Social Media Links
-
I cannot seem to find the answer through my research. Can somebody tell me if social media links to a website are taking into consideration by Google? For example, if l have a video on my website and post the link on my facebook page, when other people share it do more and more links get created? Are these picked up on open site explorer?
-
You've stumbled on a very big question is SEO. Unfortunately there's no right answers, just lots of nuances.
In the traditional sense, most social links and mentions are not handled the same way by search engines as traditional links. We do know that Google takes social data into account, and there is a high correlation between content that is highly shared and content that ranks well, but we don't know exactly how search engines use this data.
Think of it this way: when you post your video on Facebook and people share it, that means more people are talking about it and you have a change at more attention, links and mentions. These are all things search engines are looking for, and there's a good chance you'll rank higher. But it may be more of an indirect effect than a direct one.
The one exception may be Google+, which is structured different than other social platforms. Post on Google+ pass both PageRank and anchor text, and post shared there actually "count" as a link, as far as I know.
So the answer to your question is yes and maybe. Social links may be taken into consideration by the search engines, but typically not the same way as traditional links.
Facebook doesn't share all their data with Google, for the most part discourages robots, and you won't typically find posts in Open Site Explorer. That doesn't mean the links don't count, but in the traditional sense they don't carry the same value.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Are NoFollow Links a Waste of time?
I share links to my blog on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram. However, my links on social media sites are NoFollow Links. Do No Follow links help my Search Ranking or is it a waste of time to share my content on Social Media? Ytellsocial
Social Media | | Ytellsocial0 -
Lost social share count after migrating blog
Hi, Yesterday I migrated our blog to a new domain. It seems it went smoothly and all 301 redirects were implemented and are working properly, however, the social share count was lost across all posts and has returned to zero. Is there any easy way I can recover our social share counts across the board? I am using the **1-click Retweet/Share/Like **plugin for Wordpress. Any help on this would be much appreciated. Thank you, from Russell in South Africa.
Social Media | | Shamima0 -
B2B Social Media Creeping
I recently posted an (insightful) comment in a LinkedIn group. I can see that someone from this group has taken a look at my profile, so I'm assuming that they read my comment and they were at least a little intrigued as to who exactly I was. I would regard this person as a prospect. Maybe a slightly unlikely prospect as there's a couple thousand miles that separate us geographically. I'm wondering what sort of etiquette/best practices there are for connecting somehow with this person/company. Initially I thought I'd follow them on Twitter, maybe like them on Facebook, but they have no such presence. I like the idea of connecting with them that way because it's a 'soft' connection - not too aggressive. Doing something like emailing or calling and saying 'Hey, saw that you looked at my LinkedIn profile', seems creepy & desperate. Even sending an invitation to connect seems a little too forward. I feel the only thing to do is to continue to involve myself in this group by posting thoughtful & insightful comments in order to get noticed further that way.
Social Media | | stevefidelity0 -
Wordpress Social Button Plugins Change
Hi Guys, I'm thinking of changing the plugin I used on my blog for people to share my blog posts on Facebook, Twitter and Google +. If I do this, would I lose all shares (meaning that all the buttons would go back to 0, I know the shared content would still appear on people's profiles)? Thanks, Carlos
Social Media | | Carlos-R0 -
Images on Social Media - Can they be Optimized?
My company has been sharing images on its Facebook and twitter outlets which are getting a lot of shares. It seems to be the only thing really working for us. Is there a way to optimize this or use it to our advantage for our website? Or is this just something that will help me gain some edge rank in Facebook?
Social Media | | desmond.liang0 -
Anyone use the new "Social Settings" in Google Analytics?
In the past couple of months, Google rolled out a tab called "Social Settings" in the Admin area (see image). It's an optional setting, and Google is rather vague about what it does. GA already tracks social in "Traffic Sources," so what is the advantage of using Social Settings? If you've used these new settings, what have your experiences been? Were the settings helpful? Did they completely screw up your analytics? Thanks, Benjamin Ri5bY Ri5bY.jpg
Social Media | | 1000Bulbs1 -
What are the strategies in Link Building? How to increase referral traffic?
Guys please help me to increase reference traffic for a dry topic website such as automotives, insurance, real estate. I tried social bookmarking and networking but I did not find any difference I even did Blog commenting forum posting but it did not make much difference to me It increased my search rate but it not helped in my referral traffic. So please suggest me better strategies in Link Building for dry topic websites
Social Media | | PrasanthMohanachandran0 -
How to get a link on Twitter box in Huffington Post?
Hey guys, got a question about the Huffington Post and its Twitter widget - see screenshot attached HuffPo seems to be aggregating links somehow under the "Top links on this topic" heading within the Twitter widget. At first I thought this was an official Twitter wdget; http://twitter.com/about/resources/widgets However, I can't find it on Twitter's site and I'm starting to think it's a custom widget possibly developed by HuffPo themselves. My question is how do I get my site to rank under their "Top links"? Is it feeding on Twitter presence or is it feeding from Google News or through something else? Many thanks in advance for any light shed on this topic Edit: Link to Huffington Post page example from screenshot Screen%252520shot%2525202011-10-24%252520at%25252017.26.54.png
Social Media | | JDauncey0