Myth or Fact: Social Media Dashboards Bad for SEO?
-
I want to start using HootSuite to pre-schedule Facebook/Twitter updates, but am plagued by nagging concerns because I have heard that HootSuite may impact SEO in a negative way.
Is this truth or bull? If it i true, how so, specifically? And can anything be done to mitigate the negative SEO factors?
Also, does anyone prefer another dashboard over HootSuite?
Thanks in advance for your inputs!
-
@ThompsonPaul: I'd welcome additional input...here is the scenario:
We're a 2-man agency, so there really only needs to be one user for the dashboard. The goal is creating an active Facebook/Twitter presence with minimum time commitment, for 3 or 4 small clients - these are local, independently owned businesses with small budgets.
My goal was is to re-purpose newsletter & blog content as pre-scheduled Facebook & Twitter updates in order to be able to "set it & forget it".
These clients don't necessarily view Social as a priority - but as we are creating blog/newsletter content for them anyway, I thought it would be good practice to re-use the content on other platforms, to keep Facebook / Twitter from being completely overlooked.
In terms of the degree of importance placed on analytics - I think if it could be demonstrated that Social is driving traffic to their websites, we would be able to persuade these clients to allocate more budget to social. Each of these clients does use GA.
-
Most welcome, Lucy. I've also used a number of different dashboards - if you can describe the highest-priority things you want to be able to do with your dashboard, I may be able to make a suggestion or two.
eg how many and what types of accounts? Are Analytics and tracking important? Do multiple team members need to collaborate/manage the same accounts?
Paul
-
@ThompsonPaul - Thanks very much for this well-crafted reply - greatly appreciated.
-
There is only one way the use of Hootsuite could negatively affect SEO - if you choose the ow.li URL shortener as your default instead of the default ow.ly version (in the setup section).
The ow.li version is using 302 redirects instead of 301s which is a no-no for SEO.
Otherwise, since the dashboard is only posting contents to Twitter/Facebook and not your website, there's no possibility for harm.
HOWEVER!!! Using Hootsuite (or any 3rd-party tool) to post to Facebook can definitely cause user-engagement problems. Any update posted to Facebook using a 3rd-party tool (like a dashboard) automatically has a harder time earning views by your followers. Facebook's Edgerank algorithm is what determines how many of your followers might see your post, and posts by 3rd party tools always have a lower Edgerank.
So for all important Facebook posts, it is best to submit them using Facebook's own site or their mobile app rather than Hootsuite. (You can now pre-schedule posts from within Facebook itself, so this helps alleviate one of the reasons why most people used 3rd-party tools) In fact, I still believe it's better to make all Facebook updates directly.
Paul
-
Hi Lucy,
Like-wise as Robert, I myself have used hootsuite before for several social media complaints. Besides a huge outage at an important time, I didn't really mind using the service (took a small while getting used to it, that's all).
I suggest you read http://www.seomoz.org/blog/url-shortener-owl-li-indexed-in-google (was released today, excellent timing) as well, which actually talks about using one of the URL shorteners provided by Hootsuite.
Best of luck.
-
Well to be honest lucy i havent at all, not to say hootsuite put me off but its the formula 1 of interfaces so i said to myself "this may not be for me" lets not try and over complicate things and just do it manually.
I might have a look at sproutsocial all right now that you mentioned it but i dont know how it can get any better with my 17" screen (clutter)
It may or may not, i,ll keep u posted
-
Thanks for that input.
Have you used other dashboards with better interfaces? I am also looking into SproutSocial as an alternative & wonder if they have a better user experience.
-
I have used hootsuite and all though it has some great features, its not something i enjoy using because of the cluttered interface.. The only good thing i can think of is that you dont have to login to multiple accounts and simple click between projects, ultra quick.
I'm thinking its bull, i have not heard anything at all concerning seo that may impact on social media projects at all
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
-
Links to Social Media Sites
I am in the process of updating my website where all the URLs of my individual blog pages are changing. I have, in the past, done a lot of link sharing on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter of my individual blog posts, but now on the new site my links will be different. Therefore, when I launch the new site anyone clicking on my previous tweets or facebook shares will get a broken link. Is there a tool I can use that identifies all the links on social media sites? Opensite Explorer doesn't show these - unless I am missing something? Any tips on how to overcome this would be very useful. thanks
Social Media | | goodge0 -
Like .vs Share Button - for SEO which is better?
I personally from what I have read believe the share button to be more powerful when it comes to SEO but I don't know for a fact so anyone have any input on this subject? One thing I do know, is it's a lot harder to gain a 'Share' then a 'Like' and im talking about these buttons being onsite maybe in a blog post. If you gained 100 shares and 100 likes which one would generate the best signals? Thanks
Social Media | | activitysuper0 -
Social Media Signals with AddThis?
Good day guys, Just a quick question. By having the AddThis sharing tool to share content such as blogs, does it still send the same social signals to Google as you would get by having the official Facebook/Twitter plug-ins? Regards
Social Media | | Michael-Goode0 -
Social button yes or social button no...
Hi everybody! It's quite clear that if you have a pretty, clean, compact html code on your website, Google loves you as a lovely mom does with her kids. But it's not a dream world and you have actually to choose between social and clean code. In fact to add, for example, the Facebook social button, you have to include some files from the Facebook servers. Even though the googlebot doesn't download them (but people do, with page optimization decreasing), it reads some javascript code. Moreover you have to add some code where you want the button appears. I think it hasn't much sense for the googlebot, so that could it be punitive for your website / page to place that bunch of code? In the end my question is the following: Does the social power win against negative factors like additional files to download and a bunch of ugly code in your body? social power > bad factors (file downloading+more code)?
Social Media | | jobintourism0 -
How does Pinterest contribute to SEO?
Can Pinterest help me obtain quality backlinks? How does it help in the process of search engine optimization?
Social Media | | pulseseo0 -
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 -
What Social Media Buttons/Links When & Where?
Our web development team members are having a debate on when and where to add various social media buttons / links. The crux of the debate is when does adding various calls to social media services become detrimental to page load time. We have really been focusing recently on optimizing page load speed using YSlow and Google Page Speed tools to tweak templates and pages as much as possible. Our webmaster argues that we should be selective on what pages we add Google+, Facebook LIKE, Twitter/Follow buttons. e.g. just 'important' pages such as the home page. Here is a forum link that speaks of this... http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4358033.htm Bottom line? What are your thoughts on when and where to place various social media buttons and links for Google+, Facebook LIKE and Twitter/Follow. Thanks,
Social Media | | RoyMcClean
Roy McClean P.S. We have pretty much agreed to use AddThis button set on our clients' blog pages that includes FB LIKE and SEND, Google+, Twitter and the AddThis general share buttons.1 -
Social Accounts/Networks Multiple account management?
Having tried Yoono and Tweetdeck I'm leaning towards Tweetdeck for ease of use.... Managing 5 facebook accounts, 9 facebook pages and 6 twitter accounts at the moment... Any other suggestions for tool or software I should consider?
Social Media | | JohnW-UK0