Are Social Signals & Shares A Google Ranking Factor?

Do social signals affect search rankings?

In a world of ever-evolving social networks and platforms, can engaging in one social network over another help you get better visibility in Google search engine results?

Let’s explore social signals as a Google ranking factor to determine their effect on search rankings.

Read more about ranking factors in SEJ’s Google Ranking eBook: Fact or Fiction.

Claim: Social signals are a ranking factor

Social signals are engagement from social media users with the content you have shared from your website.

Here are some examples of social signals.

• Someone shares a link to a page on your website in a public Facebook post. The post gets additional likes, comments and shares.
• Someone shares a link to a page on your website in a public tweet. The tweet gets replies, likes and retweets.

Evidence for social cues as a ranking factor

Google seems to care about social media. In The Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Google acknowledges that compelling content gets shared and organic buzz will build your website’s reputation.

“Creating compelling and useful content will likely impact your website more than any other factor discussed here. Users know good content when they see it and are likely to want to refer other users to it. This can be through blog posts, social media services, email, forums or other means.

Organic buzz or word of mouth is what helps build your site’s reputation with both users and Google, and it rarely comes without quality content.”

Later, when referring to website promotion, Google suggests knowing about social media sites because:

“Sites built around user interaction and sharing have made it easier to match interested groups of people with relevant content.”

Within Google Analytics, there is a section for social reports. According to Google Analytics:

“Social analytics gives you the tools to measure social impact. You can identify high-value networks and content, track on-site and off-site user interaction with your content, and tie it all back to your bottom line through goals and conversions.”

Google believes that social profiles are important, especially for local businesses. Google Business Profiles collect information from various sources – including social profiles – to give potential customers a complete picture of a local business.

Google also offers tips for anyone with a Knowledge Graph dashboard on updating their information, including social profiles.

While Google seems to place importance on social profiles, this does not necessarily mean that social signals can lead to better rankings.

In 2010, Matt Cutts, the former head of the Webspam team, received a question asking how Google evaluates links from sites like Twitter and Facebook to a new website. He replied that Google treats links the same, and it doesn’t matter if they come from a .gov or .edu, or Twitter or Facebook.

The only catch would be the shared links on profiles that are not public. If Google can’t retrieve or crawl the profile page, it can’t see the link.

Later, in December 2010, Cutts received a similar question, referring to an article suggesting that Google used links from Twitter and Facebook in search.

Cutts responded that although they didn’t use social signals for ranking in the past, Google had implemented social links as ranking signals in video time. The article link was included with the video from Google Search Central for more details.

In 2013, Google filed a patent that refers to the search content of prominent social network users. In one part, the patent mentions how interactions from members of a user’s social graph can be used as social signals.

“Interactions performed by members of a user’s social graph can be used as social signals to adjust the ranking of relevant search results. For example, if a search query identifies results that include a resource that has been so identified by a member of the user’s social graph, that result may be promoted relative to other general search results that answer the user’s query.

The trigger may be based, for example, on the number of friends who have endorsed the identified resource or a high affinity with a friend who has endorsed the identified resource.

Upgrading can also be based on authorship (eg, what is the relationship or affinity with the individual who approved the resource), or the type of approval that the member of the user’s social graph has given (eg, an explicit approval by bookmarking a result or page or an implied endorsement by visiting the resource or commenting on a post).

While the patent shows Google’s interest in increasing resources in search results based on social signals, it doesn’t mean they applied it to the algorithm.

Fast forward to 2014, when someone asked Cutts again if Facebook and Twitter signals are part of Google’s algorithm. He responded that Google did not include signals such as the number of followers or likes in the algorithm. You can’t assume that because a signal exists on Twitter or Facebook, Google gets it.

Evidence against social cues as a ranking factor

A few months later, Cutts answered this question:

“As Google continues to add social signals to the algorithm, how do you separate mere popularity from real authority?”

In his response, he says there is an “assumption” in the first part of his question, adding social signals to the algorithm, which he rejects.

In 2015, John Mueller, a search attorney at Google, said that social signals do not directly help organic rankings.

Links in most social posts are no-follows. They will not help with organic ranking. However, social posts related to your website may appear in search results.

IN 2016, Mueller received a tweet asking if social media tags do any good for on-page SEO. His answer:

“No, I will use social media links as a way to add value to users, not in the hope that they will improve rankings.”

In 2017, Gary Illyes, Head of Sunshine and Happiness at Google, mentioned social media twice in a discussion of connectivity. First:

“And this is where social media comes in handy. It’s not because SEs will rank you better, that’s BS, but because you market your content.”

Followed by:

“Also, for the record, PageRank, most social media links count as a single drop in an ocean.”

IN 2019Mueller joked in response to a TikTok tip:

“Do people put links in Tiktok videos? #seo #numberoneranking #follow #growthhacking”

IN 2021Mueller joked in response to the number of likes a particular tweet was getting:

“Sorry, we don’t use likes as a ranking factor.”

Later in August 2021, Mueller was asked if click-through emails can affect rankings. He replied:

“No effect on SEO. Like advertising, like social media. It’s good to have multiple distinct sources of traffic to your website, and not everything has to have an SEO effect.”

A few months Later, Mueller was asked if social media directly or indirectly affected SEO. He answered:

“If I give you Twitter tips that help improve your site’s search visibility, would that be an indirect effect of social signals on SEO?”

The joking response is a clue to their feeling about social cues. They don’t put much stock in them.

Check out our verdicts on other ranking factors in the eBook Ranking Factors: Fact or Fiction.

Social signals as a ranking factor: Our verdict

It’s a bit confusing whether social signals affect organic search rankings. Between 2010 and 2014, Google may have experimented with social signals in search results.

Plus, there are scenarios where social media can help your SEO efforts. While social signals may not be a ranking factor, social profiles and connections can affect how your brand appears in search results.

After all, it appears that Google may have used social signals in the past to create better results for users. But now, social signals seem to be a thing of Google’s past.

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Magazine