Social Signals still relevant?

They are always be relevant... No doubt in that

Zandamonium said:

Yes, I know this is not scientific proof. I said "some test results", this is SEO, everything is theory / best guess. There are too many variables, which cannot be controlled by anyone other than google. What I provided was something to back up my statement.

How did you come to this conclusion?

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I agree with you the only feasible way to "reverse-engineer" the algorithms is by doing these kinds of tests, but at the same time they're pretty much worthless as proof. Especially when it's coming from sketchy second-hand source like that.

Furthermore these experiments aren't needed because anyone actually following Google closely (as any serious SEO should do) knows that it's already public record that social signals are not a ranking factor.

For example, here is a clip of Matt Cutts stating at last year's SMX that Google +'s are not a ranking factor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qglAm8QiX5k&t=38m34s

Unfortunately he didn't really spill the beans on other social platforms. However, John Mueller said in a Google Hangout video a couple of weeks explicitly stated that social signals are not a ranking factor. BOOM.

rogerke said:

I agree with you the only feasible way to "reverse-engineer" the algorithms is by doing these kinds of tests, but at the same time they're pretty much worthless as proof. Especially when it's coming from sketchy second-hand source like that.

Furthermore these experiments aren't needed because anyone actually following Google closely (as any serious SEO should do) knows that it's already public record that social signals are not a ranking factor.

For example, here is a clip of Matt Cutts stating at last year's SMX that Google +'s are not a ranking factor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qglAm8QiX5k&t=38m34s

Unfortunately he didn't really spill the beans on other social platforms. However, John Mueller said in a Google Hangout video a couple of weeks explicitly stated that social signals are not a ranking factor. BOOM.

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Lets agree to disagree, since we can't know for sure. I do follow google closely and do listen to John Mueller's hangouts from time to time, but I don't trust everything I hear from Google and their cryptic in what they tell us anyway.

Social signals is till relevant both for exposure and for ranking, however for ranking they are not the end all be all like way back in 2013 where you could rank a site with only social signals

TrollDad said:

Hi Tony, I always like to see you post something about PBN, do you rebuild old content or use fresh article when building PBN?

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Combination of both, but in the majority of cases we use new content.

Sometimes we use a-grade hand written 5-star content, other times we use cheap, spun rubbish.

Okay, thanks for all the replies

I would summarize that is is really necessary to use social signals but not exclusive. always build some links with it, right?

I NEVER use social signals and would love to see a test that proves they work.

The ONLY reason I would use them is to 'justify' link building en masse. Basically to help hide and avoid filters.
But to directly benefit? NEVER SEEN IT.

But the masses believe social signals and quality content rank sites lol

B

jmcgoose said:

Don't underestimate them. I think they can.

http://www.webpronews.com/google-bing-identity-like-farms-2011-09

That was almost 4 years ago and they have gotten better.

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No they can't.... Test it yourself instead of taking the opinion of one of the Google mouthpieces, i am still doing mass liking and tweets over a small network of fake accounts, nothing big about 500 twitter accounts and some facebook pages, there all fake and i use them to justify my links, and i rank very well.

I have bought "real" likes and tweets for similar projects (being in the niche ticket business makes it that most if your competition is of the same strength) and i ranked just as fast and just as good, so that tels me that Google can't see the difference, again don't belief me.... do yourself a favor and test this shit yourself.

People should stop listening to Google mouthpieces like SEW, MOZ, SEOroundtable and all those other bloggers and forum posters (yes also like me) that pretend to be in the "know" Always assume that the're not!

I will give one more piece of advice that someone gave me when i was really struggling to make a dime, setup your own little SEO lab grab some methods, do small tests, twist it and test it again, twist it and test it again and when you find a gem, (and you will if you keep at it) milk it for everything you got, that advice was gold to me, i hope it is for someone else here.

ALWAYS BE TESTING!!!!!

Social signals just like the name, just the signals. Backlinks still the way to go if you want to rank sites.

I always fire some social signals before building links. Works for me, now go do your own tests.

I've watched a lot of tutorials about back linking. I still don't understand on how to do it in safer method. All of them refers to Social Media Signals, not just ordinary social signal but from a relevant type of account (Active).

fc-dh said:

LOL like Google can tell the difference between real and fake likes/tweets (no they can't) do you have any idea how much extra computer power that will cost to figure that out, you do understand that Google is a business and if apparently very good at making people belief it can see/know everything you do, they can't..... Not by a long shot, and people who do real test know they can't.

So yes social signal are important to justify your backlinks, no google cant see the difference between real and fake tweets/likes, don't belief me test it yourself and see if there is any difference in ranking with fake or real social signals.

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It's very easy to see the difference and the bots can do - what are the chances to get 1000 likes/day to page with 100 visitors/day - 0,01%. Have the same chance to get 100 natural links to fresh site.

My tests shows that when the social account associated with the site improving, the site's SERP improving too. So this are social signals too.
It's normal content with social activity (shares/likes/tweets/pins) to be good, so this should be factor. If the social signals are big ranking factor, than the most competitive niche will be fun/humor, because they always gets mote shares/likes....