What are Social Signals, and Why do I Need a Good One?

Social signals are becoming a more important factor in search.  [Good] Back links have always been, and still are, of great value in SEO.  However, popular search engines such as Google and Bing don’t believe that a site can have a thousand or more backlinks, with no social signals.

So, how do I enhance my social signal?

It’s simple.  Basically you need to start with really good web content, this includes:

  • Photos
  • Videos
  • Press Releases
  • Articles

This content needs to be relatable, and informative.  However, it’s more than that.  You also want you’re your content to be engaging enough to be shared by relevant sites (by creating back links to your content), therefor sharing your content with more readers, and by being shared on one or more of the popular social media sites such as:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google +
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Youtube
  • Pintrest

Social Signal | Atlanta Social Media Marketing

As of late Google has really been pushing SEO in the direction of better content, instead of keyword density and placement.  This advice needs to be followed everywhere, but especially when it comes to enhancing your social signal.  You want your readers and visitors to find the content that you provide to be useful and knowledgeable.  However, it needs to capture your audience enough to be shared with their friends and readers as well.  This is what creates the social signals that all search engines are looking for.

Google, Bing, and Yahoo have all agreed that the social signal that your site generates is of great importance.  “It’s the new SEO”.  Google has confirmed that they use Facebook’s and Twitter’s links in web search rankings, and the effect that these  links have on rankings has increased since the 2011 Panda and 2012 penguin updates.

So, what is the message here?

You need to create great content that is sharable, relevant, and engaging.  Having multiple back links won’t cut it in the new age of SEO.  Create content that readers will want to share, or recommend to their friends and audience.  Social networking and media is becoming very important in the world of SEO, you want to start generating your social signal strength now, if you haven’t already.

What to Expect from the New Google+ Local Listings

Atlanta SEO Company, Interactive Search Marketing, knows that when Google starts playing around behind the scenes, business owners get nervous and with good reason. If you are in business right now you have spent time improving your online reputation, and becoming as prominent as possible in the search engines. It is just the cost of doing business these days and no one wants to hear about a change that might damage all their hard work.

Google+ Local | Atlanta SEO Company | Google PlacesThe good news is that there is nothing to fear just yet. Essentially Google has gotten rid of their local search pages called Google Places and replaced it with Google+ Local. They are working on taking all of the existing Places pages and converting them into Google+ Local pages so the business owner does not have to request the conversion, it is automatic.

For the moment, Google says that the change will not have an effect on local search but that doesn’t mean it won’t in the future. In fact, it is a pretty sure bet that the new pages will become a major factor in local searches. One of the biggest changes that they have made to the process is the introduction of Zagat reviews. On the previous Google Places pages everyone utilized a five star rating for a company. The new pages will use a zero to thirty Zagat rating that has been integrated directly with Google+ Local.

Business owners have a lot of questions about the recent changes and we will address a few of the most common ones below to help clarify some issues.

  1. How do you verify your Google+ Local profile? If you have already claimed your business through Google Places then you will not need to do so again under the new system. If you have not claimed your profile then you will do it the same way as you did with Places. At the moment there is no way to see if a business has been claimed or not but Google is supposed to implement a fix for that soon.
  2. What will happen if my company already has a Google+ page? Google is working to merge the Google Places pages with the existing Google+ pages so the integration is happening internally.
  3. How do we manage our Google+ Local profile? You will work through your regular Google Places interface like you always have.

How SEO Blogging can Help Business


See the Best in the Business about SEO Blogging.

