When explaining the importance of combining a social media and an SEO strategy, I tend to refer back to a Comscore study that is now three years old: Consumers exposed to both social media and paid search are 2.8x more likely to search for that brand’s products than those exposed to paid search alone.
Now research by Search Metrics, demonstrates the link between social media and organic search results. Four of the top five factors relating to a high Google rank involve Facebook, with Tweets around a site being the sixth most influential factor.
Not included in the graph, because SearchMetrics feels the figure should be treated with caution is Google+. However, a Google+ presence would have the highest correlation with a high search ranking, were it to be included.
This comes as more and more money is being poured into search marketing. Though Forrester tells us that the growth in paid search is due to decrease from +31% to +19% this year, and SEO from 12% to 11%, the fact is the sector is still growing.
Original post: http://liesdamnedliesstatistics.com/2012/06/social-media-shares-indicate-a-high-google-ranking.html
