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“Martin, what are social signals?”
When I mention to my online training clients about social signals, the immediate response is usually “Martin, what are social signals?”
Social signals are the interactions people have with social media content. These may be likes, comments, shares, retweets, reposts, etc., as well any interactions like mentions, replies, and responses to tweets, for example. These interactions help us understand how people interact with our content and what kinds of content interest them most.
The goal of social signals is to show you what types of content perform best across different platforms. This helps marketers determine where to spend their marketing dollars. For example, if you see that one post received 10 times more engagement on Twitter than another post did, it might mean that you could focus your efforts there. Or, if you notice that someone shared your article on Twitter, but didn’t like it, it might indicate that you’re missing some opportunities to reach those people.
Search Engines and Social Signals
Social media sites use social signals as indicators of sources of high-value, high-quality, and useful content.
Social signals are not used by Google as a primary factor for determining web page rankings, but they are considered when evaluating websites.
And the more social shares, retweets, and replies your social content receives – this tells Google that people like your social content, that they think it’s useful and valuable, and that it generates traffic back to your site.
Unlike Google, Bing takes into account social media activity when determining which websites appear at the top of its results page. Bing considers engagement, freshness, quality, credibility and relevancy when determining which websites appear at the top of its results pages. Social media plays an important role in determining whether or not your Bing results appear at the top of the page.
According to recent research, 36% of desktops searches in the United States are done using Bing — a number that shouldn’t be ignored.
What is the real effect of social signals on SEO (search engine optimisation)?
Social signals help search engines determine which pages are most relevant, popular, and trustworthy. These factors can improve the organic search results for the page and its contents.
Search engines want to help people by providing them with high quality web pages that meet their search intent. To do this, web crawlers like Google and Bing rank websites based on a variety of different criteria, one of which includes how popular or visible the site is.
And this is why social signals matter. Lots of likes, comments, and shares of a social post indicate that people are finding value in that post.
As a result of an increase in website traffic, back links, and social media presence, your SEO and SERP rankings may be impacted.
Social media engagement and social media presence are extremely important for SEO (search engine optimisation).
It’s easy to understand why every like, retweet, regram, share, URL click, and view increases visibility, generates backlinks, and awareness – telling search engines that the content is relevant, fresh, high quality, and important – and ultimately improving SEO and search rankings
Here are 9 things you can do to improve your social signals.
To improve your social media presence, keep these seven social media posting tips in mind:
1: Be consistent
Posting content on your various social media channels every day tells people and Google that your website and business are active and relevant.
Think about it for a moment. People visit your site to learn about your company and products, and they check out your social channels to see if there’s anything new from you. For example, if a Twitter account hasn’t been used for several months, it doesn’t really inspire trust, does it?
2: Be relevant
Don’t just share any old stuff; be sure to share relevant content. Your followers want to see posts about your business, industry, and brand, so don’t just throw out random posts. These followers don’t want to see how you’re celebrating Bake A Cake Day. They just want to see amazing cake designs and recipes. Don’t dilute their social channels with content that doesn’t match their interest.
3: Offer value
Make sure that when you create and write posts for your followers that they know exactly what they’re going to receive when they click the link in the post. Aim to do this in just one sentence if you can.
If you can’t explain the value and benefits of your product or service in one or two short paragraphs, then it probably means your content needs some improvements.
Check out my recent guide on “What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Blogging?”
4: Be social
When replying to posts, always reply to the original poster. If you’re posting something from another site, make sure you include a link back to their page so people know where they came from.
Think about this for a moment. If you share and retweet some content that you think your followers, your audience, would be interested in, then do you think there’s a good chance they’ll be interested in it?
Always make sure you engage with your audience. Treat it like you would a normal face-to-face conversation. Like and comment on their posts, and join in on conversations.
The more you interact with others, the more likely they are to notice and interact with you, which can as a result, help to increase your social signals.
5: Optimise your profiles
Optimise your social media profiles by conducting some in-depth keyword research. This can help you optimise your social profiles with phrases that people are using to search for products and services in your industry or niche.
Make sure you always provide your web address whenever you’re able to so others can easily share your content online.
It’s very important your web links this whenever you run a new campaign or add something special on your website. It makes perfect sense that you want people to be able to find the right URL when they’re searching social networks.
All of the above will help increase your visibility online, help you get found and increase engagement. All of which will help improve your social signals. All make sense so far?
6: Use social plugins on your website
Adding social networking icons to your web pages, especially your blog posts, as this makes it much easier for visitors to your website to share your content, post comments, rate your page, and link back to your site.
This will certainly help increase your site’s visibility and create links back to your site.
Go and check now to see if you have any social share buttons on your website, more specifically your blog posts. If you haven`t then speak to your web designer and get some added as soon as you can.
7: Be personal
Be human, be personal: People like to communicate with other people. (I`m a firm believer in people buy from people).
So be sure to write your posts so they’re easy for your readers to understand. Drop all the technical jargon and speak to then in plain English.
Make it easy for people who follow you to connect and relate to them. If people see something they relate to, they’re more likely to share it and click links in it. Know who your followers and fans are and give them the best stuff.
8: Increase your social media presence
I know it sounds obvious, but one of the best things you can do is to increase your social media presence.
It stands to reason that the more active you are on social media, the more likely it is that people will see and interact with your content.
9: Collaborate with others
And finally, collaborating with other users is a great way to get your content seen by a larger audience.
When you collaborate with others, ideally those who have the same target audience as you, you can then work together and share each other’s content, which in turn naturally help to increase your social signals.
Conclusion
The above content discusses nine ways to increase social signals. These include being active on social media, sharing relevant content, being personal, and collaborating with others. By following these tips, you can make sure that your content is seen by a larger audience and that people are more likely to interact with it.
