I\u2019m often asked by people about the value of displaying Facebook Likes, Twitter Tweets, LinkedIn Shares and other social media signal buttons on their websites and blogs. In order to fully address that, I think that we need first to take a good look at what a social signal really is and how search engines interpret them.<\/p>\n
In simple terms, a social signal is a link from somebody\u2019s social media page (such as a Facebook or LinkedIn account)<\/em> to your web page. When visitors to your website or blog click a Facebook Like button, or Google+ icon, they are creating a link directly from their social media account to your page that they have Liked or G+\u2019d. This lets those who are connected with that person via social media know that they have found some value in whatever it is that you have posted. It\u2019s a vote of confidence in what they have viewed on your web page – and something that they think is perhaps worthy of attention from others that they are connected to. It\u2019s always great to have people appreciate what you have taken the time to create, but what is the significance of that from a Google search perspective?<\/p>\n Google has a complex algorithm that it uses to determine what appears in search results when you type a particular search term into their search engine and utilizes a wide range of factors in order to deliver you a result. One of the more significant factors in that algorithm is the number of links to your webpage(s), and the relative importance of the pages that are linking in. For example, if your company makes rocket engines, having links from the NASA website might provide Google with some comfort that your company makes decent rocket engines. If your website had another link from the Virgin Galactic website, that might add further credibility. On the other hand, a link from your local hamburger store might hold less value to Google. Think of a link (including social signals)<\/em> as a vote of confidence for the content you have provided.<\/p>\n For the non-geeks reading this (geeks already know exactly who he is)<\/em> Matt Cutts is head of webspam at Google (update – Matt is now the former head of <\/em>webspam at Google)<\/em>. There is a reason why people like Matt and the webspam team exist \u2013 and that is because as you now know – Google uses links to your web pages as one way of determining the relevance and usefulness of what you have posted. Unfortunately, some webmasters and SEO consultants<\/a> in the past have manipulated Google\u2019s search results by producing and linking less than useful content to key web pages. Matt and his team work overtime to make sure that search engine results remain as untainted as possible, by detecting and punishing attempts at algorithmic manipulation. Any experienced webmaster will be able to tell you just how effective they are at this too!<\/p>\n Anyway, I have embedded a four-minute video that Matt posted to the Google Webmasters page on YouTube a little while back. The video is specifically about the effects of social signals on organic search rankings for web pages, and I found it most interesting. In effect, Matt is saying that Google is not (to his knowledge)<\/em> placing any particular significance on social media signals. This is (in part)<\/em> because of the difficulties associated with crawling some social media pages, and also the great speed at which interrelationships between social media users change. Here\u2019s the important part – whilst Matt acknowledges that some pages with plenty of social signals rank well in organic search, he notes that\u2019s correlation, not causation. In effect, he\u2019s saying that the content was probably great to begin with, which is why it has plenty of social love!<\/p>\nA brief overview of how Google works<\/h3>\n
What does Matt Cutts say about social signals?<\/h3>\n