Remove Social Side Bar?
-
We recently had a site-redesign and since have lost traffic. We’re currently trying to clean up our code and improve site speed (which we know has become a very big problem). One of the things we tested was removing the social side bar. With that gone, our page speed, file size and requests to the page all improved greatly. And other than the homepage, we don’t see a lot of action on the social side bar with our internal category and subcategory pages.
With side bar: http://www.motivators.com/
Without: http://www.motivators.com/Trade-Show-Giveaways.html
We resubmitted the Trade Show Giveaways page to Google Webaster Tools yesterday and saw a 22-spot jump in ranking by this morning!
Given the circumstances, would it be unwise for us to remove that social side bar? Would it hurt us to lose those signals in the long run despite the overnight jump? Which is the lesser of two evils?
-
I feel like there could be conflicting answers on this one
Social sharing has been such a popular thing to push for, more I think conceptually than for reality. Very few pages within a site do well with sharing - it's just usually not the type of info users want to share (no matter what marketers want to believe or what industry experts want to tell us).The proof is in the numbers - so start there. Are people sharing your content? If they aren't, then what have you lost by removing it? (And I realize you kinda answered this question for yourself.) I'm of the belief that it works best on pages where there's content worth sharing - news, white papers, contests, etc. - if your system allows for specifics like that. And if the change with the social sharing overall will improve the user experience (like with load time), then is that a better trade off?
Since websites can have such different CRMs/platforms/coding, there's many things (I think ) that can play into performance or issues. Like, you resubmitted that trade show page and it may have jumped because Google hadn't crawled it in a long time, vs. because the social sharing changes. Just a possibility.
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 can I have mistaken identity Facebook work history removed from uncooperative person's profile?
My client, a cosmetic surgeon in Lynnwood, WA was attacked earlier today on Facebook by the supposed ex-wife of a cosmetic surgeon in Arizona with whom they have no association. The other practice has a name that is close, but there is absolutely no relationship between the two. We promptly removed the comments from my client's wall and images and blocked the person who posted them. Unfortunately she has posted in her work history on her own page that she works for my client's practice and blocking her has not removed my client's name, logo or fb link from her page. This poster's comments are so tragic and bizarre I'm honestly not sure she is a real person, though the doctor she mentions in her posts does appear to have a real practice in AZ. I could not find a way to report to Facebook that she did not in fact work for my client at any time. I have so far had no response from her to my request to remove it from her About page and due to the bizarre nature of the comments, I don't well trust she'll follow through. How can I have this erroneous work history removed from this person's profile page? Facebook FAQ offered no answers. Thank you.
Social Media | | Sharla0 -
Socialbakers tool for Social Media
Hi! I've been using Sprout Social to manage my Social Media. I saw a video of Social Bakers and was a little bit curious. I haven't heard of it. So I clicked through an ad to look at their features & pricing. I was surprised to see such high values. Does anyone has any experience working with this tool? Are this reports providing a lot more of information than the ones that I can handle through Sprout Social? Thanks for any comment that can help me understand this.
Social Media | | guillermoga0 -
Social Media Tracking
We currently use Sharing from JetPack to offer people the ability to share our blogs on Twitter, Facebook, and so on. Unfortunately the Site Stats provided are not very thorough and not able to be tracked in Google Analytics. Does anyone have a suggestion on which program is best to use for social media tracking? We would prefer to use one program to gather and show all of the statistics.
Social Media | | Prager0 -
My social Metrics aren't popping up in OSE
Haven't been able to see them for the last few Mozscapes. Any ideas? I did email MOZ and it was suggested I try here. Cheers! George
Social Media | | Theskimonster0 -
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 -
Social Media Presence For Medical Equipment Providers
Selling medical equipment to everyone from hospitals, nursing homes, & dealers to selling medical equipment to every individual that doesn't have insurance (at great prices) is what we do. I've had success with some social media but I want to know where you think the biggest social media value is at specifically for a company & website like ours. (www.Ocelco.com). Thanks!
Social Media | | Mike.Bean0 -
Images on Social Media - Can they be Optimized?
My company has been sharing images on its Facebook and twitter outlets which are getting a lot of shares. It seems to be the only thing really working for us. Is there a way to optimize this or use it to our advantage for our website? Or is this just something that will help me gain some edge rank in Facebook?
Social Media | | desmond.liang0
