Social signals have been in the spotlight since 2010, when Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land first blogged about them. Shortly after, Steve Cutts confirmed in a video that Google does consider these signals.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Social signals, such as backlinks, provide an objective vote of confidence for a specific page or resource. It is unlikely that social signals have surpassed backlinks in importance, but one thing is clear: it is no longer safe to ignore them.
There are a few social signals in particular to monitor: Facebook likes on your pages and groups, Twitter followers associated with your brand, tweets that mention your brand, Google+ circles, and +1s.
These will change over time as social media comes and goes, but as a general rule of thumb, you want a strong presence on all the major social sites.
Much has been made of the fact that social networking sites use the “nofollow” attribute, but Google still counts them when it comes to tracking social status. In other words, a social share is still an endorsement even if it doesn’t directly affect SEO.
Think of it this way: A brand with a lot of social media shares is likely to have strong brand loyalty. This is something of a “chicken and egg” scenario where a brand with mediocre SEO but a strong social following can still rank.
The reasoning behind this is that a brand with a large following will have good conversion rates, repeat customers, positive reviews, and referrals. These factors indicate that the brand’s SEO will improve over time, so Google may give them the benefit of the doubt for a while.
There are things you can do right now to cultivate social cues.
start a business blog
A company blog is essential to your success. A blog gives you a great reason to create unique and regular content, and allows you to interact with your fans on a day-to-day basis.
In addition, a company blog gives you a space from which you can tell your own story. This is essential in case you are affected by a negative SEO or smear campaign. Naturally, it’s also great for SEO in its own right.
You can use the Facebook Comments API to connect your blog directly so that your blog comments also appear on the social network. This is very easy to set up if you use WordPress.
Create social media pages
As mentioned, you should have social media pages on all the major sites, but you should also create pages on specialized sites like LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube.
These more niche sites will help increase your web surface area, so to speak, and build brand credibility. If your budget allows it, you may want to hire a social media manager to manage these accounts for you.
To integrate
You should strive to share data from one network to another as much as possible. For example, don’t just share images on Pinterest; share them on Facebook too. Twitter is great for sharing information, but don’t shy away from your LinkedIn groups either.
Interact with influencers
Finally, one of the most important things you can do right now is find out who the influencers are in your niche. Contact them on Twitter and start a relationship.
Don’t blatantly market your items to them. Introduce yourself and let them know why your content is unique and valuable, but leave it at that. Don’t be afraid to share your content; they can return the favor.
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