Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a digital marketing discipline that is dedicated to optimizing a website and helping it become more visible in search engine results pages. In an effort to achieve this task, SEO has developed an array of tools, strategies, and methods. One increasingly important aspect of SEO are the social signals.
Social signals are online indicators used to measure the influence of social media, social networks, and overall online communities on website content. Social signals include likes, shares, tweets, and mentions, among other activities. Search engines like Google have begun to use social signals as a metric when deciding how a website ranks in search results.
How Do Social Signals Impact SEO?
Social signals have become increasingly important in SEO. Companies and content marketers now need to consider their social media channels as an essential part of their SEO strategy in order to increase their visibility in search engine results pages. Search engines like Google look at the number of social signals a page has, and how quickly and frequently content is shared, when determining search relevance and quality.
Therefore, positive social signals from likes, shares, tweets, and other community engagement activities will improve a page’s ranking in search engine results pages and, conversely, negative social signals can have a negative impact on a page’s ranking.
Social Signals Explained
Likes
Likes can be the most visible of social signals, appearing on a website whenever someone is pleased with the content and makes it known by clicking the thumbs-up button. Every like is an indication of positive engagement with the content and the social media platform.
Shares
Shares happen when someone reads a piece of content and wants to share it with their social media network. If a post receives a large number of shares, it can be seen as an indication of quality content that’s worth sharing.
Tweets
Tweets are short messages that users post on Twitter. These messages can be about news, events, opinions, and more. Every tweet can be retweeted, which means that it is shared by other users.
Mentions
Mentions occur whenever someone makes another user or page part of their message. These online social interactions are an indication of an influential brand and show that audiences enjoy engaging with the mentioned party.
How to Leverage Social Signals for SEO
In order to leverage social signals for SEO, it’s important to establish and maintain an active social media presence. This can be achieved by curating quality content and engaging with communities on various social media platforms.
Companies should also aim at creating content that encourages shares, likes, and mentions. This means that brands need to create content that is interesting, valuable, and engaging. Content that elicits an emotional response is often the most popular.
Finally, brands should monitor their social media platforms for any mentions, likes, and shares as they are happening. Not only does this help ensure that content is being shared, but it is also an opportunity for brands to engage with their audience and, in turn, boost their SEO rankings.
The Future of Social Signals
As the importance of social signals in SEO rankings continues to grow, the key to a successful SEO strategy will be to combine the best practices of traditional SEO with an engaging social media strategy. Brands that can create a solid social media presence along with quality, shareable content will see their SEO rankings improve in the long run.
In conclusion, social signals have a growing importance in SEO. They are used by search engines to gauge the online visibility, as a website’s ranking can be influenced positively or negatively by the content engagement and interaction of its audience. In order to leverage social signals for SEO, brands should keep an active presence on popular social media platforms and create and share engaging content. In the future, the relationship between social signals and SEO is only expected to grow.