4 Questions that Help Enhance the Impact of Social Media on Your Search Rankings

It is amply clear that social signals boost search rankings. The most significant of these social signals is the social recommendations that your content receives.

When your content gets more Facebook likes, Twitter tweets, Pinterest pins, Google+1s etc, it is more likely that it will enjoy a higher search ranking.

This SearchMetrics analysis reiterates that. And so does this study that looks at the impact of tweets on search rankings.

Getting More Social Recommendations for Your Content

It is easy to say that high quality, relevant content receives more social shares. Practically, it is very tough.

I am sure you have experienced situations where you have worked long and hard on your content, are sure that it really adds value only to find that it generating very few (and sometimes zero) social shares.

The Solution

Often asking the right questions can give insights to the correct answers. So here are 4 questions to ask yourself, which can help get more social shares for your content and thus offer strong social signals for higher search rankings.

On to the Questions

1. Are the social sharing buttons prominently visible on your site?

Let us say someone who has read your ‘awesome’ content wants to share it. But if he or she is unable to quickly locate the Facebook like or Twitter tweet button, believe me the moment is lost. You know how impatient people are online. You definitely can’t expect them to hunt around on your site for the social media buttons. Your social media buttons should be ATTENTION GRABBING and prominently visible.

2. Is the placement of the social sharing buttons on your website optimal?

Are your social sharing buttons placed above the content? Not a good idea because people are unlikely to share before reading. Placing them at the end is a better idea. A solution to the ‘placement’ problem is the use of floating share bars that ‘float’ along as the content is scrolled up or down. So the buttons are ready and at hand, whenever the reader feels the strongest urge to share.

3. Are you requesting people to share?

Simply asking your readers to share your content is often just the trigger that prompts people to share. It really is as simple as that. Don’t believe me? Read some of the most shared posts online. And you are sure to find a call to action to share at the end of the post. And let me know in the comments if I was right or not.

4. Are you sharing others’ content on social media?

Ok, you want your content shared, but you never do get around to sharing others’ content.  Sorry, this approach will not work because social sharing is as much ‘tit for tat’ as the attitude of preschoolers. When you share others’ content, you are showing your willingness to help others and they will help you back by sharing your content.

Can you think of other questions that will help increase the impact of social media on your SEO? And do share this article if you found the questions helpful.

Top Canadian SEO consultant Yasir Khan, founder of post-Penguin link building company Quantum SEO Labs, wrote this post.