The details of Google’s search algorithm – how sites are ranked in search results – will never fully be public information. But those of us who are responsible for clients’ SEO (search engine optimization) results do continuously follow experts in the industry and the breadcrumbs that Google employees throw at us in videos, press disclosures, and articles.

How social media impacts search results is one of the murkiest topics in the search literature. The short answer as of this writing (2018) is it does indirectly for Google search, at least a little bit.  For Bing search, social media impacts search directly and should be an important component of an SEO strategy.

But let’s focus on Google, which has the largest market share of search.  Here’s what I think is important in social related to search results.

Links

When another site puts a link to your site on its site, Google considers this an endorsement, so to speak. Google looks at the authority and popularity of the linking site (Is it Forbes or the neighborhood cleaners?) in its decision to raise your own site’s reputation.

When this link is in a social media post that is shared on Facebook and Twitter, Google does consider it from a site reputation scoring standpoint. But the biggest benefit from social is that the profiles themselves are ranked in search results, which can lead a person to follow, like, or connect with you.  This is brand marketing – when someone already knows your name – more than it is discovery marketing – when someone is generically looking for services.

Audience Volume

The other indirect benefit of search is the volume of the social media platforms themselves. With more than two billion users, Facebook is the giant of social media platforms. People are bound to look at your stuff, and some will link to it and share it, two things that Google values when scoring reputation.

And while some SEO experts say social shares are important ranking factors, others say it’s all about link sharing, not social sharing.

So, What Do You Do?

What action should you take from this information? If you want to rank higher in search as well as increase the number of people who are aware of your company and what you do, then creating and maintain social accounts should be an important part of your digital marketing strategy.  If you need help with this, please take a look at our social packages and reach out any time.

https://acceleratorwebsites.com/services/social-media-package/