Step 6 – Social Signals are the Future for SEO
My firm belief is that one day in the near future, social signals will become more relevant than back links! I actually believe it plays an important factor already in ranking sites.
I have actually seen sites move up the rankings solely on Tweets! As we know, Google can change their algorithms at any time, but one thing is for sure, social media is becoming bigger and bigger, and that can only mean one thing for SEO!
Get some F*%ing Social links.
Before I tell you how to get them I’ll tell you why you need them…
Like i just said, Social media is growing and the whole world is becoming Socially obsessed. Kids these days are being raised with Facebook, Twitter etc. and I no doubt there will be something new in the making! As each day goes by more consumers will spend time interacting on social networks.
I personally think it’s a disaster for society in general and I personally have never had a personal FB account. Kids are growing up talking bollocks to each other, obsessing over photographs with their heads stuck in their phones 24/7. But that’s another debate
Another reason why I think Google will eventually favour social signals over traditional links is because people are more likely to trust a product or website if it is personally recommended by a friend. If a site has a strong social following then obviously it is trusted and is likely to offer good value.
What steps should be taken right now to improve my website’s social signals?
There are 2 things you must do with your site:
Onsite Factors
Add these to your site. If your site is run on WordPress then you can install one of the many plugins available.
- Add share buttons for Face book, Twitter, Google+. This allows people to actually share your content and build those social signals for you. It also shows Google that you are interacting socially and are willing to share your content. Check out this post where I have partially proven that adding social share buttons increases ranking!
- Add connect buttons so that people can follow you on Facebook and Twitter
Offsite Factors
Sign up to these social sites: If you cant be arsed then at least make sure you have facebook and Twitter including a link to your site. In the Tier 2 link building section we will be blasting these bad boys with some link juice!
- Facebook page
- Twitter account
- Pinterest account
- Youtube account
- Other social media platforms
Sign up to the social channels above and register your business/site details. Just by having this presence will increase credibility of your brand or site, which Google likes.
If you blog or add new content to your site then you can install plugins that automatically post to your fb and Twitter. I recommend doing this.
Buy some Social links
We still don’t know the true impact of social signals but I am very confident that they will play a vital role in the future, if they don’t already, and i am certain that they can’t do any harm. So go and get some social links. You can actually find gigs on Fiverr.com. Try to find realistic offers, such as somebody offering 20 or so facebook likes, or 5 tweets to their followers. Do NOT buy gigs that take the piss and promise 100,000 social signals, because that does not look authentic and will probably be a load of shit!
There are also services that offer this. I have used: Getsocialshares.com. They offer a decent package for a relatively low fee.
The idea is that we show Google that we are ‘Socially active’ as to speak. We don’t have to over due it here.
If you have followed the steps so far you should have a pretty good diverse set of links and social signals. Just what we want to rank a site
I think Google+ signals will be become the most important Social factors because as we all know, Google will want to be the big dog at social networking too! Check out this interested graph published by SearchMetrics.
Build Social Links the same way I do (Trick)
You may have noticed that I give away stuff on my blog in return for a social like. You share it on Twitter, facebook or Google+ and you get the link to whatever it is I am giving away.
The plugin is called ‘Social Lockers’. It’s pretty easy to show up and allows you to customise the share message and url. If your site gets a steady flow of traffic then I highly recommend you install this plugin!
Another thing I do is to add social share buttons at the end of every post. I also try to encourage people to click them by quite clearly stating the fact. Check it out at the end of this post… Oh, and don’t forget to click one of them 😉
Ohh sheez man!
I forgot to click one of your social share buttons! :-/
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