Was your business hurt by the Google Penguin Update? You are not alone. Many business of all sizes are recovering from one of the biggest disruptions to search results since Panda. Google is fighting back and clearing competition from their flagship product, Search.

 

SEO is not frowned upon by the major search engines, but there is a limit to their kindness. Spiders have a hunger for data. This means they are constantly scanning for signals much like the vibrations on a spider’s web. When they “hear” a tasty morsel caught they follow the sound to the source.

 

Bing and Google on Social Signals in Search

Social signals do matter for search rankings. It still isn’t clear how the search engines value those links, but we do have some insights. Meltingposts [1] published an article last month of some responses by Google and Bing to webmaster questions. The author than inferred some conclusions from the answers. This is my response.

Diversity of Sources

I can attest to this from my research. In all search, especially the social end of it, diversity matters. I find this has more to do with Spam than any other trait. Links coming repeatedly from the same sources appear unnatural and that is a sure sign to Google and Bing that your link building techniques are questionable.

Timing

This signal has to do with freshness, authority, and trust. When news breaks millions of people tweet about it. It is noisy with few trusted authority figures spreading the information. Wait for things to die down before sharing. It will show that you care about your sources instead of mindlessly retweeting a popular story for attention.

Surrounding Content

More text does not hurt your chances of ranking better. When you share news add some commentary. Your followers will appreciate it and so will the spiders.

We cannot be concerned with tricks, but formulating strategies that look at the whole of our marketing efforts. Learn to think like the search engines by offering context to your social media marketing activities. Focus on how you can send messages about your trustworthiness and the meaning of your words. This will cushion your website or blog from changes in search algorithms.

 Citations:

[1] Kasin, Aliosha. “Google and Bing Considering Social Signals as Potential Influencers on Online Marketing Efforts.” MeltingPosts. 25 May 2012. 11 June 2012 <http://www.meltingposts.com/2012/05/25/google-and-bing-considering-social-signals-as-potential-influencers-on-online-marketing-efforts/>.