Backlinking to Your WordPress Blog

Does Google pay any attention to backlinks you have on social media sites like Twitter or Facebook? Are they a factor in the ranking of your WordPress Blog or other type of site? Backlinking is a simple formula of getting links on other people’s websites to link back to your site. The more sites that link back to you the more Google will view your as as an authority site.

Backlinking your WordPress Blog

Many SEO experts say that Page Level Link Metrics and Domain Level Link Authority are two of the most important factors. You need to get a lot of sites linking to you. And, when you develop these links you need to make sure that you use the anchor text that uses the terms you are trying to get ranked for.

But who has the time to do all of this backlinking or can afford to pay someone to do the work?

One thing Google is now looking at relate to the links you have and the popularity you have with social sites. Social circle marketing and linking is now an important factor in your ranking.

Future SEO Search Criteria

For example, Google was asked (I have no idea who it was):

Q – If an article is retweeted or referenced much in Twitter, do you count that as a signal outside of finding and non-followed links that may naturally result from it?

A – Yes, we do use it as a signal. It is used as a signl in our organic and news rankings.

Why does this matter to you. Simply stated – if you have an article or post that gets mentioned a lot in the social media circles, Google does notice and uses this information to rank your site. This means your site could rank higher with Google.

The second question was:

Q – Do you track links shared with Facebook, either through personal walls or fan pages?

A – We treat links shared on Facebook fan pages the same as we treat tweeted links. We have no personal wall data from Facebook.

Between these two questions we know that Google is looking at and is attaching importance to social media sites. The quality of links is important and it is thus imperative that you get quality backlinks from the authority social and network sharing sites.

Here is a survey completed by over 130 SEO experts. You will notice that Social Signals at a Page Level ranks second, just behind the Sites Perceived Value to it’s Users.

SEO Ranking Criteria

So, please make a concentrated effort to get links on social media and sharing sites. And, despite what some guru skeptics say – Backlinking Still Matters!

As a strategy, try to do one social media site every day, that should make your efforts manageable.

What are your thoughts?