Is Your Social Media Footprint Important To Google?

In the past month we have been bombarded by the term Mobile-Friendly and how important it is to Google for your website to be friendly to all devices it can be displayed on.

So, let’s step away from that and take a look at other pieces that Google may or may not include in its ranking of websites.

The search algorithm that Google is constantly tweaking looks at somewhere around 200 factors to determine which websites it will display in the results when a visitor uses the search engine.

Many articles and experts state that one of the top ranking factors in Google’s algorithm is Social Media pointing out that results in the organic search results’ top positions have a high number of likes, shares, +1’s and tweets.

The argument though is whether the results are based on causation or correlation.

Matt Cutts, Google’s head of Webspam, in a video blog last year (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udqtSM-6QbQ) said that he believes it is just correlation and that Google does not use social media factors in its ranking. His main point is that the better content you make, the more people will like it, not only in Google but in social media as well. More people will read it, which helps your Google rank, and more people will also give it likes, follows and plus ones in social media.

If Google isn’t using social media in its ranking, does this mean that you should ignore social media?

No, far from it.

The rule of “Content, Content, Content” still reigns supreme in Google’s ranking, so create that content and then push it out there with social media. Use your connections at Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn as an audience to broadcast to. Don’t wait for visitors to find you, use social media to let them know about your awesome articles, products and services.

If you would like to discuss your social media strategy or if you have questions on how to improve your online marketing plan, please feel free to give us a call or drop us an email.