Social recommendations like Facebook shares, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
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. 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 social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. Without a perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more 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 sites that provide value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social community in the world. It has been estimated that an average post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites, like Twitter andGoogle+.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next largest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
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 Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are starting to interact socially on GooglePlus each year. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social sites listed above, there are a number of other sites worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(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 include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, shares, and comments you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your site has, the authority of the person sharing the posts, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ your URL has accrued, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate 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 indirectly influence search engine traffic and rankings. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by other users [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, identify market opportunities, take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by online users, assess competitor activity and market share, and measure the impact of campaigns. It can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific products, businesses, topics, or brands.
As a tool for business intelligence, 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 a cross-section of groups that include digital reputation management companies, marketing professionals, market research, social marketing agencies, social engagement and community staff, and professional sales reps. Typically, small businesses do not have the budget to pay media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately various technology companies have developed affordable tools to facilitate the monitoring of a variety of social media channels, allowing you to identify and even predict what consumers, competitors, supporters, and critics are saying about your products or brand allowing you to respond proactively to conversations and interact with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article about social media tracking tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing initiatives. Go here to learn more about this:
(Can you monitor social signals effectively?)
In this article, you will learn about a simple, yet highly effective social media tracking plugin for WordPress and improving your social media presence.
Let’s Review …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media presence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. Your goal is to convert all red squares into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that anyone can follow … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts with highest number of shares display 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 everything “green”. According to the plugin developers, they noticed 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 the plugin developers, improving your social media marketing campaigns can significantly impact your search engine rankings, traffic and revenue!)
Learn more here:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Quick Installation
SocialMetricsPro is really easy to install. Simply upload it to your Plugins folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s task is to turn all the reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns require more effort and where to optimize.
Track Social Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally track and monitor social media activity across leading networks like Facebook, GooglePlus, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest 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 SocialMetricsPro, all of this information can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks social signals from the social sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
SocialMetricsPro provides a number of features to WP users. Below we have listed some of those features:
- Quick and simple to install and set up. Ready to use in no time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. SocialMetricsPro shows updated information right on your WP dashboard, add social content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- 1-click updates. Update SocialMetricsPro with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification whenever new versions are released.
- Uses minimal server resources. Social metrics reports are generated very quickly, consuming very little hosting resources. Reports also display the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort and filter the information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post type, publishing date, post authors, or category.
- Export Data: You can export filtered data and custom queries 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 very simple to use … just convert more red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Plugin Users
Below are some of the testimonials users have provided for 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
SocialMetricsPro – Tips
SocialMetricsPro includes a practical, step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, full refund guarantee.
Software Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This allows you to run Social Metrics Pro on a single site. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site License – This allows you to configure Social Metrics Pro on multiple web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Price details for Social Metrics Pro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the price when this content was written. This may not be the actual price set by the software developer when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price here:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Highly Recommend This
As mentioned earlier, Google has been tracking 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 WordPress users instant feedback on the success of their social marketing campaigns and guides them where and how to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP dashboard.
Get SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to use social signals to get better search engine rankings.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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