Major Part of SEO: Social Signals
It's widely acknowledged that "natural" back-linking is the key to Google Love, however why would a site that is truly popular get lost of backlinks but no social mentions? We know that social signals are increasing in importance with regard to the ranking algorithm, and will continue to do so.That's why you have to dripped social signals to justify your backlinks and obtain maximum beneficial from Google.
Both Google or Bing have included many social search features over the past couple of years. It's a matter of fact that social signals perform an essential role in SEO and it is mandatory now. They don't only help in SEO but get you direct traffic as well! Google is now relying more on social signals since backlinks have been over used and over spammed.
In the upcoming, social signals is estimated to account for as much as 30% off off-site SEO. It is no doubt the EXCELLENT service webmasters can not ignore!
So How and Why do Social Signals improve rankings?
- They give your websites a good push in SERP's - Make your websites viral - Google uses Twitter and Facebook links as a ranking signal. - Twitter and Facebook is better than a blog for reaching your customers! - They assist websites left in the rankings and hit by Panda and Penguin with no success recover and work well.
Social signals have direct effect on organic search ranks from :
The number of people who like your brand on Facebook
Number of Facebook shares Number of Twitter Followers Number of tweets mentioning your brand name or including a link to your website Number of people that "have you in their circles" (Google+)
and indirect impact comes from:
Improved inbound links and citations due to proved online visibility/brand recognition Improved reviews that are positive (in Google local, Yelp, etc.) due to more comfortable customers Decreased bounce rate, increased time on site, and more repeat visitors to your site
How to use social signals?
Active accounts that expand across every major social network such as: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+1, Digg, Reddit, and many others. Hire an outsourcing company who will help you add daily likes and shares your contents/links/videos...on all those netwoks. This process, along with your regular backlinking strategy will set your website over your competitors.
Keep in mind that the total number of times a link has been shared across the various social networking sites has impact on its ranking. For instance: if one link was shared ONE HUNDRED times and another was only shared 10 times, itâs a strong indication that the 1st link has more value and relevance than the other. This means you need to focus on creating your content unique, relevant to the needs of your visitors, interesting enough for them to share. Accordingly, the more your content gets shared, the better it will be for your SEO efforts.
In conclusion, social search has marked the beginning of a new area in SEO. Brands that have embraced social media not only enjoy the ranking benefits because of the impact of social signals, but in addition increased conversion rates, brand trustworthiness, and word-of-mouth referrals.
