How Can You Improve Your SEO With Social Media Links?

HOW CAN YOU IMPROVE YOUR SEO WITH SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS? Social media is now more important than ever when it comes to SEO. Both Google and Bing have confirmed that social media signals are being taken into account when it comes to ranking pages and content, meaning there's never been a better time to look at SMM. HOW DOES SOCIAL MEDIA AFFECT SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS? Search engines are looking to rank content that is popular, relevant and extremely high quality. In order to judge these metrics algorithmically, they need to rely on a number of 'off-site' signals - in the past, permanent inbound (dofollow) links were the primary signal used by search engines, counting each Ilink as a 'vote' for that website. Links shared via social media platforms are now being counted in a similar way. CASE STUDY SEOMOZ saw their ranking for the term 'beginners guide' increase dramatically; up to number 4 on the first page. They also saw a corresponding traffic spike from the same term SEOMOZ have an SEO The URL is Tweeted out guide on their website called the 'Beginners Guide To SEO'. The by a high profile account, which contains the phrase "Beginners Guide'. content is available This is then retweeted for users to download over 100 times in 2 days. Source: http://wwww.seomoz.org/blog/tweets-affect-rankings-unexpected-case-study SO, WHICH SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS ARE THE MOST EFFECTIVE? TWITTER FACEBOOK These two are the most effective, but you may also see benefits from the following DIGG REDDIT LINKED IN STUMBLEUPON DEL.ICI.OUS OK, SO HOW ARE LINKS FROM FACEBOOK AND TWITTER JUDGED BY SEARCH ENGINES? Like with conventional SEO link-building, not all social media links are weighted equally by search engines. Both Google and Bing have confirmed that links from social media accounts are judged differently depending on the authority of the profile (something Google calls 'Author Authority' and Bing refers to as 'Social Authority'). Let´s take a look at which elements are considered by search engines when judging the power (and subsequent effect on rankings) of links from social media accounts. Author authority is a big part of the overall link weight: Number of followers, friends, etc AUTHOR Followers to following ratio Age of the social media acount LINK WEIGHT Connection to powerful offline website Engagement level (retweets, etc) Regularity of posting content OTHER LINK WEIGHT FACTORS INCLUDE: How the link is shared and received (retweets, across multiple platforms, likes, etc) Diversity of social media profiles (several different unconnected accounts) Text surrounding the link (used in absence of anchor text) Relevance of social media accounts to content or link being shared Sources Infographic Design By: designbysoap http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tweets-affect-rankings-unexpected-case-study http://www.searchengineland.com/what-social-signals-do-google-bing-really-count-55389 http://www.designbysoap.co.uk/how-does-social-media-affect-seo/ http://www.searchengineland.com/google-web-search-gets-more-social-53255 SEO, Social Media, Graphic Design and Web Design from Designbysoap.co.uk AUTHORITY