New SEO Metrics Includes Social Media

Since the launch of Facebook, marketing professionals have been looking for ways to utilize the popularity of the site in advertising and marketing. In the past few years, social media has become a standard and free method of getting your brand, site and message out to consumers and followers. Now Google has recognized the importance of social media in SEO and page ranking. What was once just a simple solution to a marketing strategy, is now a must have for any site looking for a higher ranking. Here are a few ways social media and human interaction will affect your site and how to take advantage of it.

 

Social Media as a Must:

Google is recognizing social media in SEO. Where it was once an option to have a social media page for your site, it is now needed in order to increase page rank. The more human and social interaction you have between your site and your followers the higher your ranking will be. So if you haven’t paid much attention to your Facebook page, now is the time to start.

 

Size Doesn’t Matter:

One day you may search for Coca-Cola and find a blog of a 12 year old kid who loves Coke before you see the Coca-Cola website itself. The reason for this is the social interaction and following maybe stronger for that kid than the creator of the soft drink. The size of the site won’t matter as long as the social interaction is there for Google to see. This gives the smaller sites the opportunity to reap the rewards of their constant status updates and tweets. Add that with a strong SEO strategy and your search results may seem a bit different.

 

Interactions will be measured:

It won’t be enough to just have a following on Facebook and Twitter. You will also need more interaction from your followers. If you have a page and simply update your status or tweet about new products or services with no responses, you will find your time wasted. Creating interaction, debate, and follower’s responses will be needed in order to benefit from your social interaction metric.

 

New Tools for Social Media:

If you have more than one social media site, you will need a way to monitor, manage, and assist in posting on these various pages. There will be an outbreak of new tools to help site owners keep up on their social media easily in order to stay ahead of Google. This will help you keep your social media metrics in line to gain the most ranking from them. Keep an eye out for a new tool that will help you.

 

There is no doubt that social media has played a role in marketing your site. However, with the new metrics, the role has increased and your interaction needs to match that. Take the time to post on your social networks and spark conversation. The more interaction you gain from your networks, the better your site will do.

 

Martin Hines is a Seattle Web Developer and blogger, offering his expertise to those in the web design community.