How seriously do you take your social signals? Do you understand how important they can be as an SEO ranking factor? Believe it or not, the social signals that your blog receives all help to play a role in how you will be listed on the search engines.
Whether your news is social or information-based, it is generally shared on social media platforms.
You quite often find out that your friend has had their baby, or there has been an earthquake overseas on Facebook or Twitter before you hear it by word of mouth or on the news.
In fact, the news is brought almost immediately, as events are shared across all social media platforms.
One of the reasons the news explodes so quickly is because people want to hear what is going on. We live in a world where we want to know what is happening and not just what is happening in our backyard. However, we don’t want to wait to hear the news….we want to hear it now!!
But HOW is this news shared? It takes only one person to upload some newsworthy content to their profile, and then others either re-tweet or share, or like or +1 that piece of news. These are all social signals.
At the end of the day, the more social signals that something receives, the more popular it becomes. You could in a way say that each time someone likes on Facebook, or tweets the story, it is giving the piece of news a vote.
The more votes something receives, the greater the number of people see it, and so the snowball commences.
Google is also ‘someone that likes to watch these social signals to see how popular your piece of news is.
The higher the number of social signals that you have pointing towards your site, the more notice that Google and others are going to take of you.
1: Pay attention to your social media profiles
The activity on your pages such as Facebook, Twitter, and especially Google Plus, will have an influence on the signals that you receive. This is why it is important to interact with your followers and create a greater level of engagement.
Encourage shares, likes, tweets, and +1′s on your content. These DO matter, and the more you receive the higher your reach is going to be. Remember that each of these signals is a vote….so how many votes do you want?
2: Create your brand
If you are confident about who your brand is, then others are more likely to give you some love. In social media, YOU are your brand!
If you haven’t already done so, it is advisable to set up Google Authorship. Authorship links to your Google Plus page, which displays how many people have you in circles. Can you see how important getting your Google connections up and running are?
At the end of the day, you want to encourage people to talk about you, your brand, your URL, and your posts.
The more that people talk about it, the more popular you will become. The social signals that are being given off are all telling Google that you are someone to watch, and Google will want to check you out!
At the end of the day, the formula is pretty simple. Create great content that people will love (Content is King), enable sharing capabilities, and have social media profiles to share your work. Then engage, engage and engage.
The more you work at connecting with others, the more noticeable you will become. People will start to share your work and you can watch that snowball get bigger and bigger.
If you would like a helping hand to get your social media profiles up and running, I highly recommend the learn how to blog program.
You will receive extensive training and support from professional bloggers who have already tested out the waters, leaving you with just the experience and knowledge to use on your own blog!
What is left to do now? Go and share some social signal love to this post of course!! Leave me a +1, a tweet, a Facebook like, whatever tickles your fancy. All of the above would also be great, and give you good practice!