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Why Being “Big” On Twitter and Facebook Is Important To Google

Written by - 20 Comments
Categories: Facebook, Social Media, twitter

The complex algorithms and mathematical calculations that Google applies to its search engine technology are becoming more social as the search giant continues to work hard at being relevant in a fast moving web.

It started with Google taking a feed from Twitter so it could start providing Twitter search results as “updates’ on Google and has recently been further refined.

Twitter on Google

Danny Sullivan from Search Engine Land recently asked Google and Bing some questions on how they use social data from Twitter and Facebook. In particular, he wanted to know how that data influenced regular web search results. As we all know being found on the first page of Google in search results can drive a lot of traffic to your blog and website and research shows that nearly 90% of all clicks on links on Google come from being on the first page of Google.

Question 1: If an article is retweeted or referenced much in Twitter, do you count that as a signal that improves search ranking?

Bing: We do look at the social authority of a user. We look at how many people you follow, how many follow you, and this can add a little weight to a listing in regular search results. It carries much more weight in Bing Social Search, where tweets from more authoritative people will flow to the top

Question 2: Do you try to calculate the authority of someone who tweets that might be assigned to their Twitter page. Do you try to “know,” if you will, who they are?

Google: Yes we do compute and use author quality.

Question 3: Do you calculate whether a link should carry more weight depending on the person who tweets it?

Google: Yes we do use this as a signal…. but it is currently only used in limited situations in ordinary web search.

Question 4: Do you track links shared within Facebook, either through personal walls or fan pages?

Bing: Yes. We look at links shared that are marked as “Everyone,” and links shared from Facebook fan pages.

Google: We treat links shared on Facebook fan pages the same as we treat tweeted links. We have no personal wall data from Facebook.

Question 5: Do you try to calculate the authority of someone on Facebook, either say via their personal wall or their fan page.

Google: The treatment is the same as for Twitter where we do compute and use author quality.

In essence then Google and Bing do use your and others “social authority” on Twitter and Facebook to provide weight to search engine results and I suspect that this will increase significantly over time as the social web grows.

So maybe it time for you to start building your Facebook and Twitter authority?


  • http://blog.esimplestudios.com Gabriele Maidecchi

    “Social search” is something many predict (with reason) will have more and more weight over time. It’s only natural, as the shift is happening from static, God’s-given content to real-time conversations through different kind of influence and authority.
    After all, Facebook is right now used as a search engine in many situations, the interactions from “social” and “search” elements is getting more and more vital for brands and for people.

  • http://blogginggenius.net Pete Carr

    Hi Jeff,
    I think the top search engines have been quite slow to pick up on social media. I am sure that within the next year or so, maybe even months, we will start to see social media content on page 1 of Google.
    I suppose the big problem for the SERPS is the fast paced movement of sites like Twitter and Facebook, must be a nightmare to track. They cannot ignore them though.
    Pete

  • http://jamesmishreki.tumblr.com/ James Mishreki

    Interesting. I wonder if one is ranked as having higher authority depending on the ratio of follwers:following on Twitter, since everyone knows you can just use Twitter Follower!

    Thanks.

  • http://www.scottmoroney.com Scott Moroney

    I would guess the ranking is related to volume, activity back and forth, sharing of links and overall how “social” your actions are over time. Think about how many top page results are blogs on a topic? The activity on a blog is so much higher than a standard page in some cases.

  • http://www.myqute.com kelly

    Nice post Jeff! I think being big on twitter means having more than 100,000 followers. On facebook, it means having more than 5000 friends. Just my perception although I may be wrong.

    The important question may be,”How to be BIG when you are really one person.” :)

    • http://www.facebook.com/stuartwooster Stuart Wooster

      My advice on how to be big is:

      1. Produce valuable content
      2. Engage with as many people as you can

      That is how I built up my following at @iLoveTrance

  • http://www.itsmyurls.com/BeckyCortino Becky Cortino

    Interesting insight!

  • http://twitter.com/gthead Gavin Head

    I believe this is just the beginning of the search engines’ adjust to include the authority of the social media user. I see Google and Bing, and eventually the rest of the search engines, getting more sophisticated with this in time. They will keep adjusting their algorithms to so that search results are a more accurate reflection of social media user’s authority and that what is being tweeted, updated, shared and linked is truly relevant to the search terms. It’s just a matter of them collecting enough data and getting enough experience. But the bottom line here is that social media activity and authority are gaining in importance on the search engines and will continue to do so.

  • http://electionbuddy.com Andy Schichter

    Glad to see that search engines are picking up on the importance of social media.

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  • http://twitter.com/Brooks_Johnny Johnny Brooks

    In the real estate business, you better join social media or get out of the business.

  • http://twitter.com/Brooks_Johnny Johnny Brooks

    Social media is the life blood for the real estate industry. Either join the crowd or you might have to find another job.

  • Anonymous

    I did not know this. thanx

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  • cve4me

    Thank you for this post information. Gradually even I am gaining more in the knowledge application area – then utilizing where I can that knowledge.

  • http://twitter.com/StCyrlyMe2 Reda StCyr

    There are many people on twitter who purchase followers I’m asked daily about getting more followers that way, which I don’t want to do because I only want people following me because they like what I have to say an want 2 follow me and I’m not interested in promotional ad sites I am on twitter for strictly political reasons That’s who I follow an all that I’m interested in following me!

  • Patrick Williams

    Great stuff… I have also noticed that having a quality google+ portfolio and implementing rel=author practices in all of your posts, really can give your site and your brand a boost online.

  • http://jeffbullas.com Jeff Bullas

    Social authority is indicated by the number of social indicators or signals such as the number or retweets, likes, comments, Twitter followers, LinkedIn shares etc. The more of these the more social authority or social proof you have.