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 media presence 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 signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide real value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social media network on the planet. It has been estimated that a single 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, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your business strategy, as Google processes data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second largest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
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 Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are starting to interact socially on Google+ each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other sites that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(A number of social sites provide important signals that can affect your search rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes 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 sending a tweet is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people follow you, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can indirectly influence search engine rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [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 develop your social media presence, but also to be able to track and analyze your social marketing campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your company’s online visibility on social media, spot opportunities for engagement, be alerted to crises, measure the impact of campaigns, and spy on your competitors. It can also provide vital information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific businesses, brands, topics, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, social monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various people including marketing professionals, market research, online reputation management companies, social marketing agencies, social engagement and community personnel, and sales teams. Typically, smaller businesses do not have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately different technology providers have developed tools to facilitate the active tracking of a broad range of social media channels, enabling you to track consumer behavior around your products or brand allowing you to respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
Go here for a detailed article about social media measurement tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns:
(Are you searching for an effective tool that can help you track social signals?)
This article explores a simple, yet highly effective plugin for WordPress-powered sites for tracking social media signals and increasing your social media influence online.
Our Recommended WordPress Plugin …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help you grow your social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the tool measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The user’s objective is to change red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a standard operating procedure that any user can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most show up green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ sites 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 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 SocialMetricsPro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing can result in higher search rankings, increased traffic and increased revenue!)
Learn more about the plugin here:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Installation Is Easy & Fast
SocialMetricsPro is quite easy to install. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your WP administrator section and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to turn all red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to apply more effort and where to optimize.
Track The Social Signals From Social Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to centrally track and monitor social activity from social networks like Google+, Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, Digg, and LinkedIn directly from your WordPress admin area.
SocialMetricsPro 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 Social Metrics Pro, all this information can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively tracks social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
Social Metrics Pro provides many features to website owners. Below we have listed a few of these:
- Quick and simple to install and implement. Be up and running in no time.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with external and built-in widgets. Access the latest stats from your WP dashboard, add socially popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click auto-upgrade functionality. You can update Social Metrics Pro with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever a new version is released.
- Minimal server resources usage. Reporting is in seconds, using minimal hosting resources. Reports also include the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server memory consumed when gathering data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort, search and filter information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post authors, publishing date, category, or by post type.
- 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 the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just convert all the red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Product Users
Below are a few of the testimonials plugin customers have provided for the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
“Social Metrics Pro is the essential plugin we use to monitor how our content performs on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It’s simple, neat and works precisely as you would expect it. When we work with our clients such as T-Mobile, the .Me domain name registry and others, Social Metrics Pro is the plugin we use to create reports as well as keep track on each bit of content to optimize it for future performance.” Ivan Brezak Brkan, Editor of Netokracija.com, TechCrunch EU Contributor
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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Useful Tips
SocialMetricsPro comes with a practical guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Product Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This edition allows you to configure Social Metrics Pro on 1 site only. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Licensing – This allows you to configure Social Metrics Pro on unlimited websites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The price of this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the product retails for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the software developer 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.
Install This Product
As mentioned earlier, with the increase in importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google are now taking into account various social signals to help determine 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 website owners instant feedback on the success of their social media marketing strategy and guides them how and where to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to outperform your competitors on social media.
For complete details, visit the plugin website here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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