2012 Ranking Factors

[RPIDigital]

Hey!

Anyone know if there will be '2012 Ranking Factors' as with the 2011 resource?

If not, could anyone help solve an argument (within the team!) about the contribution of Social to a good Inbound/SEO campaign? If you could put a percentage figure onto the importance of Social for a successful campaign (B2C) what would you go for?

Thanks for your help eveyrone!

Matt.

[DougRoberts]

HI Matt. I don't know when the next Ranking Factors review is likely to be. It's described on the "Learn SEO" page as "biennial" so we may not get an update until next year.

What I would say though is that you shouldn't confuse the contribution of Social to Search Rankings and the contribution of Social to a good Inbound/SEO campaign.

I would say that while the influence of Social is increasing, it's still only a minor ranking factor (although this can depend on the market/niche). Of course, you can get indirect benefits by sharing content that then creates links etc)

Google's SPYW obviously gives social and personalised search, a bump.

The main benefit of social is the ability to extend your reach. The more reach you have the easier it's going to be to get your message across to potential customers. If you're going to sell anything you need to be where your customers are. Of course, the value of this depends on whether your customers are (or are likely to be) using social.

If you've got the time/resources/budget etc, then you might as well get started building your social presence, but I would say that you need to think about your goals, and your customers. Understand what's important, put a plan together and try to do it in a controlled, consistent manner! As well as opportunities, there are also risks!

[info_8-digital.com]

Hi Doug,

Would you say that since the latest algo changes Google has rolled out would you say that you're opinion has changed in regards to  social signals being a minor ranking factor?

Thanks,

John

[DougRoberts]

I don't think I've changed my mind yet!

I still think it's pretty hard for search engines to build full picture of social authority by which to rank sites.

You need to take into account the topic/niche etc through. Lots of niches have little if any social interactions.

If you're got newsworthy content about a hot story of the moment then social interactions may help you get noticed.

I wouldn't avoid building social though as I'm sure social will play more of a role in future and it's not just about search engines - if you can create a buzz about you, your business or your products/services on social then you'll get visitors (and some links!)

I don't think links aren't going to go away any time soon.

[OscarSE]

Good answer Doug!

Regarding the Ranking Factors, is there an ETA yet?

[OscarSE]

Good answer Doug!

Regarding the Ranking Factors, is there an ETA yet?