Social interactions like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook shares, 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 website owners to build their brand on social media as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, rather than aiming for short-term benefits like search ranking placement. Google’s own head of the web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social signals, as social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. Without a reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more 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 sites that provide real value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social media community in the world. It has been estimated that one great post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next 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 online and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
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 actively using GooglePlus every year. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that provide important social metrics, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(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?
Search engines like Bing and Google track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the number of people sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people are following you, number and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can influence search rankings and traffic. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to find ways to grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze your social campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your brand, company, or products on social media, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, spy on your competition, take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users, and spot opportunities for engagement. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific topics, brands, products, or businesses.
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, PR staff, marketing professionals, professional sales reps, social engagement and community staff, and agencies. Typically, small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a social media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately many service providers have developed tools and solutions to facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify and even predict consumer behavior around their products or brands so they can react to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have created a comprehensive article where we explore many social media tracking tools and technologies that are worth knowing about. More info:
(Are you searching for an effective tool that can help you measure social signals?)
In this article, you will learn about a simple, yet effective plugin for WordPress-powered websites for monitoring social media signals and improving your social media presence online.
Presenting …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help users improve their social media presence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. Your objective is simple … change more red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that any user can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares show up 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 their metrics on “green”. From these tests, they noticed a 360% improvement in traffic for their top 10 performing sites, 410% more keywords ranked in the first page of Google and their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing can affect your search engine rankings, traffic and revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the many benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Quick And Easy To Install And Set Up. Be Up And Running In Very Little Time.
SocialMetricsPro installs just like every other plugin. Just upload a zip folder that contains the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your administrator account and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your objective is to convert more reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns require more effort and where to optimize.
Select Only Social Signals From Social Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you centrally monitor social media activity from social media networks like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
Social Metrics Pro lets you easily answer 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 on social media?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information can be accessed with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly monitors the social sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro provides WordPress users with a number of great features. Below we have listed some of these features:
- Fast and simple to install and set up. Be up and running in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with built-in and external widgets. View updated information from your WP admin bar, add socially popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- One-click updating. You can update the plugin with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to be notified via email when a new version is released.
- Minimal server resources consumption. Reporting is very quickly, using very little server resources. Reports also include the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server memory used to compile data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort and filter the data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by publishing date, post authors, category, or post type.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export and plot filtered, sorted data and custom queries in 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just convert more reds into greens!)
User Feedback
Here are a couple of the testimonials customers have published about the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
”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
Product Tips
SocialMetricsPro comes with a step-by-step, practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Support
The plugin is well-supported, and users get lifetime software updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, full money-back guarantee.
Product Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This enables you to configure SocialMetricsPro on one domain only. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This edition enables you to set up SocialMetricsPro on all websites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing for the Social Metrics Pro product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the current price at the time this content was published. This may not be the actual price set by the product seller when you visit the site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price:
Additional Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, with the rising importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing have started taking into account various 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 campaigns and shows you where and how to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend getting SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to track your social signals automatically.
For more information, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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