Social signals – what are they?

Do they count towards SEO and your website ranking?

One of the more difficult “sells” we have to make when explaining the benefits of web marketing to dentists is the value of social media and where it sits within the overall strategy. It’s relatively straightforward to convey the obvious benefit of social media i.e. engagement and the subtle selling opportunities that this offers. However, more recently, the value of social media for assisting search ranking is becoming clearer, and it is this aspect which can be quite difficult to convey to dental clients who, understandably, may not be close to the nuances of search optimisation.

In this article I will try clarify what social signals are, what web page and human “authority” is on the web and how all of this contributes to search ranking. Hopefully it will then be a little clearer why the use of social media is important for SEO as well as client engagement.

Web page authority

Some pages on the web are viewed as having more authority than others i.e. Google (and other search engines) see them as more valuable. If you gain a link from an authoritative page to your website, then an element of trust passes from that page to yours and your page’s reputation is enhanced. This is why the profile of incoming links is still likely to be the main factor which Google uses to calculate where a web page should rank.

Human authority

As Danny Sullivan, a well-respected SEO guy highlighted in an extremely insightful article back at the end of 2010, people on the web also have pages which represent their own personal authority. So take for example a person’s Twitter page which has a lot of followers, lots of good quality tweets and re-tweets and consequently has high authority in Google’s eyes. Links in tweets from this particular author will be given more credit than ones from a Twitter page which has lower authority.

But there is actually another dimension to consider here, particularly as the links from Twitter and in fact most social networks, are classed as “no follow” i.e. they don’t convey any direct page rank to the target page. So what’s the point of all this you may ask? Well, Google confirmed that they also attribute something akin to an “author rank or “author quality” to people on social networks. In turn those individuals are attributed a “signal” which is used to influence rankings. Simply put, if you have a good “author rank” then your activity on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and other social networks will contribute positively on pages you link out to.

So when you hear the term “social signals”, this is what it refers to and how it can contribute to SEO.

How much does social signalling contribute to SEO?

The honest answer to that is that no-one, other than Google, really knows.

However, if we recognise that the concept was unearthed and actually confirmed by Google back in late 2010 and also looking at how social channels have grown in importance since then, I believe its safe to assume that the influence has grown and that it will continue to do so.

If we also look at Google “authorship” (more here) then we can see how Google is trying to extend the concept of “trusted authors” and social influence across the web.

Summary

Building active and trusted social profiles as part of you dental SEO campaign will make a positive contribution, not just for client engagement but now also for search engine optimisation. Whilst the extent of this is not clear, we can be sure that it’s influence has grown over the last couple of years and will continue to do so. Matt Cutts, senior voice of Google has stated that links will continue as a key ranking factor for the foreseeable future but indications are that “social signals” will play an increasingly important role over the next few years. Perhaps in fairly blunt terms, if you are serious about your web presence and understand the potential it offers, you need to be active on social media.

Still reluctant to get a foot-hold with social media? Why not call the team at Dental Media on 01332 672548 to see how we can help you get moving.