Social signals are a hot topic for SEO in theses days. Do you have any idea what a social signal is or what people mean when the talk about Social SEO? Social SEO is the improved search engine rank or SEO you can get when your business is raking in the social signals!
These are examples of social signals :
*the likes and shares from Facebook
*the retweets and mentions on Twitter
*the mentions, share and plus +1 you get on Google Plus
These are just a few examples and repins, shares, and comments on Pinterest are pretty valuable too!
What is a Social Signals and how does it affect a Business?
The more signals you have for your website the higher your ranking can get in organic search. This is not a new trend. For ten years I have used social media or what existed at the time to promote, market, and help move my websites up in search engines. What has changed is that Google is reading these social signals directly. That is excited! Back in the day, it was only after the other search engines were ranking a site well in organic search for did you gain much ground from Google from these signals. That’s why businesses are coming to social media platforms in droves. Organic ranking in Google search can connect you with your ideal client in business. Yes .. Money!
Social SEO History
I do marketing for a great commission for a company and have enjoyed a nice income from that since 2003. I used social media to promote business just like I do today! Chat sites were the “social media” of the early days. Yahoo, MSN, and AOL were the biggest back then. My favorite was Yahoo. They allowed you to link to websites in your profile and had a bio area. Yahoo and MSN gave a nod to sites that had links to their websites from these profiles. Your rank in Yahoo and MSN could grow quickly from building links from these profiles. Google seemed to only pay attention after the others search engines did. Google, Yahoo, and MSN were the major search engines and to get organic traffic was the prize we were all hoping to achieve. That hasn't sure hasn't changed.
Where You can Get Social SEO Value
Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn, and Pinterest are modern versions of these social platforms that send signals and provide value to your site through SEO benefits of social signals. Social SEO isn’t new and affiliate marketers and mainstream businesses that were studying search engines were well aware of the value of “social marketing” and what links and social chatter about websites could do for their business search engine ranking.
It’s all different and yet it’s the same. It was easy for me to jump right into marketing using the social media in 2003 because I understood why people were there. It was fun and very interesting to see what people were talking about and meeting new people online. People are still drawn to social media to have fun, to build relationships, and share information. Use the same manners you would in any social setting and you’ll get along nicely. Likes, mentions, shares, and profiles are where you get social SEO value.
I’m passionate about SEO and what it can do for your business. Any savvy business owner knows they need a website and social media platforms. Not all understand why or what it can do for your business. Guiding business through the pitfalls of social media marketing is what I do these days and love it.
Your turn to share! What are the ways you use social media to market your business? Do you have any tips or pet peeves to share? I would love to hear from you in a comment below.
