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Importance of Social Signals

by Joe Lumbergh
30 replies
  • SEO
    • |
The last years I've been reading alot about social signals and their improtance when it comes to SEO so I want to hear the opinions of some experienced warriors.

How do you rank your websites, do you even use social signals? If yes, do you make social signals to your money site, or tier1,2,3? What signals work the best? Shares, likes, g+, facebook/twitter/g+ ?

Any experience some of you like to share?

Thanks, joe
#importance #signals #social
  • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
    Social signals have no direct impact on a page's rankings.

    There has been zero evidence otherwise.
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    • Profile picture of the author Joe Lumbergh
      Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

      Social signals have no direct impact on a page's rankings.

      There has been zero evidence otherwise.
      So why do I keep hearing it does have impact? is it just a small, neglectable impact? Have you tried it yourself and not seen a change in rankings?
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      • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
        Originally Posted by Joe Lumbergh View Post

        So why do I keep hearing it does have impact?
        Because people do not understand the difference between correlation and evidence.
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  • Profile picture of the author jibber6
    Hi Joe
    Few weeks ago I started a case study with only one question in mind. Is it possible to rank a site with only social signals? And the answer is... Yes it is possible! And it works very well.
    I used a new domain for this case study and posted 5 articles. After 2 weeks and nothing other than proper onpage seo my rankings looked like this:
    KW 1: 61
    KW 2: 55
    KW 3: 75
    KW 4: 93
    KW 5: 47
    The competition for these KW is medium.
    I then started to send some social signals (Facebook likes, Twitter signals and Google+ signals). I recommend to use more than only one social platform to let it look more natural. I bought between 100-1000 signals a day for each platform. I also created 2 quality web2.0 and bought some likes and shares for them as well.
    Today, only about 5 week since I started this case study my ranking look like this.
    KW 1: 11 (+50)
    KW 2: 17 (+38)
    KW 3: 19 (+56)
    KW 4: 14 (+79)
    KW 5: 22 (+25)
    Usually new domains need about 3 months to rank well. But my new site did it in under 5 weeks! With only social signals and 2 web2.0 backlinks!! I have no doubt that I will rank in top 3 within a few weeks if I build some more backlinks and send some more social signals.
    So my recommendation for SEO in 2015: Use social signals and high quality tier 1 links to boost your rankings. Hope this helps you!
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    • Profile picture of the author Joe Lumbergh
      Originally Posted by jibber6 View Post

      Hi Joe
      Few weeks ago I started a case study with only one question in mind. Is it possible to rank a site with only social signals? And the answer is... Yes it is possible! And it works very well.
      I used a new domain for this case study and posted 5 articles. After 2 weeks and nothing other than proper onpage seo my rankings looked like this:
      KW 1: 61
      KW 2: 55
      KW 3: 75
      KW 4: 93
      KW 5: 47
      The competition for these KW is medium.
      I then started to send some social signals (Facebook likes, Twitter signals and Google+ signals). I recommend to use more than only one social platform to let it look more natural. I bought between 100-1000 signals a day for each platform. I also created 2 quality web2.0 and bought some likes and shares for them as well.
      Today, only about 5 week since I started this case study my ranking look like this.
      KW 1: 11 (+50)
      KW 2: 17 (+38)
      KW 3: 19 (+56)
      KW 4: 14 (+79)
      KW 5: 22 (+25)
      Usually new domains need about 3 months to rank well. But my new site did it in under 5 weeks! With only social signals and 2 web2.0 backlinks!! I have no doubt that I will rank in top 3 within a few weeks if I build some more backlinks and send some more social signals.
      So my recommendation for SEO in 2015: Use social signals and high quality tier 1 links to boost your rankings. Hope this helps you!
      Interesting case study, I would be interested in the whole study.

      Did you just use social signals for your tier1 web2.0 or did you buy signals for your main site?
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      • Profile picture of the author jibber6
        I will publish the whole case study on my blog when i reach top 3 rankings. I am going to pm you the link if you want to.
        I send most social signals directly to my website, but also some to my tier1 web2.0. This way my backlinks got indexed very fast.
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        • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
          Originally Posted by jibber6 View Post

          I send most social signals directly to my website, but also some to my tier1 web2.0. This way my backlinks got indexed very fast.
          So there are backlinks, which means the case study does not show that social signals can rank a page.
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          • Profile picture of the author jibber6
            Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

            So there are backlinks, which means the case study does not show that social signals can rank a page.
            Have you ever reached such rankings within 5 week with a new domain and only 2 web2.0 backlinks? I did not. And this is by way not the first page I ranked.
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            • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
              Originally Posted by jibber6 View Post

              Have you ever reached such rankings within 5 week with a new domain and only 2 web2.0 backlinks? I did not. And this is by way not the first page I ranked.
              For easy stuff, I have ranked that high without any external links and much faster than 5 weeks.
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              • Profile picture of the author jibber6
                Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

                For easy stuff, I have ranked that high without any external links and much faster than 5 weeks.
                Post the URL and keywords for everyone to see then.
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                • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
                  Originally Posted by jibber6 View Post

                  Post the URL and keywords for everyone to see then.
                  It's been client stuff, so no. I'm not about to do that.
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        • Profile picture of the author Joe Lumbergh
          Originally Posted by jibber6 View Post

          I will publish the whole case study on my blog when i reach top 3 rankings. I am going to pm you the link if you want to.
          I send most social signals directly to my website, but also some to my tier1 web2.0. This way my backlinks got indexed very fast.
          sounds great. think I'm gonna shoot a bunch of social signals to one of my tier1's (its a wordpress web2.0) and see myself how its rankings change.
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
      Originally Posted by jibber6 View Post

      Hi Joe
      Few weeks ago I started a case study with only one question in mind. Is it possible to rank a site with only social signals? And the answer is... Yes it is possible! And it works very well.
      I used a new domain for this case study and posted 5 articles. After 2 weeks and nothing other than proper onpage seo my rankings looked like this:
      KW 1: 61
      KW 2: 55
      KW 3: 75
      KW 4: 93
      KW 5: 47
      The competition for these KW is medium.
      I then started to send some social signals (Facebook likes, Twitter signals and Google+ signals). I recommend to use more than only one social platform to let it look more natural. I bought between 100-1000 signals a day for each platform. I also created 2 quality web2.0 and bought some likes and shares for them as well.
      Today, only about 5 week since I started this case study my ranking look like this.
      KW 1: 11 (+50)
      KW 2: 17 (+38)
      KW 3: 19 (+56)
      KW 4: 14 (+79)
      KW 5: 22 (+25)
      Usually new domains need about 3 months to rank well. But my new site did it in under 5 weeks! With only social signals and 2 web2.0 backlinks!! I have no doubt that I will rank in top 3 within a few weeks if I build some more backlinks and send some more social signals.
      So my recommendation for SEO in 2015: Use social signals and high quality tier 1 links to boost your rankings. Hope this helps you!
      Post the URL and keywords for everyone to see then.
      Signature
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  • Profile picture of the author reddy183
    Hi jibber6,

    Nice to see you are taking about Social Media sites are helped to improve your keywords ranking well. Can i know what are the strategies you followed. I am facing really hard time regarding my keywords ranking in all search engines. If you share me that will be great help to me.

    Regards,
    Reddy Sekhar,
    SEO Analyst.
    Signature
    Web Design Company in India & UAE | ERP Software
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  • Profile picture of the author Joe Lumbergh
    It's hard to post "proof"/"eveidence" for any backlinking and seo strategie, because there are so many factors. But I've been reading on Moz alot about the rising importance of social signals so I dont wan't to rule out the possibilities of social signals being a factor in SEO
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
      Originally Posted by Joe Lumbergh View Post

      It's hard to post "proof"/"eveidence" for any backlinking and seo strategie, because there are so many factors. But I've been reading on Moz alot about the rising importance of social signals so I dont wan't to rule out the possibilities of social signals being a factor in SEO
      Yes, Moz keeps posting stuff about social signals even though Google has said over and over again that they are not a part of the algorithm.

      On top of that, just think about it logically. There is no way that Google is going to put importance on something they could easily be blocked from crawling at any moment. It has happened before. If it happened again, that could throw the SERPs into total chaos.

      There is also the problem that social signals are much more easily manipulated than links.
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      • Profile picture of the author Joe Lumbergh
        Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

        Yes, Moz keeps posting stuff about social signals even though Google has said over and over again that they are not a part of the algorithm.

        On top of that, just think about it logically. There is no way that Google is going to put importance on something they could easily be blocked from crawling at any moment. It has happened before. If it happened again, that could throw the SERPs into total chaos.

        There is also the problem that social signals are much more easily manipulated than links.
        So you don't ever consider social signals in your SEO strategie? what about social bookmarking?
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        • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
          Originally Posted by Joe Lumbergh View Post

          So you don't ever consider social signals in your SEO strategie?
          Nope.

          Social is great for branding and communicating with clients/prospects. It has zero direct impact on rankings.

          Now depending on the niche, social can indirectly impact rankings by attracting links, but in most niches that won't happen.

          Originally Posted by Joe Lumbergh View Post

          what about social bookmarking?
          I really don't like to waste time chasing low quality links, so no social bookmarking is not something I bother with.

          Eight years ago, social bookmarking could sometimes attract decent links from people who saw them, especially if you had good contacts with some of the major influencers on sites like Digg. These days social bookmarking sites are overrun with junk, and getting noticed by anyone that matters is pretty much impossible.
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          • Profile picture of the author Joe Lumbergh
            Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

            (...)
            I really don't like to waste time chasing low quality links, (...)
            What kind of high quality links do you build? All manually? web2.0, pbn, guest posts?
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            • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
              Originally Posted by Joe Lumbergh View Post

              What kind of high quality links do you build? All manually? web2.0, pbn, guest posts?
              Relevant, in-context links. There are numerous ways you can get those, very few worthwhile automated ways though, so yeah almost all manual for me.

              Private networks are great, but only the truly private ones. If they are advertising that they are selling links, they are not private and much more risky.

              Guest posts can also be great, but most people's outreach methods are awful. In some niches, you are probably never going to find guest post opportunities.

              Anyhow... that is all a different topic. I don't want to hijack the thread.
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              • Profile picture of the author Joe Lumbergh
                Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

                Relevant, in-context links.(...)
                thanks. One quick question tho, do relevant, in-context NO-follow links improve SERP?
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                • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
                  Originally Posted by Joe Lumbergh View Post

                  thanks. One quick question tho, do relevant, in-context NO-follow links improve SERP?
                  Every time I have tested it, the impact of nofollow links was negligible. The only exception being links from Wikipedia. I wouldn't be surprised if Google treats them and a select few other websites differently.
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      • Profile picture of the author jibber6
        Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

        Yes, Moz keeps posting stuff about social signals even though Google has said over and over again that they are not a part of the algorithm.

        On top of that, just think about it logically. There is no way that Google is going to put importance on something they could easily be blocked from crawling at any moment. It has happened before. If it happened again, that could throw the SERPs into total chaos.

        There is also the problem that social signals are much more easily manipulated than links.
        Only cause Matt Cutts sais they do not have any influence you just believe him? Funny
        I tried it myself with my case study and just wanted to help with my experience and results. If you do not believe me, ok. Not my problem.
        But maybe you should make your own case study before telling others it has no significance.
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        • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
          Originally Posted by jibber6 View Post

          Only cause Matt Cutts sais they do not have any influence you just believe him? Funny
          It has been more than just Matt.

          But because Moz posts it, it is true? Moz, the same company selling social related tools?

          They have no interest in promoting social do they?

          You can say Cutts is not reliable, but at the same time everyone who I have ever seen promoting social signals impacting SEO have had an ulterior motive or just completely flawed conclusions.

          What started this whole thing is a few places posting correlation reports about rankings. What people do not understand is that correlation is not causation. Of course many high ranking websites have a lot of social signals. They get more traffic than low ranking sites, so they are likely to attract more social signals naturally.

          Originally Posted by jibber6 View Post

          I tried it myself with my case study and just wanted to help with my experience and results. If you do not believe me, ok. Not my problem.
          But maybe you should make your own case study before telling others it has no significance.
          At this point, it is not a case study. It is just your story. If it is not posted for others to see, nobody knows if it is true or not. I don't mean that to offend you, but I could say I did a case study that using the word 'nuts' on a page leads to lower rankings. Nobody would know if it was true or not unless I included some hard evidence.

          Plus, your study is already flawed because you admitted there are links pointing at the pages. I bet there are internal links on the site too.
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          • Profile picture of the author 55sadhikar
            Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

            It has been more than just Matt.

            But because Moz posts it, it is true? Moz, the same company selling social related tools?

            They have no interest in promoting social do they?

            You can say Cutts is not reliable, but at the same time everyone who I have ever seen promoting social signals impacting SEO have had an ulterior motive or just completely flawed conclusions.

            What started this whole thing is a few places posting correlation reports about rankings. What people do not understand is that correlation is not causation. Of course many high ranking websites have a lot of social signals. They get more traffic than low ranking sites, so they are likely to attract more social signals naturally.



            At this point, it is not a case study. It is just your story. If it is not posted for others to see, nobody knows if it is true or not. I don't mean that to offend you, but I could say I did a case study that using the word 'nuts' on a page leads to lower rankings. Nobody would know if it was true or not unless I included some hard evidence.

            Plus, your study is already flawed because you admitted there are links pointing at the ages. I bet there are internal links on the site too.

            This whole thing would have been settled to rest if he had some control variables like few keywords not getting social links. Because all the keywords were getting social signals and keywords improved in rankings only leads to the conclusion that social signals do play a role in ranking keywords. But there might be other variables that have more strong factor in improved rankings, like bounce rates etc. Whether the site is mobile optimized or not etc.
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            • Profile picture of the author jessicalad
              Social Signals are very important as per the latest Google algorithm.Google gives high priority to social media signals. So, more the social media signals the more the ranking will increase.
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              • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
                Originally Posted by jessicalad View Post

                Social Signals are very important as per the latest Google algorithm.Google gives high priority to social media signals. So, more the social media signals the more the ranking will increase.
                Prove it....
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              • Profile picture of the author nettiapina
                Originally Posted by jessicalad View Post

                Social Signals are very important as per the latest Google algorithm.Google gives high priority to social media signals. So, more the social media signals the more the ranking will increase.
                You managed to get an average of 1,33 false claims per sentence. The level of BS Optimization in this comment is world-class. Congrats!
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                Links in signature will not help your SEO. Not on this site, and not on any other forum.
                Who told me this? An ex Google web spam engineer.

                What's your excuse?
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      • Profile picture of the author danparks
        Originally Posted by jibber6 View Post

        I then started to send some social signals (Facebook likes, Twitter signals and Google+ signals). I recommend to use more than only one social platform to let it look more natural. I bought between 100-1000 signals a day for each platform.
        Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

        There is also the problem that social signals are much more easily manipulated than links.
        As shown in his example. 100-1000 signals PER DAY. Probably only cost you a few bucks, right? How many thousands (millions?) of people have EACH bought 10,000, 20,000, 50,000 social signals from fiverr gigs and social selling websites? I'm sure Google knows better than to put any worth on something so easily gamed, just like Google quit putting any importance on blog comments after people started using automated software to spam thousands of comments to blogs.

        And one more thing. 100 to 1000 signals per day? Does that sound even close to natural? Other than huge sites with huge traffic, what website gets anywhere close to that many likes in a day, day after day? I visit interesting blog posts on decent sites all the time, and the little widget displaying social likes is typically well under 1000, even months after the article was posted.
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  • Profile picture of the author anelkamana
    I think that social signals are important for traffic not for SEO
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