SEO is one of those love hate subjects that people will never stop talking about. They can talk about on-page / off-page optimization, link building, white hat, grey hat, black hat SEO to death! But still there is always a demand for it because as we know search algorithm changes and there are always people interested in SEO for their website.
But is there a need to look into something further, especially social media since Google is now including social signals as part of a website ranking.
I’ve always believe in a few things if search engines decide to rank a website according to their social influence.
To give you an example, a number of my blog posts has actually ranked better thx to more mentions and retweets.
So let’s have a look at what I think about what’s possible first before looking at what I found…
- Number of authority figures following you on Twitter or Facebook.
- Number of authority figures quoting OR Retweeting ( Twitter) OR likes/ shares ( Facebook) your articles or posts
- Number of Retweets your article gets, therefore affecting their rankings on search engines.
- Number of people actually interacting with content on your website and this is not affected by your Alexa rankings or traffic you get on your website.
- Number of Twitter Followers or Facebook Page Likes
There are also a number of things about Google featuring “social” results.
Share By “x” number of people
Notice the number of shares in the red box
Realtime results on the main search page for “Justin Bieber“
Google Realtime search for “Chatroulette”
You can track tweets related to” chatroulette” by selecting the timeline on Google Realtime
Check out Google Realtime here
So I’ve decided to search for articles that proof the existence of a social media algorithm and this is what I find.
1. Your website ranking depends on your authority on Twitter or Facebook.
In short, the higher your authority on Twitter or Facebook, the better your page or website will rank. SEO will not necessarily put you on top there and neither having a Klout score of 90 will put you up on the rankings although Google is putting social algorithms on website rankings. So don’t forget SEO and Social Media!
2. Google calculates the “weight” of a retweeted link based on your social authority
If you are someone who has high social authority and you’ve just posted a retweet, the higher the value of your retweeted links or Facebook shares. In fact this is how Google adds links you’ve shared on their Google Realtime searches and this is independent of Page Rank. The other reason is because search engines don’t know how popular you are in REAL life, so more “mentions / likes” and higher social recognition on Twitter or Facebook puts you ahead of those who are less popular online.
3. Google also calculates the value of your tweets and likes based on your social authority
Google uses the same concept in rankings like I’ve mentioned on the previous point. The more popular you are online, the better the quality of your tweets.
4. The higher the PR of your Twitter account, the more credit Google gives you
Now this is something I find very interesting. If you log into Twitter, you will find that your Twitter account PR is 9 but if you log out of it and look at your own Twitter account, the “REAL” PR shows up. Mine is PR3… hmm time to see what I can do with it. The higher your Twitter PR, the more credit Google gives you.
Haven’t manage to find anything about number of followers but if Google has an algorithm for the number of authority people following you on Twitter, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Do you need help with Starting A Wordpress Site?
Then...use Thesis just like the pros around. Even if you are not a pro, Thesis has a great supporting community and forum to help you with questions on how to use Thesis. Finally, if you need access to resources that I use for my business online, check out my resources page. You will find goodies and gems that might help you as well.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
It was a smart move for Google to interconnect with twitter and facebook
SmartAboutThings recently posted..Chess can improve your Blogging-Living skills!
I think it’s a good move for Google to adopt these changes because having more social authority is not dependent on your knowledge of SEO. But still knowing how to build social authority and traditional SEO will keep you in the right direction for website rankings.
Twitter: stevescott1
December 12, 2010 at 2:40 am
Good information. I have been working on making my twitter/facebook account more of an intergrated part of not only my traffic , but branding etc. too.
I have made some strides, but still a long way to go.
Thanks for some great clues on the importantace of social media in ranking too.
I do have a quick question (if you know). Google has not updates (so that we can see) PR of websites since 2 Apr 10. Do you know if Twitter PR is updated with same updates, or is it independent?
Steve@Lifestyle Design recently posted..Creating an Elevator Pitch for Your Online Business
Hey Steve,
I’m not sure about twitter PR updates. It does sound to me that Google should have an independent PR update for social sites since their algorithm is different than traditional search engine algorithm. Can’t seem to find any updates about Twitter PR. But it is surprising to see that Google gives weight to your Twitter PR.
Twitter: alexanderthegry
December 12, 2010 at 9:13 pm
Interesting stuff, they are now treating people like links
). The more a person is appreciated by others the more authority (PR?) it has. So getting a retweet for a person which had his tweets retweeted 10 000 is more powerfull then having retweets from 10 000 new members.
This is great, it should really show only those stuff that are really interesting, although in the near future we will see: selling retweets, twitter account creating spam and all that.
Hmm, I wonder will there ever be a term “building retweets” with the social networks becoming more and more powerful on the internet
Alex@Jocuri recently posted..Moda Rihanna
Hey Alex,
Exactly, I think search engines particulary, Google and Bing are moving more towards recognizing social signals around the web. Google’s realtime and number of shares is proof of that. And yup in fact getting 10 000 retweets by super duper famous people will significantly boost your social authority online.
Haha, I was actually thinking of the same thing when you mentioned people selling retweets and twitter spam. In fact twitter spam has been going on for quite a while. But selling retweets, hmm looks very possible. I think there are going to be people who will manipulate the system and again Google will start changing their algorithms and make it tougher to rank. But such is life on the internet. Adapt or be left out!
Hmm, I’ve actually seen the term link building with retweets happening already when I was surfing around for info on this.
Thx for the great comment!
Twitter: richescorner
December 13, 2010 at 1:12 am
This is really interesting Bryan. I hadn’t thought about how my twitter page affects my website ranking overall, but it makes sense. I can’t see what my “real” google ranking is though because they haven’t updated it in a while. I’m still at zero. My klout score is 55, so I think I’m doing ok.
I link my blog and my twitter account pretty good. That helps with the RT’s especially when I write a good article with an attractive title. I think that helps a lot in building up my Klout reputation.
Richard recently posted..Speed up Your Website
Hey Rich,
You have a better Klout score than me!
I think the important thing is to get the big guys to recognize your work and start following you and retweeting your work. Although Twitter PR is something really new, I think I would rather focus on getting more “quality” people to recognize my work much like getting backlinks from “quality” websites. It’s good to link major social networks with your websites. Google in fact calculates your web site ranks based on that too. So linking early is a must!
Twitter: tristanhigbee
December 13, 2010 at 9:11 am
REALLY great article, Bryan!! Great research, and great job!
This is something that I’ve been thinking about for a while, but had never really done any research on. Thanks for saving me the time
I never knew about the Twitter PR thing, so thanks for that. Mine is 1. Hahaha.
Thoroughly enjoyed and retweeted, Bryan. Oh, and I added your blog to keywordluv.com, which I own.
Tristan@Blogging Tips recently posted..7 Major Lessons in Blog Advertising from Technorati’s Top 20 Blogs
Tristan,
Thx for the RT there!
Yeah, I’ve always been thinking you know traditional SEO has been there since Internet came about. If I was working for Google, I would definitely add social authority as part of a website search engine rank. This is all still quite new and including social authority is a very wise choice for the search engines as the number of link spams and spam websites increase everyday. It’s pretty hard to spam a real person if you ask me. I think Google should have a way to exclude spam twitter accounts and spam RT links.
Haha don’t worry about your Twitter PR, I think work more on getting to right people to retweet or read your blogs and articles, you will be on your way to have higher Twitter PR without trying too hard. You’re certainly doing really well in that area
Thx for the great comment and adding me to your Keywordluv site. Appreciate it!
PageRank is an algorithim google invented that assesses the strength of a website. The algorithim evaluates a site on a scale of n/a to 10 with 0 being the lowest/weakest and 10 being the highest/strongest. We can check our site’s rank by using a pagerank checker tool.
Miss Sonia recently posted..Sitemap Generator
HI! I find your posts very informative and worth reading. Some are entertaining as well. I loved reading your post and added to the favorites. The views you tried to put up was clearly understandable. I like the fact that you pointed out.
I have learned heaps from you today. Thank you for sharing crucial information.