Social shares: A ranking factor or not?
-
Open Site Explorer lists them and every so-called SEO expert says social signals/shares are a ranking factor. Everyone but Matt Cutts, it would seem.
So if they're not a ranking factor, why show them in Open Site Explorer?
-
If you follow someone on Google+, content they share will be biased higher in your search results, if you're logged in to Google yourself and don't have personal search results disabled. That's the only definite. Here's more: http://moz.com/blog/using-google-plus-to-appear-in-the-top-results-every-time-whiteboard-friday
As for showing other social signals on OSS - they're a useful metric to know, and will probably become more of a ranking factor in future. Shares from established Facebook/Twitter accounts with lots of followers will probably carry more weight.
See Moz's Ranking Factors survey for more info: http://moz.com/search-ranking-factors
-
I do believe that social signals are not really the ranking signals but they do affect links indirectly so, when doing a research or backlink analysis for this website, this data is important to better understand their link profile and maybe that’s why the data is available in Open Site Explorer.
Hope this helps!
-
This may not answer your question completely, but I'll take a shot at it. I saw Eric Enge speak at the 2013 State of Search conference in Dallas. The topic was Google+ as a ranking factor. His conclusion was 'Not really'.
What about Facebook and Twitter? Google has total control of +. They don't have total control of many other social networks. A lot of social networks are too fast for Google. Their understanding is incomplete because relationships change.
How a person is connected can change in a second. Indexation takes longer than that. Perfect, up to the second, knowledge of some social networks appears to be beyond them. At least that's what I gather from Cutt's video.
The devil is in the details, social networks are a great way to get your brand/message/content out there. If something 'works' it's likely to result in organic links. But let's stop worrying about ranking factors for a moment.
The ancients in our industry existed before most of the search engines. Thus there wasn't an algorithm to worry about. They thought about link building the way it should be done. They approached link value with the question; "How much traffic can this link drive to my site, and thus convert?"
So if you have a link with a lot of visibility/traffic potential, wouldn't you like to know about it?
-
Yes, social media signals are a vital search marketing component. If you've written some great informative content, the best way to share is via social media, which may or may not draw your followers, and more to your site.
Remember most marketing tools will not give you a full (100% accuracy) overview how well your site is performing.
Sorry if I have stated the obvious here. Michael is correct regarding employees from Google expressing "quality" signals from Panda.
-
Loaded question.
There have been G employees going public saying they are Panda Indicators. These are something that are present in the profiles of quality websites. Your goal should always be to emulate the best of the best so I do not think it is something anyone should ignore.
My data shows they are an influence on certain elements and due to that I am comfortable saying that they are a necessary element to any seo campaign.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Facebook Page is not getting rank on Google
I'm trying to rank one of my client's Facebook link on Google. It was on page 3, few months back but now It is no where. I'm properly updating Facebook page, i also tried to make it good for SEO but still suffering and It is no where on Google. Page link is: http://on.fb.me/1iPqUpA Looking for suggestions.
Social Media | | wasimashraf300 -
B2B Social Media Creeping
I recently posted an (insightful) comment in a LinkedIn group. I can see that someone from this group has taken a look at my profile, so I'm assuming that they read my comment and they were at least a little intrigued as to who exactly I was. I would regard this person as a prospect. Maybe a slightly unlikely prospect as there's a couple thousand miles that separate us geographically. I'm wondering what sort of etiquette/best practices there are for connecting somehow with this person/company. Initially I thought I'd follow them on Twitter, maybe like them on Facebook, but they have no such presence. I like the idea of connecting with them that way because it's a 'soft' connection - not too aggressive. Doing something like emailing or calling and saying 'Hey, saw that you looked at my LinkedIn profile', seems creepy & desperate. Even sending an invitation to connect seems a little too forward. I feel the only thing to do is to continue to involve myself in this group by posting thoughtful & insightful comments in order to get noticed further that way.
Social Media | | stevefidelity0 -
Request: Feedback on new free tool that provides social analytics for recent blog posts
We have created a tool that provides "at a glance social metrics" for the URLs listed in an RSS feed. Its intended purposes are: Monitor the social success of your recent blog posts Spy on the social success of your competitors' recent blog posts Quickly analyze a blog for social sharing metrics to determine whether it is a good outreach prospect or guest post opportunity Check out the tool at http://www.rypmarketing.com/tools/rss-social-analyzer.php I've attached a report run on the YouMoz RSS feed. Would love to hear some feedback on the tool... Do you think the tool is useful? Nice, but not worthwhile? What could be done to improve it? What ways do you think it will be most useful? Thanks! RSSSocialAnalyzer-YouMoz.png
Social Media | | AdamThompson0 -
Facebook Page likes vs Webpage facebook likes - Social Media Query
I have a website and a facebook page. I have the Facebook Social Plugin on my website which shows my facebook page likes - This is currently at approx 140 likes. Is there a difference between facebook page likes and webpage likes? For SEO purposes, should I be concentrating less on the Facebook page and more on building facebook likes for the website? Are there any guides on this? What gets people to like a website as opposed to a web-page?
Social Media | | MangoMM0 -
Social Media and its importance for organic ranking
Hi Community, maybe this question hasn't to be answered directly, but can be answered with a link. I am sure the answer must be out there on the web... 😉 I have a company, a companies website and a companies facebookpage. Now the question: What kind of user activity on my facebookpage is good for the organic ranking in google? Is it only good, when people click the "like"-Button on my homepage (which gives me a nofollow-backlink from facebook - unfortunatelly in most cases hidden for googles eyes)? Is it useful when I get a "like" directly on my facebookpage? Or is it the best to have a status on facebook that is shared very often? Will Google see the connection between a shared facebook status and my website (of course the website is on the info page of my facebooks site...)? I ask that because I wonder how (for example) a viral picture on facebook shared very often can helb my business. Uuuuh, so, where's my answer on the web? 😉 Thank you!
Social Media | | waynestock
André0 -
How long until Social Spam achieves the same notoriety/problem as Link Spam used to be
What are people's thoughts on whether or not social spam will become a major problem soon, just like forum profile/blog comment spam, etc, and what do you think the search engines will do about companies that are blatantly gaming the social signals game I.E. since social proof seems to be google's answer to combating anchor text manipulation and content farms, what do you think will be google's answer to combating the rampant social spam that will surely overtake us.
Social Media | | ilyaelbert0 -
Scoop it is anyone using this social networking site to generate traffic
hi i have just come across scoop it http://www.scoop.it/t/gastric-band-hypnotherapy which is a magazine site where you can post items and news and i would like to know if anyone is using this to generate traffic for their site and generate links. I cam across it after finding out that links were coming to my site from the network and this morning i have signed up as a free member to try it but there are paid options. I would like to know if anyone is using it and how successful it has been for them
Social Media | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Being Blocked by Social Bookmarking sites based on IP
Creating a few (multiple) social bookmarking accounts at multiple sites and getting blocked based on IP (guessing). Disclaimer: a few, not volume here. What is the best way around this? Preferably something simple. Not savvy on VPN. Someone also mentioned Proxies, not sure the best approach on that one. Thanks!
Social Media | | bozzie3110