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
-
Suggested Social Stream Solution for Wordpress
Hi, I was looking for some ideas on Wordpress for social streaming. What I am looking for is to show my activity in the right sidebar of a blog. I would like to capture this in an attractive way. My site has a lot of pictures so visual is very important. Now having some some searching there are a thousand "share this" type plugins. My need is different in that I want to show the activity of what I am sharing in: FB, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. I found this plugin below that has several nice formats. Since the column is 325 wide I can easily use one of the longer streaming looking options. http://codecanyon.net/item/wordpress-social-stream/full_screen_preview/2201708 http://codecanyon.net/theme_previews/2201708-wordpress-social-stream?index=1&url_name=wordpress-social-stream Let me know if you have some other suggestions. One thing I don't want to to is tank page load speed. In this I could not elect to rotate. Nonetheless, this is what I am hoping for so I would welcome your feedback. Thanks,
Social Media | | will21121 -
Measuring reach and engagement on all social media platforms
What's the best tool for measuring reach and engagement on all social media platforms (or at least Twitter, Google+, Facebook) ?
Social Media | | RikkiD220 -
What is the value of having a social media feed displayed on your website?
This is something I asked myself this evening. You see a lot of sites with a Facebook or Twitter feed displayed, but I struggle to understand their value. OK, it shows that you are active on this or that social media channel, but unless you are posting great content consistently on the social media displayed, the impact of your feed could detract from the web page it is displayed on. It could also cause a visitor to that page on your site to click away from your site into the noise and distraction of that social media channel. I don't have an issue with using social media icons to link to your channels, but they are more discreet and the sort of thing people will look for if they are interested enough in your web pages to want to connect with you. Also, social sharing icons are good, but I do not see the value in social media feeds. Do you agree or disagree? I am more than will to be persuaded otherwise. Thanks in advance,
Social Media | | crackingmedia
Peter0 -
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 -
Is Pinterest's Embed a Pin good for SEO?
I was curious if by having Pinterest embed pins on my site will add SEO value... This would be used mainly on product pages for alternative images, closeup detail, any type of image to answer a customers question. I would accompany the pin with more text as another way of adding content to the page. Example on my site: Wicker Sofa product page with Pinterest Embed live. Also attached the screenshot of the code that is used by Pinterest pin embed widget. Hoping that extra unique content + social activity repins or follows, would help my store's SEO. Thank you for your answers in advance... 3uqUz57.png
Social Media | | wickerparadise0 -
Social Medial Plugins For Wordpress - G+1 & Facebook Like buttons that don't slow down site
I have a wordpress website and have been trying to figure out the best social media plugins to use...........That DON'T dramatically slow down the page speed load times. Does anyone have recommendations? What social media plugins have you used that don't have a huge negative impact on page load times?
Social Media | | webestate0 -
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 -
What would be a good way to drive traffic to a temporary post - job posting / classified ad?
I was wondering what would be the best way to drive traffic to a posting that will only last 30 days. I didn't think linking would be the answer, but wanted to get opinions. I was thinking pinging and social media (Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter)... What would your strategy be?
Social Media | | RaginCajun0