700+ Genuine likes in 4 Days on a new Site - Does it risk Google Spam?
-
Hi my site www.dealwithautism.com is a brand new site - only 2 months old and since Autism is a fairly competitive niche, id do not get more than 30 impression and 4-5 clicks for my 40+ pages on Google.
However, recently I have become very active in the social platforms, so over the last week I am getting 200+ pageviews just from Facebook and Twitter, that not bad.,
I have recently created a post 21 apps for Autism https://www.dealwithautism.com/top-apps-for-autism/
Suddenly this post is generating a lot of interest and in the last 4 days I have received as many as 700+ likes (purely editorially) and it is growing in terms of 100s per day.
How I acquired them? Well, firstly I believe it is a very good post. Secondly, I selected one of the Apps in the list as 5 star and editor's choice! Then twitted and Fb mentioned to that company on Twitter and Facebook. They returned the favour by re-tweeting and since they have tens of thousands of followers, my page immediately got traction.
My question is this: Do I need to worry about Google turning a suspicious eye on me for being a new site getting too many social signals in too short time? Should I pull out the Like buttons for a while from my site to slow things down?? I am new to web development and not fully sure how Google would recognize social spam.
-
I think that nothing but good things can come from the kind of activity you are seeing. The key is relevance and value. It sounds like you have some posts that are helpful and relevant to others...This is the ultimate goal with social media. In my opinion this type of activity only sends positive social signals.
The trick is to understand that every post you make is not going to get this type of response. My belief is that the fastest way to get into trouble is engaging in tricks or spammy behavior to replicate the lightning you have created with these posts. Even though it is harder it is important to stay the course by slogging out future contributions knowing that many will not get a huge response. As long as these more minor posts are relevant to your audience you will slowly build up a base and over time your will develop a solid base that is engaged with your social media outlets. This is the long term goal as well as the long term value you want to develop.
Enjoying lightning in a bottle when it happens is good Planning on it is not ;( Building an audience that is a constant power source is the goal
Hope this helps,
Ron
-
Google+ is a social medium. The largest recorded changes came from Google+ at that time. A few months later, Matt Cutts announced that it may penalize Google+ for passing PR and gathering too much PR. So the most impressive parts of the KISS Metrics study were correct.
I hate to be a 'Cuttlet' or speak in terms of Page Rank, but there we have it. A social media platform could influence Page Rank at one time. It still may do so to a limited degree.
There's no doubt that the affect of a social post can bring about the effect of organic rankings, via links outside of typical social media.
People just have to care, to some degree - for some reason.
Knowing this is why I can afford the fine Chunky Soup for lunch. XD
-
Yeah, true. I guess social activity may not be part of the algo, but certainly improves your organic presence, albeit indirectly!
-
Let's get in an internet argument!!! (That was a serious(ly fun) internet smile right there, bro.)
Social media can result in exposure that can result in lovely links outside of social media.
It's less of a stretch to say that organic links, outside of social media, as a result of social media exposure increase rankings.
The people at KISS Metric weren't incorrect at all. Their measurements aren't doubted. I don't doubt them.
But there are some, pretty critical, things that remain unsaid there.
-
Cutts says that social signals aren't part of the algorithm, but, after his research, a certain Mr Patel would argue the case!
However, the article you have posted has obliviously stuck a chord with so many people, so I can't see any issues. Moreover, at the end of the day, Google is all about rewarding useful content - so keep up the good work!
-
Hi Ashish,
Our beloved Matt Cutts has, fairly recently, stated that social signals aren't part of the algorithm. Social signals aren't used for or against a site, regardless of their veracity. As unlikely as it sounds, Google just doesn't have the capability to accurately gauge social signals in a timely and accurate manner - or so we are told.
It sounds like you made a solid tactical decision in regard to how one should gain exposure. Congratulations, you made something good. How you iterate upon your recent success is up to you, but it sounds like you'll do just fine.
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
-
How long it takes for Twitter carousel to appear under your website in google results
Dear Moz community, Not later than 7 days ago I did impelement twitter markup to a website including : as well as twitter markup to all blog/article posts The question: I mentioned Moz (when you search for this brand name in Google) it shows a recent tweets carousel, how long it takes for it appear on our website and should I do any additional fixes for it to appear ? BWctKyu
Social Media | | admiral990 -
Does Google give more ranking weight for Shares for One Social Network over Another.
We are using BuzzSumo to explore the types of content that generate the highest number of shares per article. Does anyone have data to suggest that a share on Google+ carries more ranking weight than a share on Twitter or Facebook, or LinkedIn? We have seen a recent case with one of our client's competitors where they significantly grew their Google+ shares within a relatively short period of time and gained a higher rank for a key search phrase that my client is also targeting. Thank you, Rosemary Brisco
Social Media | | RosemaryB0 -
Is it possible to Merge a Google+ Page with Google Places/local Page on G+
I have seem to have a problem (well think its a problem!) We have a google+ page for our website/ brand (which is verified) and also seem to have a separate google places G+ page (the one with just two tabs at the top.. Photos and About). When you google our brand, google has added a google+ page link but this links to the places one and not our social g+ page. Is it possible to merge these two pages into one? ps i have added rel="publisher" directing to the main google+ page (not local) on the home page and the local G+ page is not verified. Ben
Social Media | | QGS770 -
When with Google+ bio area backlinks get devalued if we have everybody link to our site
Hello, As you know, Google+ bios, if they have a link in them are dofollow. I'm doing a link building campaign, and we already linked one of our Google+ pages to our home page and top 2 articles. My question is, to get links, can we have family and friends add links in their bios too for a total of 6 links to the home page (6 people) and some links to our articles? Or will Google devalue them because we are family and friends? How many is too many? Thanks.
Social Media | | BobGW0 -
An interesting way to deal with comment spam? (just 4 fun)
About two weeks back I set up a new website called www.gamsatsamplequestions.co.uk. It's a blog where, once a day, I post a set of verbal comprehension-style questions to help students prepare for the GAMSAT (the graduate entry to medicine exam used by universities in UK, Ireland and Australia.) Along with rising traffic, I've recently started to receive spam comments. Before going ahead and activating Akismet or some other spam-blocking app I thought I might have a bit of fun with them.. I took my favourite spam comment (one allegedly about SEO) and wrote up some questions to turn it into a sample GAMSAT reading comprehension It's not the most efficient way of moderating spam comments, and my not-so-subtle bitter rantings are unlikely to deter any future spammers, but I nonetheless had a little bit of fun doing it.. So, my question is, has anybody else experimented with interesting or unique ways of dealing with comment spam? E.g. created a directory of all the people who spam commented you / donated their email addresses to hordes of email marketers / replied with a kindly worded email expressing concern for their well being.. Has anyone stumbled upon anything more fun/efficient than the akismet-style plugins?
Social Media | | Devin_Anderson0 -
Tool to easily see the number of Facebook likes/G+ of a URL?
Does anyone know of a tool I can use to easaly see how many likes/tweets/+1 a URL has? Thanks.
Social Media | | scotennis0 -
Face Book..your thoughts on promoting on main web site
Moz Community, I would like Facebook promotion opinions. I have a local business (Seattle painting contractor) and have built a fan page which engages our clients, local & national suppliers, friends and other contractors. Our original intent was to use the fan page to promote our main website; we never added a prominent "like us" button on our main page, we did not want to convert for facebook when our best content was on our site. I have been pleasantly surprised this past year how many fans we have accumulated by promotion and by accident. The main benefit has been rewarding engagement from other industry marketers such as Benjamin Moore paint company, and introductions to local design professionals..and these conversations once started continue by direct communication (email..phone). I have just added a facebook link on my blog..see attached picture Join our 2500+ fans. Primarily because the visitors to the blog tend to be the sort that engage on Facebook vs the type that want a painting contractor (Google analytics traffic data and click through behavior). I now have more traffic to the blog than the front end site. What do you think of the button? What else should be promoting? Come Learn more, see what we are about, enage, share, & learn facebook_button.png
Social Media | | johnshearer0 -
Is there any online tool you can suggest for monitoring facebook activities such as shares - likes etc
I just wonder if there is any online monitoring tool - application for Facebook activities..
Social Media | | merkal20050