Does Google allow us to Incentivize Social Shares?

by 8 replies
9
Does Google allow us to ask for social shares in exchange for displaying locked content?

Can I require a social share in order to enter someone in to a contest I'm running?
#search engine optimization #google #incentivize #shares #social
  • I dont think it will trigger anything so why not. I dont think google is that advanced
  • I do it and since implementing my organic search traffic increased... But I'm not saying the additional likes helped with rankings... it just didn't hurt.

    In fact I've found it to work great getting an additional 100+ plus likes a day which drives more traffic.

    I recommend doing it... just offer something irresistible.
  • Ryan, I'm not worried about Google bots finding these incentives. I'm worried about other webmasters reporting me.

    JGant, Google likes social shares per this article: SEO Ranking Factors - Rank Correlation 2013 for Google USA 2013
    • [1] reply
    • I would not believe that article. It is just showing a correlation, not any kind of actual proof or facts.

      What they fail to answer in that article is did the sites achieve the rankings because of social signals, or do the sites have a lot of social signals because they were already ranking #1, and thus got a lot of traffic. It is likely the latter.

      I have yet to see a single webpage ranking based on social signals.

      There has been zero evidence that social signals improve rankings.
      • [1] reply
  • You can't. Thats against their TOS. When you grab a like/share/whatever button from any of the social media they state you can't use it to force people to like/share your pages.

    I can't remember if it was google/facebook though but i remember reading that when i wanted to do something similar. On the page that you get the social button, read the notes/tos there and see if its allowed.

    EDIT: Here you go
    https://developers.google.com/+/policies

    Don’t mislead your users about what buttons or links included in posts or notifications will do, or trick users into clicking them.
    • [1] reply
    • MikeFriedman, I agree that the social signals could be correlation. The PDF download from Search Metrics also suggests that some of its findings could be correlation. I do however believe a bunch of G+ shares helped one of my sites get the #1 spot for a competitive keyword phrase. I also see the links from G+ profiles, G+ pages, and G+ communities in webmaster tools. Perhaps G+ shares count and FB and Twitter do not?

      paulgl, for now, I do care what Google "allows" as it's currently my main source of traffic. I know I need to diversify traffic sources, and I will do that eventually. Right now I'm focusing on developing content for a new authority site. I have time off from work and want to maximize the writing time.

      mkgg, I'm not forcing, tricking, or misleading anyone. It's more like quid pro quo. I do see this language in the G+ policies:

      "Don't encourage, facilitate or incentivize repetitive or spammy posts."

      With this language, it seems like Google is singling out repetitive or spammy posts, not all incentivized posts. This could be my own biased interpretation.
  • Banned
    I don't see a problem with requiring an action (Like, Tweet, etc...) in order to download or view content. It's not like your forcing traffic to build links or do anything they don't want to do. If traffic doesn't like something about your site/page, they'll leave on their own.

    The TV in my living room is even loaded with apps that force viewers to Like/Tweet in order to watch full videos. I realize that's not about Google but my point is it's not like content lockers have to be a bad thing.

    BTW, G+ on it's own isn't ranking pages.
Join the discussion

Next Topics on Trending Feed