Social signals are interactions with content on social networks, such as likes, shares, comments or follower counts. In SEO the question is whether they influence rankings in Google Search.
What has Google said?
Google has no documentation page on social signals. Statements by Google staff point the same way. Matt Cutts said in 2014 that Google does not use signals such as follower or like counts in its algorithm. John Mueller wrote in 2021 that Google does not use likes as a ranking factor. Both are reported by Search Engine Journal.
The indirect route via links
A widely shared post reaches more people, and some of them link to it from their own sites. Such links enter the link analysis that Google describes next to PageRank in its ranking systems overview. This connection is an assessment and hard to prove in a single case.
Example
An industry association publishes a study that gets several thousand reactions on LinkedIn. Two trade portals link to it in their articles. In Search Console and backlink tools, only those two links appear. The reactions do not.
Sources
- SEO Starter Guide – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
- Ranking systems guide – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
- Social signals as a ranking factor – Search Engine Journalsearchenginejournal.com
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