What Are Social Signals And How Do They Affect SEO?

Ranking on the top of Google SERP has been a prime need for most of the online businesses around the world. SEO approaches such as on-page optimization, linking through sites, site submissions are some of the usual techniques that are widely incorporated. However, one of the key factors that Digital Marketers are concerned about is Social Signals to rank web pages.

In 2010, Google came up with a statement that ‘Social Signals’ are crucial ranking factors. However, in 2014, they admitted that Social Signals are no more the part of their ranking Algorithms.

As a matter of fact, Social Media Channels are primary assets for digital marketers and they use them to drive enormous traffic to the websites. For some websites, it is the primary source of engagement that adds to as large as 95% of overall visitors through Facebook, Twitter etc.

So, what are Social Signals and how do they affect SEO?

Social signals are the likes, dislikes, shares, or views by the users on Social Media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn GPlus etc. that are monitored by the search engines to determine the value of content on the web.

Social signals indicate how your brand is being talked about among the web users. This data is taken into consideration by search engines to rank a website/web pages.

Impact of Social Signals on SEO

Increased Traffic to the Website:

In the wake of Penguin 4.0 update, a number social sites changed all of their outbound links from do-follow to no-follow.

This came up as a major concern for SEO experts and for the webmasters. However, those no-follow links continued to drive traffic to websites. It is important to note that search engines also watch websites in terms of traffic. So, it adds to the advantage for SEO from the other parameters. If not a link, why not the traffic from any relevant source. So, getting traffic from social media channels is always helpful in SEO.

Enhanced Domain Authority:

There are no proper pieces of evidence that support social signals as a driving force in a site’s domain authority. However, some of the websites with high DA claimed that having a proper social media strategy helped them score better in terms of domain authority.

When more traffic is directed to a website from social channels, it must be perceived as a boosting factor and in this case, the DOmain Authority.

Improved Social Engagement

On one hand, social signals count to a major factor for websites ranking, but on the other, they also have a huge impact on your site in terms of off-page activities viz. Increased social engagement and brand awareness etc.