One of the things that I get asked a lot from our clients is ‘what do you think of Facebook and Twitter?’. Even before I start to share with them how it has grown and the rate at which it is predicted to grow, I get ‘..but will it get me more sales or help me to get number one on Google?’ This post is for those of you who have asked such questions. For those of you who want to know if social media initiatives will help with organic rankings on Google.
Let me take one step back here to share in very basic terms, how does Google rank websites. What are (some of) the factors that influence Search Engine Rankings. I like to classify them in two broad factors of A) Whats on your website B) What’s on the World Wide Web about your website. Those of you who have put some effort by way of time or investment in getting a website to rank high on Google know that getting link backs to your website increases your rankings on Google. If your website is listed on relevant directories, forums, blogs, e-zines, it will improve in its position on Google. And the higher the authority of the site that you get links from, the higher the push it can give to the website position. One of the many things that the SEO community has been divided was the impact of social media on website rankings TILL Danny Sullivan got the answers straight from the horse’s mouth. Question: “If an article is retweeted or referenced, do you count that as a signal…” Google’s Answer” ” Yes, we do use it as a signal…”
So yes, Google has made that move from Web page Authority to Human Authority. What are you waiting for? Talk to your SEO Company on how you can get Facebook and Twitter not only get you loads of traffic but also help with your SEO.
