Social Networking Links May Directly Affect Rankings

An interesting discussion has been active in the SEO community for about a week regarding a possible Google algorithm update pertaining to links from social networking sites being used in rankings. The discussion began on Webmaster World, where a number of SEOs noticed a shift in rankings with both visibility increases and decreases of top-performing keyword phrases. Essentially, after looking at backlink data, it was determined that “Pages which have strong backlinks and social networking usage have risen 10% on average.  Pages which have strong backlinks and no social networking usage have dropped 20% on average. Pages which have weak or no backlinks but have some social networking usage have risen 5% on average.” Traditionally it has been known that backlinks from social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook do not flow PageRank because of their nofollow attribute. While this is not validated by Google as of yet, it should reinforce the importance of your brand’s involvement in social media. Work with your SEO and Social Media teams to strategize a social media plan that will augment SEO and increase your site traffic.