May 12 2011
Social Media Sites Impact Google’s Search Results
Looking for an innovative way to get your website to rank in Google’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)..? Aspects of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are now being counted amongst the ranking factors that make up Google’s algorithm. Have you adapted your website and marketing strategy accordingly?
Facebook has achieved massive market penetration worldwide and New Zealand is no exception. Accordingly, Google now factors Likes and Shares into its ranking algorithm. Recent research by SEOmoz suggests that of the two, Facebook Shares may carry more SEO authority (and is therefore more likely to yield you ranking gains) than Likes. It is important for websites to create “likeable” and “shareable” content users will want to tell their friends about!
Google has confirmed in the past that tweets count towards rankings. Specifically, being tweeted about by a user with a significant number of followers, and people they follow back, has more authority than a user with only a handful. Tweets from top contributors are also more likely to be retweeted, meaning your business should be looking at strategies to get these people to talk about you as a future proofing measure.
Google’s +1
First Rate has previously commented on Google’s “+1” initiative which allows users to vote for pages and search results. This is an initiative yet to take significant shape, but one to watch in the future.
First Rate is available to consult on social media initiatives as part of a holistic SEO strategy.
Interesting article Daniel, thanks for this. Alot of our customers ask what’s the benefit of facebook and twitter beyond it’s natural social way of connecting with a market and this article adds further depth into the case for facebook pages business. With one of our businesses, I believe we are seeing a re-ranking going on, http://www.tweet2eat.co.nz is a twitter and facebook driven initiative with quite a few first and second page restaurant review search results whereas a couple of months ago they are page 2 and lower.
I’d be interested in understanding how social weighting compares with the more traditional SEO metrics but that’s probably more your area of expertise than mine!
Ryan
Commercial Director
facebook.com/socialkiwi