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PageRank, Meet SocialRank: How Does Going Social Help Your Search Engine Rankings?

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Social Networking: What Can it REALLY Do For You?

social networking search engine ranking imageEffective traffic generation can’t be achieved without finding and tapping into the best traffic resources for YOUR niche.

Can’t sell a burger to a vegetarian, in other words.

I recently received a question from one of my readers during a live Sunday Coffee with Ana broadcast:

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Side note on my Sunday Coffe with Ana series: I didn’t think that anyone would notice that I didn’t have one yesterday - just needed a break - but I was wrong. YOU DID notice and took your time to let me know.

So….. Next Sunday, you and me and a good cup of coffee? 10 AM EST, on my Facebook fan page. It’s a date!

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Back to the question:

“What is your top traffic source BESIDES social media?”

To answer this question, I didn’t have to look far: here’s a recent shot from my Google Analytics account showing my top referral traffic sources:

social media traffic sources

Out of the top five referral sources, only one of them is not a social media source - Google organic search.

One of my goals for this year is to move Google up that ladder and make it my #1 referral traffic source - very hands-off targeted traffic coming to my blog 24/7 no matter what. Every webmaster’s dream come true!

However, according to Danny Sullivan, the chief editor for SearchEngineLand.com, social media engagement just might be the key to better search engine rankings.

That’s right.

In practical terms, if you are working on getting better rankings for your site, social media can still help you get there.

Who You Are on Twitter Matters

Turns out that both Bing and Google have a way of calculating what can be referred to as “human authority” of a Twitter profile.

Mind you, they do it with Twitter only for now, not Facebook.

Here’s a Q&A session that Danny did with Google and Bing (isn’t it great to have someone who Google and Bing would actually respond to? Imagine you and me trying to ask those questions…).

1) If an article is retweeted or referenced much in Twitter, do you count that as a signal outside of finding any non-nofollowed links that may naturally result from it?

Bing:

We do look at the social authority of a user. We look at how many people you follow, how many follow you, and this can add a little weight to a listing in regular search results. It carries much more weight in Bing Social Search, where tweets from more authoritative people will flow to the top when best match relevancy is used.

Google:

Yes, we do use it as a signal. It is used as a signal in our organic and news rankings. We also use it to enhance our news universal by marking how many people shared an article [NOTE: see the end of this article for more about that].

2) Do you try to calculate the authority of someone who tweets that might be assigned to their Twitter page. Do you try to “know,” if you will, who they are?

Bing:

Yes. We do calculate the authority of someone who tweets. For known public figures or publishers, we do associate them with who they are. (For example, query for Danny Sullivan)

Google:

Yes we do compute and use author quality. We don’t know who anyone is in real life 🙂

3) Do you calculate whether a link should carry more weight depending on the person who tweets it?

Bing:

Yes.

Google:

Yes we do use this as a signal, especially in the “Top links” section [of Google Realtime Search]. Author authority is independent of PageRank, but it is currently only used in limited situations in ordinary web search.

4) Do you track links shared within Facebook, either through personal walls or fan pages?

Bing:

Yes. We look at links shared that are marked as “Everyone,” and links shared from Facebook fan pages.

Google:

We treat links shared on Facebook fan pages the same as we treat tweeted links. We have no personal wall data from Facebook.

5) Do you try to calculate the authority of someone on Facebook, either say via their personal wall or their fan page.

Bing:

We don’t do this on Facebook. On Facebook, we only get what’s public, only updates and things you’ve posted to everyone as viewable. We don’t get things only shared with friends, so we don’t know how authoritative you are on Facebook. There isn’t the whole convenient retweet mechanism we see on Twitter.

We do see valuable content shared by Facebook users, even though we only get what’s public. For example when Gary Coleman died we saw a video from Different Strokes, saying his favorite line “what ya talk’in ’bout Willis” gain popularity. It happened to be what a lot of people are sharing on the day he passed away.

Google:

Again, the treatment is the same as for Twitter. And we have no personal wall data from Facebook.

6) Do you calculate whether a link should carry more weight depending on the person who shared it on Facebook?

Bing:

We can tell if something is of quality on Facbook by leveraging Twitter. If the same link is shared in both places, it’s more likely to be legitimate.

Google:

Same as question 5.

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Pretty eye-opening, huh?

Danny also touched on this issue in our recent interview with him over at SERPd.com - http://www.serpd.com/show1/; highly recommend you take a look at it.

Are You an Authority User and How to Become One

You’ll find more on this right here, at Traffic Generation Cafe:

  • Search Engine Ranking for Tweets: How to Get Ranked

Marketing Takeaway

So, going back to the original question I started this post with.

Are there other viable traffic sources besides social media? Undoubtedly.

However, taking a closer look at social media in general and Twitter specifically, improving your position there - your SocialRank if you will, could just get you the edge that you need with the search engines.

Here’s another great resource on how to build up your Twitter presence:

 

Image credit: http://www.mediaspin.com/

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24 Intelligent comments · espresso yours below

    • That shouldn’t be too hard, Michael - you’ve done a lot to get the passive traffic from SEs, now you need just a little personal engagement. That’s the easy part. 🙂

  2. My traffic measures look much like yours Ana but go in this order: Direct, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, HootSuite (interesting)…

    I’ve been able to maintain 5 or more spots on the front page of Google for my name thanks to very active (and multiple) social media accounts with my name on them.

    Social is huge, getting bigger, and as this post suggests absolutely necessary to be a part of. Personally I love it.

    • Reddit and HootSuite? Interesting… Well, not HootSuite as much since many folks use it to RT your content, Robert; that’s why it comes up so high. It’s great for you since so many folks find you so “RT-able”. 🙂

      Thanks for coming by!

  3. With Bing’s partnership with Facebook they are able to access the public updates which can be a lot easier if they would like to see if a Twitter account is a real person. So besides Social Media engagement, what else can I do to gain more readers and improve my stats?

    • What else can you do besides social media? Networking and search engine optimization. There’s nothing new under the sun, Lucy. The difference is HOW you use the same resources every one else is using.

  4. Hey Ana,

    Interesting update, isn’t it! Facebook is my second traffic source after organic search, so I need to focus more on Twitter.

    I bought your recommended tools - just need to figure out how they all work and start generating some decent traffic 🙂

    Thanks for sharing this.

    All the best,
    Mavis

    • You have all the makings of a “social bird”, Mavis - I think you’ll do great on Twitter. Just need to get a bit more engaged.

  5. Wow, this is breaking news to me Ana. I never knew anything about the “human authority” of a Twitter profile. I learned a lot from reading the interview Danny had with Google and Bing.

    After taking everything I really do believe SocialRank as you call it can help a website in the search engines. This makes me want to get more active with my Twitter account. Thanks for sharing Ana I learned a lot.

    • It only makes sense, John - Twitter is such a huge influence, it was only a matter of time for Google to figure out how to use it to provide better search results.

      I think the time for you to get on Twitter is now! 🙂

    • Let this be a gentle reminder, Peter! 🙂

      Facebook fan page is an incredible tool; I definitely recommend you get on with it.

    • We, marketers, always need to be ahead of trends, Tristan, not behind them.

      Your prospects are currently on Twitter, but they might not be there tomorrow. I would love to see you utilize Twitter now, while it’s still a good traffic generation tool.

  9. Ana,

    I am with you on getting more organic traffic and I love your premise of making social media work in that direction.

    No matter what tool you use, you have to decide the return on your investment. What I find for my self is that social media is a long term investment. The return doesn’t show up immediately. i have to build that up and try different ways of making it work. For example, your Sunday Coffee with Ana is getting out there and making something new of the medium. You are learning and taking advantage of the tools available in that medium.

    When it comes to Twitter I am always on the watch for how others are using Twitter. It has sparked some great ideas. In Fact I have a new one in the works right now. Test, test, test and have fun!

    Also I got a couple of things from this post that I realize I am missing. Thanks

    • Extremely good points, Sheila.

      Now that we know that social media has good potential to drive our SE rankings, we need to figure out how to capitalize on it.

      I’ve had the best ideas come to me while watching what others do - great way to learn.

      Ana

  10. Ana:

    Outstanding post. It’s the evolution occurring here with regards to metrics. It’s no longer “I wanna satisfy Google,” we have to satisfy the bird too. A great place to find out your actual “authority level” is Klout.com They will give you a measurement based on your social profiles. At this time, because it is relatively new, it still appears to be generating accurate scores.
    And I of course noticed I was drinking columbian Kamchatka slone,,,but figured a day of rest was in order!

    Lisa

        • I know one of the measurements is “true reach.” How many people take action on your tweets. They also analyze how drive people into action. So whether people reply to, rt or click you. And actually Ana, I believe you have a fairly high Klout score. I tend to think the influence you have is pretty accurate…now all the variables used, Im not absolute on. I think I should create a Lisa score, like how much does one influence me?! 🙂

        • Its just like PR, the more we try to understand it and break it down into simple points the more ambiguous they make it! simple said they are calculating how many people are following you and how influential their own profiles are, in addition to hw many unique RT and responses you got .
          Basically they rate you on how natural your twitter habits are

  11. I always couldn’t get Twitter to work for my traffic. Facebook does good for me. I will have to do more focus and follow your tips.

    And by the way, I was puzzled to see you not Sunday Coffeeing. This post came up just when I thought that I should write to you.

    Jane.