Why You Need To Consider Social Sharing And Backlinks

Why You Need To Consider Social Sharing And Backlinks

SEO plays a huge role in directing the millions of internet users to the right content they need. This means that if your site is not properly optimized for search engines, it could mean losing a ton of traffic and subsequently sales. While it is improbable and almost impossible to pinpoint the exact criteria used by search engines in terms of ranking, most experts agree that backlinks and social shares seem to play a huge role in a site ranking. In 2010, Matt Curtis of Google indicated that Google, the biggest search engine, uses social shares as a smoke signal for ranking. As you can see, social sharing is very important to a website and its owner.

In fact, today, social sharing is so important that it is almost impossible to see a website or blog that does not offer social sharing without navigating away from the site. This is just one of the many reasons why you should consider social sharing. To the spiders at search engine central, any content generating social shares is an indicator of quality content (which Google is all about) and site attractiveness. Further, search engines today use social share as backlinks to content.

1. SEO Benefit

Generally, link building is an internal effort to affect a site’s SEO ranking. On the other hand, social sharing is indeed a form of link building only that it’s external, meaning that it is possible to get shares but it is impossible to gain them in a direct nature.

Every share is considered a vote to your content (it shows that your content is great), which means that the more shares you have, the more votes you have. This in turn means that the search engines will see you as an authority in whatever you are blogging about thus increasing your rankings on search engine results page.

This in itself is an advantage in that using this method of back linking reduces the chances of your site being blacklisted for spammy backlinks. More importantly, social shares are important because most methods of back linking such as link exchanges, link farming, and link buying are all blackhat tricks of ranking (which Google frowns upon).

2. Engaging Audience

Further, social sharing and subsequent back linking encourages you to actively participate in social media interactions for your content. While this may seem counterproductive, it is indeed very productive in that you can use social media to generate content ideas. This is one of the main keys to building natural backlinks.

3. Back links

Further, because social sharing creates natural back links to your website, you need to encourage social shares at every possible opportunity. You can do this by building a strong Facebook, Twitter, and Google plus etc. network. This means you have to participate in groups and pages as well as share your content links on relevant pages and groups. You can also build social back links by tying your Facebook and Twitter account to your blog.

4. Search Engine Updates Proof

Another reason you should consider social sharing is that using social shares to create a vibrant and active social media following allows a website to cut it’s over reliance on natural search traffic and depend mainly on its social following. For example, many websites that relied on natural search traffic before Google panda update took a hit when Google updated their algorithm. To diversify your traffic, you need to include social sharing buttons at the top and bottom of your content. Further, you should appeal to your visitors to hit the share button on your content.