This document discusses how social networks can impact search engine rankings both directly and indirectly. Direct impacts include links and mentions on social media influencing crawling and rankings. Indirect impacts include increased visibility, brand awareness, and positive user signals leading to greater trust and rankings over time. The document provides examples of how to leverage different social networks like Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn and more to expand one's network and increase reach. It emphasizes that search is no longer just about SEO but combining social, content and other strategies.

1. Using Your Social Network for Higher Search RankingsRand Fishkin, CEO + Co-founder, SEOmozJuly 2011; Sao Paulo, Brazil

2. Direct Impacts of Social Networks on Search Rankings

3. Direct Links from Social ProfilesNot all profile links are followed, but correlation data suggests even the nofollows may add value.http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlVia http://answers.onstartups.com, which uses the StackExchange platform.

4. Tweets Influencing Crawling + RankTweets from powerful accounts that earn lots of RTs seem to act like links and help even in the long termCheck out these two: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-tweet-effect-how-twitter-affects-rankings-12781and http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tweets-effect-rankings-unexpected-case-studyhttp:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

5. Social / UG Content Targeting Long Tail QueriesA great example of this is Facebook comments, which you can make indexable using: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/make-facebook-comments-box-indexable-by-search-engineshttp:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

6. Second-Order Effects ofSocial Media

7. Links Created Due to Social VisibilityI’ve contributed on http://quora.com moderately over the past year and in addition to the direct traffic, Moz now also earns nice links from folks who find us through those threads.http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

8. Branding ImpactIf you want everyone in the startup/hacker world to know your company, just get 5-6 pieces to the frontpage of Hacker News.Sites like http://news.ycombinator.com exist in virtually every tech-forward industry, and when they don’t; there’s a big opportunity for you to create/host them.http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

9. Positive User/Usage Data Signals Time on Site

10. # of Unique Visits

11. Popularity Over Time

12. Browse Rate

13. CTR from SERPsSocial traffic may have high bounce rate, but it shows engagement and builds familiarity, leading to greater trustworthiness and all the accompanying metrics Google now uses w/ Panda.http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

14. Influencing Personalized SERPs & Adding Social Proof

15. +1s in the SERPsHello Social Proof!These +1 counts only seem to show when a page has 500 or more +1s. More - http://searchengineland.com/confirmed-google-showing-1-counts-to-logged-out-users-82800http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

16. “My Social Circle” ResultsResults from Google’s “My Social Circle.” To see results like this, just add “&tbs=frim:1” to the end of any Google query.http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

17. Social Annotations from Your NetworkAs great as http://www.everywhereist.com is, it doesn’t rank page one for this query unless I’m logged in and following Geraldine on Twitter.http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

18. The social connections appear to influence rank ordering.http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlThese annotations undoubtedly increase CTR, particularly if the source is trusted.

19. Hang on a tic... How did they know I’m connected to Kalena on Facebook?! I haven’t yet added Facebook to my Google account!When Google starts using latent (rather than active) network connections, social becomes even more powerful.http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

20. Google crawls deeply to get social data and connections once you add a profile.http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlRead more here http://www.seomoz.org/blog/social-annotations-in-search-now-your-social-network-rankings and see your socially connected data via http://www.google.com/s2/search/social?hl=en#socialcontent

21. Google Has Deep Social Network SpideringNotice that Google crawls through one network to discover connections 2-3 “hops” away on another.http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlRead more here http://www.seomoz.org/blog/social-annotations-in-search-now-your-social-network-rankings and see your socially connected data via http://www.google.com/s2/search/social?hl=en#socialcontent

22. Google+A New Front in the Search & Social Mix

23. 9,737 followers on Google+. 1,708 followers on Facebook.You can see more about the Google+ product via their demo here - http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/demo/http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

24. Google+ Still Has a Lot to Learn About SocialFacebook URLFacebook.com/Rand.FishkinTwitter URLTwitter.com/randfishGoogle+ URLplus.google.com/u/1/111294201325870406922http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlGoogle themselves recommend usable, descriptive URLs, but fails on +

25. Sharing on Google+ is a Bit DifferentVia http://crosscutcommunications.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Extendedcircles-2-1024x625.jpghttp:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

26. Mentions are Useful, but a Bit HiddenGo to “Notifications” then use the menu to select “Mentions”This, sadly, means that, at least for now, mentioning someone on Plus won’t get their attention the way it can on Twitterhttp:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

27. FindPeopleonPlus is a Great Toolhttp:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlVia http://www.findpeopleonplus.com/

28. 7 Powerful Tactics to Improve Your Network’s Reach

29. #1: Build a Social Sharing Email ListConnecting with like-minded, socially-networked friends to share and co-share content makes good sense, and can be totally white hat. You’ll learn a lot, too!http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

30. #2: Find Influencers w/ FollowerWonkhttp:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlFinding influencers via http://www.followerwonk.com is awesomely easy.

31. #2.1: Find Influencers w/ GG ProfilesGoogle Profile search also rocks: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/dont-ask-sites-for-links-find-people-and-connect. Just use &tbs=prfl:e to the end of any Google query to see them.http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

32. #2.2: Find Influencers w/ LinkedInTo make the most of this, you’ll want to use LinkedIn’s Advanced Search function: http://www.linkedin.com/searchhttp:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

33. #3: Solicit Contributions to Build ContentRae’s interview featured expert-sourced questions AND answers, meaning she had only to curate: http://www.sugarrae.com/link-development/link-building-interview/http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

34. #4: Optimize What You Share through AnalysisCheck out http://www.seomoz.org/blog/calculating-and-improving-your-twitter-clickthroughrate for more on analyzing/improving your social sharinghttp:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

35. #4.1: Optimize Time + Frequency of Sharing, Toohttp://whentotweet.com can help with this part  Heard good things about http://time.ly toohttp:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

36. #5: Subscribe to Aggregators; Craft Great Headlines and ShareSites like http://popurls.com, http://alltop.com, http://summify.com, http://reddit.com and other aggregators can help you ID the types of content, headlines and sources that work well.http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

37. #6: Optimize Your Profiles, Pics + BiosI’ve tested/optimized my profile picture (background color matters!), my bio (a bunch of times – accuracy and hint of what’s to come helps) and my URL (randfishkin.com probably does better)http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

38. #7: Treat Your On-Site Shares as CROVia one of the web’s most brilliant data porn blogs: http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/your-looks-and-online-dating/

39. Overwhelmed by sharing!!Every post on http://mashable.com has 23 unique links to share across 7 channels