Social networks burst on to the scene as platforms that allow people to connect with their family, friends and others in their social circle. Over the past couple of years, social networks have become relevant ranking factors for the search engines and are now considered an integral part of online marketing. The feedback a website receives from its users on social networks is known as ‘Social Signals’ and Google takes it into account when determining the site’s search engine ranking.

What Are Social Signals?

It is hard to fathom that up until three years back marketers were lamenting the lack of importance given to social media websites by the search engines. How things change as now social networks have become crucial to a website’s ranking. Social signals refer to the ‘Likes’, ‘Shares’, ‘Pins’, ‘Votes’, ‘Retweets’, etc. that people place on their Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or other social profiles. When a brand receives a ‘Like’ or a ‘Pin’, it shows that consumers are discussing it online.

How Search Engines View Social Signals

These social signals are considered to be recommendations. Sharing or liking a brand’s social media page means that the user wants his/her ‘Friends’ and ‘Followers’ to check it out. Needless to say, this has a positive impact on the website’s SERP ranking. Over time, the traffic to your website will increase and so will your sales. It also helps create backlinks, which is another important search engine ranking factor.

But it's not only SEO. Another aspect that needs to be discussed is the fact that an "active" or "busy" social account will be more effective than an empty one. For example: If your Facebook page has 5 fans on it, it's unlikely that new ones will join. In contrary a page with 1,000 fans will attract new real fans more easily.

Acquiring Social Signals

So, how do you acquire social signals? You can purchase social signals to improve your search engine rankings.

Buying from a Third Party

There are many online services that provide social signals, focusing on Facebook ‘Likes’ and Google ‘+1s’. You can also buy the other common social signals. The cost you incur will vary from service to service. Most of them offer monthly and quarterly packages you can acquire. The packages often prove to be economical as compared to the other ways of buying social signals.

Buying from Vendor

There are many website from which you can buy social signals (most of the top traffic selling businesses also sell social signals). Yet, you cannot ignore the fact that the quality and reliability of the social signals you get from the vendor cannot be matched by retailers.

The cost you have to bear for buying social signals is worth your while. Think of it more as an investment than an expense as you will get a return on it over time. Given the way social signals have grown in value over the years, it is unlikely they will cease to be a search engine ranking factor anytime soon. So, social signals can help deliver an improvement in your site’s ranking that lasts for a while.