start Using In No Time.
Social Metrics Pro installs like any plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your objective is to turn all red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals so you know which campaigns require more effort and where to optimize.
Select Only Social Signals From Social Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to monitor social activity across leading social networks like Facebook, GooglePlus, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg, LinkedIn, and Pinterest directly from your WP admin area.
Social Metrics Pro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which posts are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
SocialMetricsPro offers many great features to WP users. Here are a few of these:
- Quick and easy to install and configure. Ready to start using in very little time.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with external and built-in widgets. Social Metrics Pro displays updated information right on your WordPress admin bar, add socially popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click upgrades. You can update the plugin in a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive an email notification whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Plugin even works on the smallest hosting. Reports are compiled in seconds, consuming very little server resources. Reports also display the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory used to gather the data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro 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 type, publishing date, category, or by post authors.
- Export Data: You can export and plot filtered data and custom queries 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 simple to use … just convert all reds into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Here are a couple of the testimonials and feedback that users have submitted regarding Social Metrics Pro:
”Social Metrics is the easiest way to see at a glance which posts have performed well on social networks.” Kevin Muldoon, Founder of WPMods.com
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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
SocialMetricsPro – Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Social Metrics Pro Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, full money-back guarantee.
Plugin Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This edition allows you to set up SocialMetricsPro on 1 website only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License – This enables you to activate SocialMetricsPro on unlimited websites that you own. Price includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing for Social Metrics Pro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the product sells for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual pricing set by the product author when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price here:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Recommend
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. 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 marketing strategy and shows you how 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 WordPress dashboard.
Get Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to save time and resources by focusing on under-optimized networks.
For full details, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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