Social platforms have a series of features that display human interactions. They are called social signals, and they also serve as metrics for social media marketing. Some examples of social signals include likes, dislikes, shares, votes, pins, views, etc. With them, business owners can measure how popular their content is and if people identify with it.

Virtually every brand or company has a social media account associated with their website. Whether they rely on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, or other social network, businesses can use these to get their message across for a wide range of people.

SEO experts argue that social signals didn’t have much weight as ranking factors in the past. However, with the never-ending development of search engines’ algorithms, it’s no wonder that they are now taken into consideration. Mostly, they are a way to increase your rankings organically.

Social signals can impact rankings directly or indirectly. Direct impacts can derive from:

  –  The amount of people that like your company on Facebook.

  –  The total number of Facebook shares.

  –  Amount of Twitter followers.

  –  The number of tweets that specially mention your brand name.

  –  Number of people who liked your Instagram post.

These are measures of how well-received your content is. If your numbers are high, it is an indication that users find your content relevant and interesting.

Indirect impacts derive from:

  –  An increment on your inbound links and citations due to online visibility and brand awareness.

  –  An increase in your site’s reviews thanks to more satisfied customers.

  –  A decrease in your website’s bounce rate, higher time on site, and more repeat visitors.

Social signals are sure to take the future of SEO by storm. The newer generations have been raised to keep up with social media channels. Through them, they are able to find products they like and engage with their favorite content creators. Also, they are more prone to trust websites recommended by their friends or by an influencer than by search engines.