Does being active on Twitter and Facebook help you get higher search engine rankings on Google and Bing? According to Danny Sullivan, who interviewed search engine executives from Google and Bing, your presence and activity on Twitter and Facebook DOES influence your search engine rankings. How? Read on…

Now, as you might expect, Google and Bing are far from telling anyone – including Danny Sullivan – exactly how their search algorithms work, let alone how those algorithms treat social media activity. They are, however, forthcoming about some things.

For example, Google and Bing say they attach more or less ‘authority’ to the links you Tweet on Twitter based on the level of authority YOU have on Twitter. They assess your ‘Twitter authority’ according to such factors as your following-to-followers ratio (the lower this is the better).

On the other hand, Bing doesn’t try to assess your level of authority on Facebook and Google says it does so in a limited way.

In relation to links posted on Twitter, both Google and Bing take into account how often a link is Tweeted or Retweeted, in addition to the Twitter authority of those sharing such links.

Bing applies a similar approach to links shared on Facebook, i.e. links viewable by ‘Everyone’ on Facebook users’ Walls and Fan Pages. Google similarly weights links on Fan Pages but doesn’t have access to people’s Facebook Wall data.

So what’s the bottom line for Internet marketers? Basically, all things being equal, you will increase your search engine rankings by:

1. Increasing or maintaining a high level of authority on Twitter; and
2. Getting other high Twitter authority users to Tweet and/or Retweet links to your website(s).

Source: Danny Sullivan, “What Social Signals Do Google & Bing Really Count?” December 1, 2010, Search Engine Land

Related Articles:

• Google’s Matt Cutts: We Do Use Twitter and Facebook Links in Ranking
• Google Changes Search Algorithm To Penalize Bad Marketers
• How To Get One-Way Links To Your Site
• Why SEO Beats PPC Advertising: Most Search Engine Users Ignore PPC Ads
• 3 Tips For Increasing Your Organic Search Click-Through Rate (CTR)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 8th, 2010 at 2:13 pm and is filed under Feature, Search Marketing, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.