Why Social Signals Matter for SEO (It’s Not a Ranking Factor)

Social signals are all the engagement metrics (e.g., the number of likes, shares, or comments) your content gets on social media. They generally reflect how visible and engaging your content on social media is, making them a good indicator of your content distribution success.

If you’ve been in SEO for a while or you’ve already done some research, you’ve probably come across claims that social signals are an SEO ranking factor. That’s not true, at least according to multiple statements from Google’s spokespeople.

But even though Google doesn’t take social signals into account in its ranking algorithms, it still makes sense to keep improving them. In fact, many businesses can significantly improve their SEO by putting more effort into their social media content distribution.

Want to make more sense of it and learn how you can improve your social signals to help your SEO? Keep on reading.

We should first discuss the reasons why social signals aren’t a ranking factor. Of course, the most straightforward ones are claims like this one from John Mueller, Google’s search advocate:

Even though it’s quite an old video already, it’s the most straight-to-the-point statement regarding social signals and SEO I could find from Google’s spokespeople. There have been many other claims implying the same sincethen.

Now, here’s my take on why social signals don’t make sense as a ranking factor.

First of all, social media is full of spam and...