Traditionally, search engines crawled the web and took note of all the backlinks to different websites. They used those backlinks to help determine which sites were most popular and relevant to searchers. Over time, the big search engines have refined their algorithms to remove spam and to make their results more relevant.

Backlinks have been de-emphasized, and now there are a number of factors that go into determining search results. Search engines favor sites that receive links organically, and sites that feature fresh content that interests people. It’s not a coincidence that this content is also what does well on social media.

The different social media platforms each have their own strengths when it comes to affecting search ranks. Facebook is certainly the big fish in the social pond, so we can definitely see a lot of ties between presence on Facebook and search rank. In fact, this graphic shows that the number of shares on Facebook is the factor that mostly highly correlates with Google rankings. You’ll notice that Facebook comments and likes also place highly on that list. Twitter is great for building relationships and engaging with people, and it’s one of the best places to share your content.

Google+ Social Media Business Page

As you might suspect, using Google+ has a few advantages when it comes to Google rankings. A Google+ business page can help get your page indexed more quickly. It also enables you to have the detailed entry that displays your location, hours, website, and more on the results page when your business is searched for by name.

One other social media site that can really impact search rank is Tumblr. Tumblr is kind of unique in that it is a blogging site that includes a lot of social media features such as likes, follows, shares, and hashtags. The links posted on Tumblr are the kinds of backlinks that search engines take into account. So if you post content with a link and it gets reblogged, that absolutely is factored into search results rank.

So, even though search engines may not take social media directly into account, it’s clear that your social accounts have an impact. And best of all, the correlation between social and search may well mean that your search results rank can help drive activity on social media. That certainly makes sense. If your website and the content you’ve been producing show up in searches, they’re definitely more likely to be shared.

Looking at the big picture, this really illustrates just how all of your online marketing ties together. Your search results rank is influenced by your social media presence. The content you put out online fuels both. BSG offers a full range of services, including SEO and social media management. We can create an online marketing strategy that works in harmony to promote your business.