Search Engine Optimisation Services

Following the much publicised recent changes in the Google search algorithm (known as the 'Panda' update) there has been a lot of discussion as to just what the biggest influences on the SERPs currently are. Recent research by SEOMOZ suggests that social signals, such as Facebook shares and likes, retweets on Twitter etc have a much bigger impact on ranking results than they did previously.

A similar study in June 2010 showed that .com domains with exact match addresses and the number of linking domains had the biggest impact on the results. Now, as of late March 2011, the Facebook 'share' appears to have the biggest impact on the rankings, outranking even Twitter in the impact it has on the results. The study has the following takeaways:

1 - Social Signals Appear To Correlate Well With Strong Rankings
Pages which earn a large number of tweets and shares correlate well with earning links, and send direct traffic on their own.

2 - The Testing Of Facebook Shares Is an Urgent Matter
The impact of a viral Tweet has been well established, it is imperative to test this with Facebook link shares.

3 - New Strategies Are Required To Achieve Facebook Shares
Shares are not easy to come by, and some brainstorming is required to find new ways of getting people to share your link

4 - Shares Appear More Valuable Than Likes
A like on a link will appear on a user’s wall, whereas a share is much more likely to be in the 'Top News' landing page of a user’s friends and family. This should, in theory, allow more people to view and then share your link.

5 - Twitter Might Not Be As Powerful As Previously Thought
The data showed that the presence of tweets in the rankings was, compared to Facebook, a lot less than anticipated. This requires further analysis and testing.

The full report can be found here, this article was by EQTR SEO, Glasgow.

All the talk over the past few weeks in our SEO Glasgow HQ has been about the recent 'Panda' algorithm update which intended to remove low value or spam sites from the higher end of the organic search results. However one thing which has become apparent is that Google is now incorporating user feedback and social signals much more prominently in its algorithm, and this brings with it another area for SEO teams to consider. This won't come as a shock to those who have been monitoring the recent statements from the company, and the impending introduction of the '+1' button and the option for users to remove sites from their results will help give Google feedback on what sites users are finding value in.

The exact amount of influence these factors will have remains to be seen, though I have no doubt there are countless SEO'ers running their own tests at the moment to see which of these changes is most prominent and we will have a clearer picture in the not too distant future. It will also remain to be seen just how quickly the less ethical side of the SEO world find a way to manipulate these features for their on gain. It's already an interesting time, and the next few months should prove fascinating as we start to see the outcome of the research being done.