Social interactions like Facebook comments, shares, and likes, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and 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 social 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 own 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 more 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 naturally wants to rank higher in its search engine results.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social network on the planet. It has been estimated that a single post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, 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.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence 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 single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social media site, GooglePlus 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 interacting socially on GooglePlus each month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your URL has, how influential the person tweeting is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people are following you, amount and authority of +1s, 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 signals that can indirectly influence search rankings and traffic. These include desirable and negative 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 low quality by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only find ways to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze social performance in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your services, brand, or company on social media, be alerted to impending crises, spy on your competition, identify market opportunities, and measure the impact of campaigns. It can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific businesses, brands, topics, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, the ability to track social media 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 people including market researchers, marketing professionals, digital reputation managers, social engagement and community staff, social marketing agencies, and professional sales reps. Typically, many small businesses do not can’t afford to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different technology companies have developed affordable tools and solutions that facilitate the active monitoring of a broad spectrum of social media channels, allowing companies to identify and even predict what is being said online about their products or brands so they can react to conversations and engage with online users in a timely fashion.
We have created a comprehensive article listing several social media monitoring tools that are worth checking out and knowing about. More info:
(Can you monitor social signals effectively?)
This article discusses a simple social media tracking tool for WordPress and growing your social media influence.
Our Recommended WordPress Product Is …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics plugin that is designed to help users grow their social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. Your task is to convert more red squares into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a system that anyone can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most show up green. Posts with low social media activity display 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 their metrics on “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 they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to the plugin developers, improving your social media marketing campaigns can significantly affect your search engine rankings, traffic and revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Below are just some of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Fast And Easy To Install And Use. Ready To Go To Work In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro installs like any other WP plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your admin login and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s task is to turn all the red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know where to put more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Choose Only Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro provides a powerful dashboard to centrally track and monitor social activity across leading networks like GooglePlus, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest.
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 is available on-demand, with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro offers website owners with a number of features. Here are just some:
- Fast and easy to install and set up. Be up and running in very little time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. Access the latest information right on your WordPress admin bar, add socially popular content to your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updates. You can update the plugin in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive an email notification whenever new versions are released.
- Low server resource consumption. The plugin can generate reports fast, consuming minimal hosting resources. The tool also includes the amount of time used to retrieve the information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search and filter your data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by publishing date, category, post authors, or by post type.
- Export Data To Excel: 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.
(Social Metrics Pro is simple to use … just change reds into greens!)
Feedback From Product Customers
Here are just a few of the testimonials and feedback users have submitted for SocialMetricsPro:
”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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”If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve.” Goes one of the most important sayings in business. And this is particularly true for tracking of your social mentions I found. There were two things that helped me a great deal to increase sharing after installing Social Metrics: First, I was able to see that some of my articles would perform much better on networks I wasn’t particularly using, such as StumbleUpon for example. Secondly, I could filter out the best performing content more easily and analyse what makes my readers share. Since then I have focused strongly on producing and replicating those posts that performed best.” Leo Widrich, Co-Founder of Buffer
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Useful Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
The software is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, full refund guarantee.
Product Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This option allows you to configure SocialMetricsPro on 1 website only. Price includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This license enables you to activate Social Metrics Pro on unlimited websites that you own. Cost includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost of purchasing the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the pricing when this content was written. This may or may not be the actual price set by the plugin author when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing details:
Additional Product Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Recommend
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 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 instant feedback on the success of your social marketing campaigns and shows you how 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 right from your WordPress dashboard.
Get Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to see measurable results.
For complete details, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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