What are social media links and are they worth adding?

Remember Link Building is like handing out a business card so if done properly link building is essential.

The largest social media on the planet is the ubiquitous Facebook. The problem with social media is that it is largely not owned by the same companies that own the search engines. As a result getting links from social media sources like Facebook is not seen by Google as equal to links from actual websites. The other issue Google seems to have is that it is too simple for someone to simply click ‘Like’ and a link is gained.

That said Facebook is part of the landscape and despite the much anticipated arrival of Google+ it is not likely to disappear in a great hurry given an entire generation has grown up with Harry Potter and Facebook.

So do you need to add social media links to your web site?

In short … YES!!

1. Facebook allows business to market to groups of like minded people and friends of those like minded people. So it can be very targeted if that group all share common interests.
2. Other channels allow you to ‘scatter gun’ your marketing across multiple channels with the flick of a button e.g. the little share button below.

At this pont in time the search engines may not wish to rate social links as highly as traditional website links but they are not penalising too many links from social media sources. In addition social media tends to go ‘viral’ far more readily than traditional web based marketing.

The other cynical view point is that Google have just bought Motorola to perhaps in part due to alleged patent infringement issues with Apple or perhaps to give them greater access to the social media market. When one considers that Android now dominates the mobile operating system scene now with almost 50% and given Google+ is all about linking every form of Internet communication including social media (their version of Facebook is called Buzz). It is little wonder they want to keep social media important in the linking equation. Otherwise how can they sell advertising through Buzz and therefore challenge Facebook (cynical I know).

Naturally enough there is a free tool I have found that does most of the hard work for you!