I bet that you have heard many times about the impact of social media on your website and how it helps with your organic rankings. If not, just take the time to read this brief blog it will explain to you how it works and why it needs to be considered in your marketing plan for this coming year.
What is a Social Signal?
You may think that it is a Facebook share, or re-tweeting a post, or maybe even sharing Pins in Pinterest. Yes, they are, but they are only minuscule part of the real meaning of a social signals. I found a great article in which social signals are classified into three different categories.
- Social Media Sites
- Social Bookmarks
- Content Syndication
Social Media Sites
We are all very familiar with them; Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and yes adding posts and references will have a direct or indirect impact on your SEO. It is a great method of communication with your customers but to have a real impact you “really” need to be engaged. Be sure to share relevant content for your audience and respond in a timely manner to comments or possible service issues that customers may have experienced.
Social Bookmarks
There is a lot of information out there, trying to tell what you should or not to do to increase your organic rankings. This one of the areas that is a bit unclear on how it should be handled for your own benefit. You really shouldn’t develop any strategy without knowing the real benefit.
The most recognized sites for social bookmarking are: Stumbleupon, Digg, Reddit, Newsvine, and Scoop it. The idea is for social bookmarking to be used as an online marketing strategy, a communication and public relations channel to spread the word and increase the recognition of your website. The more you do this, the more referral traffic will come to your site and more organic rankings will increase as an indirect result.
Content Syndication
When it comes to content this is one of the greater ways to get the word out. When an image, video, or content gets heavily shared through the different channels it becomes viral and provides tons of web signals, and once shared, your Google rankings will start to improve. The same way as social bookmarking, it is critical to use sites in which you syndicate your content. Some of the best ones are: WordPress.com, Tumbler.com, Blogger.com and Storify.com. What it is important here is to identify which sites are relevant to your industry and create a strategy that will work for you and your company.
Now that you have a better understanding of what social signals encompass you should start considering this marketing strategy for 2015. We understand the benefit and we are ready to help you with new strategies for 2015.
