The real power of social signals

The significance of social signals – a like or a dislike on Facebook; a tweet or a retweet – has been fiercely discussed among SEO experts for quite some time, but the debate is divided by one question: what influence do social signals have on the indexing in search engines, such as Google? By Ellie Edwards-Scott, MD UK Quisma.

Social media platforms have been around for a while and years later we’re still trying to figure out just how much of a central role social signals play in organic SEO rankings with the two major search engines.

It is a well-known fact that Facebook likes and shares, as well as tweets and Google +1 recommendations, generate attention and traffic. But the question many marketers want to know is whether they also have a direct effect on the ranking in search engines? Or do they rather have an indirect impact?

Multiple studies have been conducted over the years in an effort to determine the exact correlation of social signals and SEO rankings, with wildly varying results. However, it’s always been clear that the importance of social signals has been increasing with time but that several questions needed to be answered:

• How and why do social signals improve rankings?
• What’s the future of social signals with regard to SEO?
• What steps should be taken right now to improve my website’s social signals?

QUISMA has over 12 years’ experience working with advertisers on their search strategies and our experts have certainly seen a growth in the number using social media as a measurement tool. Our teams advise our clients on how they can best use social media tools to improve their rankings on a daily basis.

Thankfully that process has become smoother over time following the publication of several recent in-depth studies that analyse the importance of social signals and their results now clearly show that social signals should not be underestimated and that there is an increased correlation between social signals and organic rankings.

One of these pieces of research is Marcus Tober, CEO of Searchmetrics GmbH’s, analysis of social signals’ effects on search engine positioning.

Marcus and his team carried out an in-depth survey from January to October last year and revealed that Facebook and Twitter are far from irrelevant for SEO rankings. Their study used empirical data to study the growing influence of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and especially Google+.

Their research suggested that quality signals will play an increasingly significant role for the calculation of rankings, and in light of increasingly demanding link building this also includes social signals.

Tober’s research also pointed to an increasing influence of Google+ on SEO positioning. Indeed the research revealed Google+ signals surpassed Facebook likes, comments, and tweets. Significantly Marcus also said that fewer Google+ recommendations are necessary to influence the ranking position compared to other social signals.

Tober’s team showed a positive effect of +1 buttons on the indexation. They used articles that had a similar topic and structure with different URLs. For this method it was important that the measured articles did not have any inbound links that could influence/distort the survey’s results.

It could be noticed that Google +1 recommendations resulted in an immediate indexation of the article and a permanent ranking.

Facebook shares were significantly less effective, only beyond a certain number did they lead to an indexation of the article. The results of the searchmetrics-study could prove that for a long-term indexation you need a large number of Facebook likes/ shares, whereas with Google+ only a few +1-recommendations can already have a positive influence on the positioning. According to the study, Pinterest and Twitter did not have a measurable impact on the indexation.

Concerning Facebook shares, it is particularly interesting that it is not necessarily just important how often an article has been recommended, but also who shared it and what that person’s “social environment” is. searchmetrics is carrying on with this study because they want to continue observing the impact of social signals – especially of Google+ – on the SEO ranking.

As a result we can assume – regardless of the social network’s popularity – that in the future Google+ will play an even bigger role in website indexation.

However, the bottom line is that companies can boost their SEO optimisation with social media activity. Social signals alone will probably not lead to a long-term pole position in the rankings, but combined with classic on page optimisation you will certainly have an edge over your competitors. Therefore, it is advisable for companies to become acquainted with using social signals so they can best use it to their advantage.