The Importance of Social Media in SEO

How much weight is given to your social media efforts when it comes to improving SEO?

This has been a major point of debate in the world of online marketing. What value do search engines give to social signals, and how will your social media efforts affect your search rankings? Social media has been around for a few years, social media for business a little less, but search has dominated the web since (or close to) its inception. When social media began to pick up steam for companies a coupled of years ago, the focus when it came to improving search rankings was link building. However, right around the 2011 new year, Matt Cutts revealed that social signals do play somewhat of a role in search rankings. How much? Well, we’re not exactly sure, but whatever it is it should not be ignored.

So, how exactly do social signals factor into your search rankings to help you get found? There is no one answer to this question, as we do not have all the insight into how search engines rank these signals, but it would be sage to assume a few factors that play a role. Facebook Likes, Google+ circles and Twitter followers are one aspect, but the real driving force when it comes to social is your content being seen. Facebook ranks atop the social networks most closely watched by Google for increased rankings. And if your content is floating around Facebook with links, you are in a great position. Searchmetrics posted an article a few months ago that detailed some correlative data between search rankings and social signals. One of the graphs they put together can be found below:

Time and time again we stress that content is king, and this statistical analysis shows it. When your content is shared or retweeted (particularly if it contains links to your website) you stand to benefit greatly when it comes to search. Of course, there is still the issue of keywords and backlinks outside of social media, and top brands stand to benefit the most from this, but if you choose your keywords properly and get your content circulating on social media, you could end up seeing some incredible results with your search rankings skyrocketing.

Community review sites like Yelp! are also a major factor when it comes to search rankings. The number of reviews and the positivity of those reviews is something that search engines take into significant consideration. So in addition to getting your brand on social networks like Facebook and Twitter to increase your social rankings, get fans to post on review sites. This will help increase search rankings in the best way possible: happy customers touting your brand!

So, what should you be watching for when it comes to social signals in determining your ranking on search engines? Google is still working on their ever-evolving algorithms to optimize social signals in their search results, but within a few years, we can expect social signals to be the most dominant factor when it comes to Google rankings. While links are still the dominant factor, social is well on its way to surpassing it, and should certainly not be ignored by any company looking to get found.

Have you taken all the steps necessary to maximizing your social media efforts so as to increase your rankings potential on search engines? Tell us about your strategies below or on Twitter!