It’s Day 5 of Rankings Week and today we’re going to talk about social network ranking. Social network ranking refers to using social networks to help your web pages rank. Social networks like Facebook are more instrumental in determining how your web page ranks than ever because search engines are placing more of the burden on ranking pages on the actually users of the search engines. You can call it a cop out, but relying on users to do the ranking for you is a lot easier, not to mention it’s effective. How does social network ranking work to help your rankings, though?
Social Network Ranking
You’ve likely seen the Facebook “Like” button before. Not just on Facebook, but you’ve likely seen it on web pages themselves, as well. You can add the Facebook Like button to your site so that it appears on every single new page/post you make.
Then, when someone is signed into Facebook, comes to your post/page, they can click on that Like button on your site. Search engines recognize that someone “liked” your content, and this is the most unsoiled proof because it’s an actual person giving their first hand thumbs up to vouch for the quality of the content, hence the emphasis which search engines are beginning to place on Facebook likes, Twitter’s retweets, LinkedIn’s share button, etc.
Success through social network ranking is dependent on two key components.
First, you’ve got to be creating content which people will want to share through social networks. Content which is unique, entertaining, informative, or some amalgamation of all of these is the goal.
Second, you’ve got to make it easy to share your content. This means making these buttons easily visible and accessible to your audience. Put them at the top or bottom of your content, or put them on both sides. Your reader shouldn’t have to hunt for your social buttons; assume that you’re dealing with the laziest people in the world and set it up accordingly.
Hopefully there won’t be too many more of these networks to worry about as I know many webmaster’s share sections are starting to get pretty crowded.
Note that you don’t have to have a Facebook fan page to add the Facebook “like” button to your site, but I’ve put together a full on post for how to make a page on Facebook which includes how to add the Facebook like button to your site in addition to giving a number of tips on how to use Facebook for marketing purposes.