A Short Guide to Social Signals

If you have ever been involved in any research related to search engine optimization in the past year or so, it is very likely that you would have come across a term called ‘Social Signals’. So, what exactly does this term mean? Does it have any impact on the ranking of your page on different search engines?

The term basically is used in relation to indicators, which are derived from a variety of social networks, and play an important role in suggesting the importance of a particular URL to various search engines. Some of the best social signals are re-tweets on Twitter, shares on Facebook and +1s on Google+ by the relatively popular and followed users on these social networking platforms. These users are also referred to as ‘valued users’, as their likes, shares and comments act as an indicator for search engines that a particul
ar link is valuable. What that suggests is that just the numbers of likes and tweets are of little value if they do not come from popular social media users. Therefore, social media users play a key role in determining the rankings of links on different search engines.

However, people are still unsure about the importance of best social signals. Enough uncertainty persists over the role of social signals as search engines like Google keep their algorithms secret in order to prevent people from manipulating the system. However, you can still use these signals to your advantage by posting engaging, interesting and unique links on different social media platforms. Creating a blog is another useful and effective way to provide fresh links and contents on a regular basis, but do make it a point to attract shares and retweets from users with a lot of followers.