There is a recurring debate as to whether social signals, i.e. the interactions of users with content in social media, play a role as a ranking factor. Social signals are not a direct ranking factor, but a high interaction rate in social networks has an indirect positive effect.
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Social signals help to build backlinks
In off-page optimisation area, the generation of high-quality backlinks is of central importance. This is widely recognised, as these links ensure that search engines can gain an assessment of the trustworthiness and quality of content. Backlinks are therefore a ranking factor, i.e. a criteria for assessing the authority of a website. The signals provide valuable input for the generation of backlinks.
This means that likes, comments, etc. are not themselves a ranking factor. This is not technically possible as they change value too quickly. Google cannot recognise this. However, social signals do generate attention. For example: If an influencer shares a post with a link to relevant content, it is not only often seen and clicked on, but also passed on. Signals in social media can also generate backlinks.
Google itself declared in 2014 that there was no connection between social media accounts and search engine rankings. This idea has become entrenched in many places. However, empirical evidence shows that this statement has been outdated for years. Social media accounts, e.g. from X (formerly “Twitter”) and even individual posts do appear in the results lists. Google therefore takes into account what is happening in social media – and this is structured by social signals.
Brand awareness: The term internet presence has changed
The term internet presence used to be synonymous with your own website. Social media accounts or blogs were conceived as signposts leading to the website. In many places, this idea is still common practice. However, this is outdated: a company’s own internet presence is the sum of all the places on the internet where a company or person is active. Brand awareness and ideally brand loyalty are generated online on the major platforms. Off-page SEO has had to keep pace with this change – and social signals are also at the centre of this. These provide a reliable indication of whether content, products or offers meet the tastes of your target group. In this way, optimisations can be made. This leads to better content, more attention and additional backlinks.
Looking ahead: social media signals will become even more important in response to AI
Some of Google’s guidelines for the evaluation of backlinks are known, which are significant for the future importance of signals in social media:
- Unnatural link sources are undesirable.
- Google does not like link exchanges that only serve this purpose.
- Article marketing must not be too intrusive.
- Automated solutions for link generation are prohibited.
Due to the greatly increased importance of AI and its qualitative progress, the guidelines cannot remain in place without problems. Artificial intelligence can generate unnatural content that is relevant and therefore leads to links. In order to be able to react to this, a qualitative assessment must be made. Social signals provide this.
Conclusion: Rethinking the interaction between social signals and off-page SEO can be useful
The development described above show that social media signals and off-page optimisation should work synergetically. Rethinking the corresponding concepts can therefore make sense in many cases. We at SeedingUp are happy to help.
