Debunking 10 common misconceptions about the intersection of search and social - from SMX Israel 2015.

1. MythBusting:
Search and Social
Kelli Brown | Pixel/Point Press
SMX Israel 2015

2. The number of fans
on a Facebook fan page
affects search rankings for
content shared
on that page.

3. Correlation vs. Causation

4. The Truth
Social network follower numbers
do not work like domain authority.
Ranking algorithms do not take
follower numbers into account.
http://bit.ly/1c4Feqc

5. Social profiles like
Facebook pages and
Twitter accounts rank
well in search results.

6. The Truth
It’s true.
Social media account profiles often
rank very well for company or
organization names.
It’s a good way to “own” the top 10
results for your brand name.
http://selnd.com/1F3dCwS

7. Social networks are
their own “search
engines.”

8. The Truth
Sort of. Social networks are increasingly
used for searches – FB has 1.5 billion
searches conducted every day
(Google has more than 3 billion).
The introduction of FB Universal Search
may boost this trend.
http://bit.ly/1kwejuW

9. Social authority – the
number of followers for a
Facebook page or Twitter
account – might
eventually matter for
SEO.

10. http://moz.com/search-ranking-factors

11. Note: Correlated
factors from social
signals, not
causation for
rankings

12. The Truth:
Search signals and ranking factors
change periodically, and this could
eventually affect the SERPs.
http://bit.ly/1KEUy9j http://bit.ly/209KO2n

13. When a page is shared
heavily in the social
networks, Google ranks
the page higher in the
search engine results
pages (SERPs).

14. The Truth:
Great content ranks well in search
and is heavily shared, showing there
is a correlation between those two.
But heavy sharing of posts does not
cause them to be ranked higher in
the search engines.
http://bit.ly/1is4uXx

15. If SEO is your goal, focus
your social efforts on
Google+.

16. The Truth
Google + is now treated largely the
same way as other social networks in the
search engines. Google is no longer
displaying page post results as part of
search cards.
http://bit.ly/1PU1qXo

17. Employee advocacy –
when employees share a
company post – will boost
ranking in search results.

18. The Truth
Eric Enge: “Google doesn’t use Facebook as
a discovery, indexing, or ranking factor.”
Google is only able to “see” social media
posts when they are posted to public profiles.
Also – social networks links are nofollow links,
so they do not contribute to rank in the same
way.
http://bit.ly/1NAd3R1

19. Group activity and
posts can display
in the search results.

20. The Truth
Google can and does index posts in
group activity where the groups are
public.
But … many groups aren’t public.

21. Sharing content on Twitter
can cause it to be indexed
and displayed faster.

22. The Truth
“We believe it’s almost certainly the
case that Google saw the initial tweet
on Twitter and it caused that first visit by
Googlebot to the #singersongwriter
page. Given the Followerwonk Social
Authority level of 54, this was not
triggered by the highest authority
people that tweeted that page.”
http://bit.ly/1IJOBZv

23. Using URL shorteners,
like Bit.ly, harms SEO.

24. The Truth
Assuming the shortener used passes a
301 redirect to the page in question,
there is no harm done in shortening the
URL for tracking in social analytics tools.
http://selnd.com/1pcKwls

25. Best Practices
• Produce great content and share on social – just
not to appease Google’s algorithms.
• Own your top 10 branded results by claiming your
name on social networks.
• Track content performance with Google URL Builder
and shortened URLs as needed.
• Encourage employees to share posts for increased
reach and industry dominance – not page rank.
• Skip scammy practices – buying fans, paying for
+1s/shares/comments – as it won’t help SEO and will
harm your organic following.

26. Thanks!
PIXEL/POINT PRESS
YOUR DIGITAL MARKETING TEAM.
pixelpointpress.com