Social Signals

Google Confirmed: No More Backlinks for Search Engine

Optimization
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Contents

Foreword

Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: What Are Social Signals?
Chapter 3: What Google Says About Social Signals
Chapter 4: How Does Google Gauge Your Website’s Social
Signals?
Chapter 5: Who Are the People That Can Impact Your Site
Traffic?
Chapter 6: How People Can Recommend Your Site
Chapter 7: The Problems with Managing Social Profiles
Chapter 8: What is Taleout?
Chapter 9: How Taleout Can Help You with Your Profiles
Chapter 10: Conclusion
Foreword
In the beginning there was darkness, and developers shed forth light
through building websites. These websites just stayed in cyberspace
until someone shared them or visited by those who know the address.

All this changed when search engines like Google came into the scene,
and they all work based on one main principle: The more links a
website has leading to it, the more popular it must be, and these
websites are up there in the search ladder.

Those were simple times back then, and search engine optimizers just
scattered links to their website as much as they could, while filling all
their content with keywords.

However, the whole process of search engine optimization has

progressed over the years, making some of these tricks obsolete. As
the whole process evolves, optimizers must swim with the tide.

This eBook will guide you through the process of using your social
circles.
Chapter 1
Introduction

If you have any idea on how search engine optimization (SEO) works,
I am pretty sure you have come across the term ‘backlink.’

For all you newbies in the realm of SEO, you may be unfamiliar with
the term and probably unaware of its importance. Backlinks have
earned a reputation for being one of the most important elements of
SEO, and considered to be an integral part of the whole process.

A backlink, also known as an inbound link (IBL), is simply a link or

URL that directs you to a website. The quantity of banklinks indicates
the popularity or significance of a certain website. They are essential
in SEO because certain search engines give more recognition to
websites that have good a good number of backlinks pointing towards
them and identify these sites as more relevant than others in search
page results.

All of this has changed, however, and search engines have developed
more complex algorithms for more sophisticated methods of website
optimization. Being more relevant has become more of a big deal for
SEO, forcing optimizers to use more fitting keywords in their content.
This has transcended from quantity to quality, and the phrase
‘content is king’ the one thing still constant in the race for search
engine supremacy.

Google has since been on a quest to find websites with fresh and
relevant content through their leading search engine. Even during its
early years, the company has stressed how finding fresh results was
important to their service. Up until now, Google continues to stress
how important it is for them to find fresh content, making it vital in
search engine optimization.

In the same regard, social media has continuously made a huge

impact to search engine optimization. For the most part, people are
increasingly inclined to share new and relevant content on social
media websites by posting links, leading others to fresh content more
than any means thought possible.

These are called ‘social signals,’ and making use of these is now the
easiest and most popular method of directing people to websites,
increasing traffic, and at same time search ranking.
Chapter 2:
What Are Social Signals?

In a nutshell, social signals are links on social networking profiles

that connect people to your website. Search engines are continuously
evolving and have added a few social search features through the
years, putting greater emphasis on social signals now than ever
before.

Finding out if search engines prefer social signals and traditional

links is practically pointless. Search engine optimization campaigns
with a high chance of success are those loaded with fresh and high
quality content, including an assortment of natural links and social
signals. All this makes a website profile that has both links and social
signals give you the best search ranking results.

Link building has been widely discussed in a good number of high

quality posts over the Internet, with social signals enjoying less
acknowledgment and coverage. The question of how to use the major
social media websites as a method of sending out social signals for the
further benefit of your website comes into play. However, it is worth
noting that it is still unknown if all of these factors are considered
essential in the ranking of your website in search engine results.
Facebook

It’s probably safe to say that Facebook is one, if not the most popular
social media platform used today. It has an immense user base and
claims top spot in popularity rankings. While it may not be regarded
as a very effective means of directing traffic towards your website, the
possible social signals it offers are worth considering.

Facebook shares and likes have been proven to be important because

they are a good indication that users not only view your content, but
share them to others in their network and bookmark them for future
reference. User comments are also good signs that your readers are
involved in the discussion you instigate. All these factors—comments,
likes and shares—help improve the weight in the social ranking of
your website.

Twitter

Twitter has earned a reputation to be an efficient marketing social

media tool for both businesses and websites. A well-written Tweet
that appeals to a good number of people can explode and go viral in
short span of time. The limited number of characters used in Tweets
has helped the platform’s popularity among social media netizens.

The number of Tweets a user posts may not be beneficial in terms of

social ranking factors. And in the same regard, a user’s number of
followers is less important than the social status of one’s followers. It
is more likely that retweets, mentions and links posted have a huge
impact on one’s social signals, so aim to write Tweets that are popular
with a large group of prominent users.

Google Plus

Google Plus is the most recent social media platform among the three,
and its association with Google gives it more importance above any
existing social media networks out there. With the rate how its user
base quickly expanded, it is unwise to disregard the search giant’s
own social media platform.

A digital vote of +1 on your page is considered as an affirmation of a

post or page, but it’s the user’s social media status that can influence
your ranking. Likewise, shares and adds by high profile users have
greater weight to social signals. It is also believed that the rate your
content spreads bears more significance, considering the amount of
control Google has over the social network.

Other Social Media Platforms

There are other social media networks out there, but the popularity of
these three trumps everything else. Although, there are niche social
media websites where you can focus some amount of effort. LinkedIn
has proven its worth to business users and professionals alike, while
Flickr and YouTube are perfect platforms for their respective themes.
The newest kid on the block Pinterest has also covered some
significant ground, and has proven invaluable in marketing,
especially in search engine optimization campaigns.
Chapter 3:
What Google Says About Social
Signals

Google introduced its Social Search feature back in 2009. It’s the
search giant’s added service that provides views of customized search
results on people in your social network.

However, it was only recently that Google has mentioned anything

about social signals as part of the company’s search ranking feature.
This is evidence that they are playing close attention to social signals
both on and off their proprietary social media websites.

In spite of the initial arguments that revolved around the subject,

social signals are essential in the current process and are even
considered as the future of search engine optimization. Google
Analytics has already included social media data as part of their
search ranking factors. What they might not be saying is becoming
apparent in search engine ranking results: social signals are now part
of the equation.

Over time, search engine optimizers are learning what works and
what doesn’t. At this point, we already have a good idea on how social
signals work in Google’s search algorithms. This is pretty exciting
stuff for the field, because Google has once again leveled the playing
field by making sure that you can be rewarded by creating high
quality content on your website.

People are now starting to question the efficiency of backlink

building, asking how they can get traffic if they can’t build links like
before. What they have overlooked is the growing power of social
media. It is now possible to acquire huge amounts of website traffic
through them, even if your website went live just a few hours ago.

Producing the right kind of content, one that can be shared, is what
counts. People will want to share them, regardless of where it came
from. And through sharing, content can become viral.

The sharing starts with one person, and people in the network will
read and some will share until the number of shares exponentially
increases, giving the needed traffic to the website containing the
content. It’s that simple.

Always keep in mind that the better the content, the higher the
possibility it’s going to be shared, so it doesn’t really matter if your
website just went live yesterday. If you can create high quality content
that’s worth sharing, it’s easy to get a huge number of visitors in a
day.
Chapter 4:
How Does Google Gauge Your
Website’s Social Signals?

After Google launched its Social Search feature and Facebook decided
to jump into the search business with its Graph Search, it seems like
the time of social search engine optimization, or social SEO, is at
hand.

Measuring the success of social SEO can be difficult, because there

are a lot of variable performance indicators to gauge. Google aims to
deliver search results that are most relevant to you, based on
behavior, location and social network. When you perform a search,
the results are patterned to your personal habits and location. Google
Plus members who are also logged into Google services, like Gmail,
will have results influenced by their connections.

Keep in mind that although social signals won’t be able to put you on
top of the rankings, effectively using them as part of a larger content
strategy can result to wider exposure, linking more people to your
content. This process will inevitably help you be on top in Google
search rankings.

Tweets, Google +1’s and Facebook Likes are social signals that can
help you become visible in search engine results and get your website
content indexed immediately. This type of online social activity can
direct organic search towards your website and increase traffic.

To gauge this, your content considered as highly shareable material

should first be defined. This will differ based on industry, and can be
from content found either on landing pages or product pages. Ask
yourself, which content is likely to be read and shared by fellow users
through social media?

The best indicator that you’re doing a good job in effectively utilizing
social media to send your social signals is how engaged the people are
regarding your shared content. A steady increase of Facebook Likes,
comments, favorites, retweets and + 1’s indicate that your content is
of high quality and interesting, your website is ideally optimized for
sharing and you’re promoting to engaging, quality readers.

One other way in which Google gauges a website’s social signal is via
traffic provided by social referrals. By promoting your content
through various social media, you get to increase the social signals of
your website. This can be done by a promotional tweet from an
influential user with many followers, which will surely bring more
traffic to your website. Google gives more weight to this kind of social
signal.
Chapter 5:
Who Are the People That Can Impact
Your Site Traffic?

Website traffic is gold in search engine optimization. Simply put,

website traffic is the number of people who visit your website at a
given time. These people are the driving force of your website’s
existence in the first place, regardless if you’re selling a product, a
type of service or simply want an audience.

Gaining a regular following is the aim of every website owner. There

are the types of traffic you get and the different people who give rise
to your website’s success.

The people who can impact your website traffic can be classified into
two types: first are the targeted visitors from first-time visits, and
second are those persistent or regular website visitors. In the world of
social media, influence it what drives traffic to your website.

You may own the most impressive and most useful website out there,
but if people don’t know about it, all the effort you put in creating it
will be useless. You need to reach out to your target audience. There
are a few methods to do this, but first, you need to identify your target
audience.
There is no doubt about it that social media has a huge impact in
driving traffic to websites. This makes the people in your social media
circles valuable resources and, of course, a primary target. Facebook
friends and Twitter followers are the most important people to send
out the essential social signals regarding your website.

Experts say that if you aren’t social online, you won’t be getting any
business. According to Facebook statistics, there are 665 million daily
active user accounts as of March 2013, making it a goldmine for
website traffic.

Create a Facebook profile page, Twitter and even an Instagram

account of your blog site or business. Make sure the social media
profile of your website is complete, including pictures and ‘about’
information, and start adding with all the social media users you can
connect with. You can start with your friends and move up to more
influential users for a wider audience.

People in the same niche or interest your website is about can also
have a huge impact on your website traffic. They are the people that
are most compelled to move that pointer and click on the link going to
your website.

If you blog about food and travel, it would only be right to seek out
the people who are into the same interest as yours: backpackers and
foodies. Drum up interest in your website to get their attention, and
post quality content to lure them all in and gain both new audience
and a regular following.
Chapter 6:
How People Can Recommend Your
Site

There are many ways how people can recommend your site to drive
more traffic into it. Thanks to social media, it is now a whole lot easier
to do this, helping your reach a larger audience that may include a
number of influential users.

Because of the social media explosion, popular social networks like

Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and Pinterest have skyrocketed to
fame, automatically becoming the battleground for online marketing
supremacy. This has also changed the game, with recommendations
becoming much simpler by just a few clicks of the mouse button.

Facebook Likes
Facebook has become the pinnacle of online marketing, transforming
it into a tool unlike anything we’ve ever seen. The one thing that sets
it apart from other social media is the positivity it entails in online
marketing.

A Facebook ‘like’ is one of the best and easiest way people can
recommend a website, and this carries a positive branding that can
easily translate to others. The act of liking has a huge and deep
impact, with a quantifiable effect on your website’s traffic.

Twitter Retweets
Another easy way how people can recommend your website is
through a retweet. Twitter is probably the second most popular social
media platform next to Facebook, and has the most influential active
users to date. Retweeting is a great way to share and recommend
information, ideas and websites, bringing in a good amount of traffic
to your website.

Traffic can be gained by just a simple retweet. The best way to achieve
this is by tweeting your website link to one influential Twitter user
with a huge following. Make sure your tweet can spark interest and is
worthy of a retweet. If you get a retweet and it is seen by the
influential user’s followers, imagine the spike in the number of visits
you get to your website.

Google +1’s
Not to be outdone, the search giant’s own social network included an
affirmation and recommendation of posts on its pages. Similar to
Facebook’s ‘like’ feature, Google Plus’ +1 works the same way, with
the company including this in its algorithm to impact search ranking
metrics. The same content requirement is needed for people to
recommend your site and gain a +1: make it interesting, relevant and
useful.

Other Social Media Networks

Other popular social media networks can recommend posts with the
same principle: by sharing. Pinterest, Instagram and Flickr mainly
use photos, and to get a repost, share or like, all you need to do is
upload interesting pictures that can grab a user’s attention and decide
it is fit for sharing.

The same goes for social blogging sites like Tumblr. Remember, if it’s
worthy of recommendation, it is going to be shared by any means
available.
Chapter 7:
The Problems with Managing Social
Profiles

As with any functional tool, issues may arise regarding its use or
misuse. The increasing popularity of social media presents interesting
issues for people who want to use them for personal and professional
purposes.

Should a user maintain two separate accounts each for a different

purpose, or merge both and use only one? Of course, the answer
entirely depends on how you utilize the social network and what kind
of information you want people to know.

First of all, social media users should be familiar on how it works. The
improper use of social media can lead to disastrous consequences.
Take the case of former US Rep. Anthony Weiner. He had a fairly
large following on Twitter, letting us assume he knows how to handle
the medium.

To those who are not familiar with the incident, Mr. Weiner took a
racy photo of his private region in a certain state of arousal and sent it
to a female follower on Twitter. He had the intention of sending the
photo as a private message using Twitter’s ‘Direct Message’ feature.
Unfortunately, he pressed the wrong button and sent the photo
publicly for all his followers to see. The consequences were nothing
short of catastrophic.

Privacy has also been a hot issue since the inception of social
networks. For personal accounts, it is important that people only post
appropriate information on any type of social network. This covers
not posting those photos from last night’s frat party and not tweeting
anything when in a foul mood.

Right now, managing your social profile has become even more
relevant, with survey results suggesting that your profile can affect
your chances of employment.

Tech companies’ current hiring process now includes background

checks on the social media accounts of potential employees. More
than ever, it is now important to know how to build a positive social
media profile that can help you land that job.

For good social profile management, there are a few rules you need to
follow to avoid any unfortunate incidents. In using Facebook, it would
be safe not to post anything embarrassing.

Think: If anything about you is fine to be published in the newspaper,

then it’s okay to post it on Facebook.
Avoid using the medium to post any negativity on your profile page,
like venting or ranting about how bad your life is, your job, your
family or friends.

This goes the same way for business or blog profile accounts. To draw
traffic to your website, positivity always rules.

The best way to work around this is to toggle the privacy controls, so
you can choose which certain groups of people can view all your
posts.

The bottom line is, decide on the purpose of your social media
account. In doing this, you can also decide on who can access or view
all your social media activities and who can interact with them.

This frees you from totally sanitizing everything you post, because
doing so takes away the creativity and personality from your profiles.
Always remember to try to be positive in managing your profiles and
everything will work in your favor.
Chapter 8:
What Is TaleOut?

Now that we know how much of a huge impact social signals are to
increase the ranking of your website, there are ways to use them to
your advantage. What better way to make good use of these social
signals than by exploiting them? But how can you manage your social
media accounts the right way to boost your rankings?

This is where TaleOut comes in.

TaleOut is a plugin used in WordPress that can assist a user in

sharing content across multiple social media platforms like Facebook
and Twitter. This helps users create and manage social signals, which
boosts SEO ranking.

Facebook likes and shares help you get higher ranking in search
results. This means that the more likes and shares you have, the
higher your ranking goes. This rings true not only on Facebook, but
also on other social media networks like Twitter, Google Plus and
Pinterest.

If you optimize your social media updates so you could gain the most
shares and likes, you will have to do all this on all your accounts when
posting your website links. TaleOut does this for you.
But first, the facts:

American Internet users spend more time on Facebook than any

other social networking site. This has made Facebook earn the
reputation as the most popular social media platform so far. Since
2011, users in the US have been spending more time on Facebook
than they are actually searching for stuff on Google.

The fact is Facebook has dominated the Internet, even surpassing

Google and Yahoo. And it looks like Facebook is still at it, without any
signs of stopping soon.

Many online marketers and SEO experts agree that social signals are
now at the forefront of search engine optimization, taking the place of
backlinks as a search factor. Google has even confirmed this little
piece of information. However, generating social signals is a lot
harder than you think.

These are the reasons why it is a smart decision to take advantage of

TaleOut.
Chapter 9:
How Taleout Can Help You with Your
Profiles

Many users who want to establish impressive social signals to

improve their site’s ranking maintain more than one social media
account. There are a few things that need to be done to generate good
social signals: collect content; curate it to make sure it’s high quality;
set dates to schedule posts on every single social network and
manually post them with an accompanying message.

Yes, it can be time consuming and a lot of hassle, and you’re not even
sure if you’ll be getting a boost in your social signals.

The main objective should be gaining traffic to your website using

your social networks. TaleOut can help you do this automatically,
with just a few clicks of a button.

With the help of TaleOut, you can generate social signals

automatically. It will help you revive old content, redistribute traffic
to your website, get all the social media traffic you need, direct them
to your website, and even dramatically increase it.

To generate effective social signals on Facebook, there are a few

things you have to follow to get it right:
  Include a photo in your Facebook post. It usually helps get you
those shares and likes.

 Have your audience participate in the conversation. Include text

and ask questions about what they think so you could get their
feedback or opinion on the matter.

 Don’t hesitate to ask fellow users for a like, +1, retweet or share.
Going straight to the point works wonders.

 Determine the best time when your target audience is active on

your social networks and post.

 Repetition is key. Post your website’s link regularly, but be

careful about posting old content.

 Short posts can be more attractive to other users, and this is the
reason why Twitter is so successful.

These essential tips are pretty good, and they can surely help you
generate social signals for your site. And what’s better is all this can
be done by TaleOut without doing much because it’s all automated.

You’ll be getting traffic from your social networks and direct it to your
website real quick and easy. All you have to do is download the
plugin, connect your website to all your social networks, sit back,
relax and have fun while you reap its benefits.
You decide which social networking sites you connect to your website
and choose which of your posts go where. You can customize the
settings accordingly, so you have total control over all your posts. This
helps you organize what you put on your social networks and avoid
unrelated topics.

The plugin’s fantastic features include:

 Add or remove social network profiles with a few clicks of the

mouse button.

 Select which Facebook or Twitter accounts you want your

content to be posted.

 Exclude the social media accounts you don’t want your content
to be posted.

 Edit your profiles and preferences anytime on your WordPress

or TaleOut dashboard.

 View all your activity’s history.

As you can see, everything can be done automatically. This makes the
job easier, helping the users get optimum results on their social signal
generation.
Chapter 10:
Conclusion

It seems that social signals have taken over link building as an

effective method for search engine optimization. Liking and sharing
has become increasingly dominant factors in climbing the search
rankings.

Updates in Google’s algorithms have given more emphasis to

functionality and quality of content, telling us that a visitor’s
satisfaction, not only the sheer volume of visits, can determine a site’s
search ranking.

It’s conclusive that the importance of social signals is now the new
‘links,’ revolutionizing how search engines rank websites in their page
results.

One has gained the upper hand in the battle between quantity and
quality, with quality gaining supremacy. This has turned SEO
strategies into a totally different ballgame, with small businesses
being forced to make a few changes.

 Post interesting and original content

 Use good keywords

  Add social media sharing buttons

 Establish social networks and engage with other users

To generate social signals for your website, sign up and create a

business site on the follow social networking sites:

 Facebook

 Twitter

 Google+

 Pinterest

 Instagram

 Flickr

 LinkedIn

 Reddit

 Digg

 StumbleUpon
There are more, but you only need to sign up for a few with the most
quality users. Keep in mind that the most important social network is
Google+ for obvious reasons.

Many might say the search giant would want to have total control
over your content, but if you think about it, Google just has better
access to all the data on their own sites and services than any other.
But just to be safe, go for Google+ and other sites, too. Either way, all
your social media will be tracked and count them as social signals.

Once you have existing accounts for your website on the essential
social networking sites, you may start generating your own social
signals. You can do this by engaging in interesting exchanges or
starting conversations about topics related to the industry of what you
are trying to market.

Always keep in mind that social media platforms are not used simply
to advertise your website; it is an avenue where you must engage and
interact with other users by productive interaction through
conversation, being helpful, opening yourself to comments or
feedback and positively responding to them, and sharing your
content, ideas, products or services.

It’s just like doing good business and establishing strong networks in
real life and translating them in the virtual world.
With all the work a user has to do to generate social signals,
technology has catched up to make life easier for them. TaleOut’s
services have the necessary features to cover all bases, and all can be
done automatically. With a central ‘command center’ installed as a
plugin to your WordPress website, users can control everything, and
post certain content to selected social media websites.

The automated generation of social signals funnels the traffic into a

user’s blog or website, ultimately increasing the site ranking with
literally a few clicks of the mouse button. It’s easy, effective and
impressive thanks to the fantastic changes of technology.

I hope that this book has given you a head start on getting started
with social sites and to have great success with using them in your
business endeavors.

Best wishes on your ventures.

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