Custom Social Media icons: Good or bad?
-
Hi guys,
In our never-ending search for better SEO strategies and results, our journey has led us to question the idea of creating custom social media icons for our site. We are wondering if anyone has had experience, either negative or positive, by using these icons, or if there is no difference at all?
I would like to make it clear that we are only thinking about customizing the icons that lead to our Facebook page, Twitter profile, YouTube channel, etc. NOT the like/share/tweet/etc buttons. We understand the negative effects in changing those icons, but are interested in knowing if creating general icons that match our design will be a good or bad thing.
Any replies are appreciated, thanks!
-
Besides what Ryan said, I'd also add that they still need to clearly convey that they're links to those social media sites. I've seen some customized icons that have gone too far on the stylistic side and they were impossible to tell what they were for.
-
Stylistic changes, such as your social media icons, can be good or bad depending on how your visitors perceive them.
If you had a Star Trek theme site, you could stylize your icons to look like Star Trek badges. If your users fall in love with the look, that could lead to your site being mentioned and linked to from other related sites, and even graphic design sites. Your users may like the look so much they decide to click on them more often.
Alternatively, if your visitors disliked the icons they could be used less.
This design decision really isn't much different then any other design decision you could make for your site. At the highest end, you can create a design that is so loved, others either pay you to use your design, or you share it free and receive links based on the design.
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
-
Yoast Social Accounts URL Section
Hi When you click: Social within Yoast plugin it defaults to 'Account' tab and displays a list of fields to enter your social media account urls. Sentence above list says: "To inform Google about your social profiles, we need to know their URLs. For each, pick the main account associated with this site and please enter them below" What does that mean exactly and does it effect links on the site etc or literally is just Yoast telling G ? Also if you have sub sites for different language versions (WP on Multi User setup), which in turn have their own language specific social media account versions , should you enter those urls in the sub site language version own Yoast plugin fields OR , as per "...pick the main account associated with this site and please enter them below" use the primary social account and not the language specific social account or just leave them blank ? Many Thanks Dan
Social Media | | Dan-Lawrence1 -
Social Media Integration plugin switch
I am wondering what would happen if I switched my plugin for social media integration on my WordPress site. For instance, if I have been using Sociable for a long time and have accumulated +1's, likes, shares etc. and then I switch to Flare or Social Stickers, what will happen to all my counts? Thanks so much! I haven't been able to find any documentation on this.
Social Media | | gfiedel1 -
Social Media + MOZ Open site explorer
Hello Everyone, When i run a report on Open site explorer, it says that our website has 129 Facebook likes and 129 tweets. However, our website has had over 4k Facebook likes and i imagine much more than 129 mentions of our url on twitter. Can any one shed any light on this? Thanks 🙂
Social Media | | Alexogilvie0 -
Is a Tumblr company blog good for SEO?
Hi, We are in the process of gaining coverage and visibility over our SaaS service. And one of the work we're doing is, very much standardly, having our pro blog with content. I see that most of companies/people are using a WordPress or a Blogger blog to achieve this. Another school is choosing Tumblr, which is a rising star. But then I can't help to feel that there is something wrong with Tumblr. It doesn't appear in Google search at all... It is never in the top of the searches. And sometimes even search for an exact match of a known post extract won't show the Tumblr link into google Search. What it means to me is that Tumblr has a very poor SEO-friendly policy. I was also reading in different posts that it was indeed the case. Tumblr is bad for SEO. I can't help but feeling confused and not really understanding how such a big social blogging engine couldn't get into google search... Or are they going twitter-like? I guess my question will be: "Is it good to have chosen Tumblr, or should I switch to either WordPress.com or Blogger using a custom DNS?" Thanks for reading.
Social Media | | NicolasE0 -
Various question re SEO and social media
Hi all: It is time for my semi-annual “I don’t have a clue” question. Actually it’s questions since there are three although they may overlap. I am confused about the intersection of social media and SEO. A couple of years ago it seemed like one of the better procedures for link building was writing articles and having them published on Isnare, Goarticles Ezine and the like. Now I am not sure if this is effective anymore. It seems like all of the emphasis is being put on social media sites. Not just Facebook, Twitter Pinterest, and blogs, but big ones (that I don’t have a prayer in the world of getting on) such as Mashable, Reddit etc. How are my efforts best served at this point? Should I still submit articles to article directories or should I concentrate on guest blogging (which isn’t so easy if you want a reputable blog) or try something that I can’t even think of? Second, my blog is a Wordpress Blog that is no big deal and probably isn’t read much. It can be accessed either at Wordpress or through my site. It is listed in my Google Merchant Account, but I can’t imagine anyone reads it. It’s about gifts and products that we sell and is not going to stimulate anyone’s mind. Two things here: First (and I don’t know if anyone will know the answer to this) my site is hosted by Yahoo. There is a tab at the top of my site that takes you to the blog, but Yahoo also has some way to integrate the blog with the website. Does anyone know if this will make any difference? Second, the last several times that I ran by backlinks on Open Site Explorer my Wordpress blog has not shown up. It always did previously right at the top. Any guesses as to why it no longer shows? Finally, in the last couple of months I have had a precipitous drop in orders and visitors to my site. The only thing that I have done is to lower my budget for Google Adwords, but it was never that high to begin with and shouldn’t account for the change. Given the holiday season traffic should be picking up but it is going in the other direction. Does anyone know what is happening here and what to do about it? Anyone with really good insights might get a gift certificate from us (is that permitted on SEOMOZ – if not then forget it). The website is www,uniquegiftsanddecor.com. Here’s a thought – buy stuff from us. (ignore if this is spammy). Many thanks. Don
Social Media | | uniquegifts-2778790 -
Google+. Good for all businesses?
Hi guys, My question/discussion is regarding Google+ and whether or not I should advocate creating an account for one of the websites I work in-house for. This particular website focuses on unlock codes for mobile phones and isn't a service that consumers would really want to connect with - which is what Google+ appears to be a vehicle for. It is a one off purchase website, and not something people will use regularly. On the face of it Google+ offers very little for a company that operates in this fashion and makes most sense for B2B businesses. I feel that by potentially creating a Google+ presence we are in fact attempting to manipulate the search rankings because it isn't a networking site that makes sense for our business and there is actually very little real reason for us to get involved with it. I don't think Google would penalise any business for getting involved in their product, but we would only be using it to benefit our ranking position. Surely that is against everything Google themselves stand for? Also, what real benefits have you guys got out of using Google+? If I am to create a presence there, this is the ammo I'll need to use to convince my manager with. Thanks a lot.
Social Media | | purpleindigo0 -
Should links to your social media accounts be followed?
Hi There, Just wondering if you guys (and girls) think that your links to social media accounts be followed or nofollow? This includes sitewide header/footer links and other text links littered throughout the site. Includes Twitter, FB, Pinterest and G+ specifically (for my site anyway). Thanks in advance!
Social Media | | bradkrussell0 -
Do social signals pass through a 301 redirect?
Does value from social signals have the ability to pass through a 301 redirect?
Social Media | | SEOmoxy0