SEO Quick Tip: Add Social Buttons

Social is becoming more and more prominent in the search engines.  Bing has a partnership with Facebook and Google has Google+, but also tracks public information from Facebook.  Both also pay attention to Twitter as well as certain social bookmark sites.  In both cases the social signals affect search rankings.

The two primary ways social signals effect search rankings are:

1. Public social shares can affect the general rankings.  The more people sharing (or tweeting or bookmarking) your website’s content, the better your rankings.  (of course there are many other signals being looked at other than social)
2. When people are logged into Google+ for Google or Facebook for Bing the search results are personalized, in part, based on social signals.  So, if someone liked your content, your content is more likely to show up in their search results.  If someone’s friends liked your content, then your content is more likely to show up in that person’s search results.  The more of their friends that liked/shared your content, the better the chance of ranking well.

Of course, when people like and share your content, you also have the direct social benefits of their friends seeing the content that they share.

Note: I’m including Pinterest in this post because it’s one of the fastest growing social networking sites right now.  I haven’t seen any evidence that Pinterest directly affects search rankings right now, but people do share from Pinterest to Facebook and Twitter (which do affect rankings) and if Pinterest continues it’s growth rate, the search engines might start looking to use them as a direct signal.

Add Social Buttons:
So, with all the benefits social, why not make it as easy as possible for people to share your content.  Add social buttons to your website.  If you have a WordPress site, adding social buttons is as easy as installing a new plugin.  There are several good plugins available, some for just one button and others for many social buttons.  Google, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest all have their own individual buttons available:

•  Google+
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest (scroll past the first browser addon)

There are also services available that provide several social buttons all in one widget.  Below are the three most popular:

• LockerzShare
• AddThis
• ShareThis

In most cases, you should be able to add social buttons to your site very quickly.  So, stop what you were doing, take 15 minutes, and go add the buttons to your site.

tick – tock – tick – tock…

Great!  Now that you’ve done that let us know in the comments below what you added to your website.  Also, remember, the more interesting your content, the it will be liked and shared.

Share with us:

• What social buttons do you have on your website?

Kurt Steinbrueck

OurChurch.Com Director of Marketing Services

Kurt serves as OurChurch.Com’s Director of Marketing Services, bringing over 20 years of expertise in search marketing, and has developed numerous marketing services and served hundreds of churches, schools, ministries, and businesses.

He has authored more than 500 articles on the subject, contributing to platforms like the Christian SEO Guys blog and Church Marketing University, and is an active participant on LocalSearchForum.com.

In addition to his professional accomplishments, Kurt is an ordained minister, serving as pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Wesley Chapel, FL, demonstrating his commitment to both faith and community. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s Degree from Georgia Southern University. He also holds a Specific Ministry Pastor Certificate and a General Pastor Certificate from Concordia Seminary.