Does having "a presence" on "social media" help with your search engine ranking, and in particular with your ranking on Google..?
Does having "a presence" on "social media" send signals of "quality" to Google, how may Google see your site based upon your presence on social media..?
There is a forum here for youtube ( but it usually deals more with the technical side of video for youtube ), many here and elsewhere ,do not see youtube as being "social media"..I do..because it allows public interaction with others via the comments sections of channels, and youtube allows ( via the "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" icons ) visitors to the channels to express "approval" or "disapproval" of videos.
So, I'll compare a webmaster having a youtube presence, with a webmaster having a prescence on other "social media".
Your opinions and or experiences may be different ?
I would say that whether having "a presence" on "social media" can be of benefit to you directly on youtube, or any other "social media" or to your site in "Google's eyes" depends upon which "social media"..
Whether being "popular on social media" is a sign of "quality" ( I think that the mere fact of having "a presence" on certain social media is not a sign of "quality" in itself, frequently it is more a case of pandering to "the lowest common denominator , as I said in another thread [
webmasterworld.com...] ) a "sign" which Google may or may not take into consideration when ranking sites or pages..
If one takes for example facebook, twitter, instagram, reddit , pinterest , yes pinterest is , in my opinion "social media" ..and youtube
( It maybe worth nothing that although reddit is a huge forum board, it's subforums are often very subject ( niche ) specific. )
Many do not think of youtube as "social media", but I posit that it most definitely is ( it has all the attributes of a "social media" site, as I mentioned above ), and that furthermore it is the one that Google can crawl better and thus better judge the content of the comments and any links and approval or disapproval expressed there in than in any other "social media"*
But to return to the other "social media" sites that I mentioned previously..more about youtube later..
Firstly facebook..a vast amount of "noise" and a large amount of content is hidden from Google via the poster's settings..plus to read much of it requires that one sign in..also, very many "followers" on facebook are in fact bots, so ..as Google are fully aware of these factors, being "followed" or "liked" a lot on facebook will get Google's interest to a small degree in your site / product etc..
But having many "likes" on facebook, is not a gauge of "quality"..
Also any links out from facebook go through their redirect system at facebook, and thus Google's crawlers are blinded ( for now and probably the conceivable future ) to what posts at facebook are linking to..
But Google can "see" "buzzwords" or "trending" at facebook, especially if those are on pages which are linked to via outside sources that do not obscure the links..
However, one must also not forget that facebook and Google are rivals for the same ad spend, so whilst google ( to preserve Google's "cred" as a search engine ) has to mention facebook ( facebook is too big to for G to pretend it doesn't exist ) and take your prescence their ( if any ) into account, it is not in Google's interest to act as a funnel to facebook and have facebook get the ad clicks.
Google also know ( as we do ) that you can buy "likes" on facebook..
Secondly Twitter..vast amounts of noise..but very "instant" and "now"..
So..as Google likes "freshness", getting a lot of coverage and retweets and links to one's tweets can be good in Google's eyes..
But again, Google also know ( far better than we do ) that there are a vast amount of bots liking, tweeting, retweeting , following etc on twitter, so Google will probably take any twitter mentions re one's site with a large pinch of salt.
"Noise" about you or your site, or your subject on twitter is not likely to be taken by Google ( or anyone else ) to be a gauge of your site's "quality"..
Google are also in competition with with Twitter for the same ad spend..so..it is not in Google's interest to drive traffic to twitter any more than they have to to maintain "cred"..because again twitter is to big for Google to pretend it does not exist.
instagram..whether it is worth you having a presence on instagram depends on your market..followers on instagram tend to be much more "engaged" than those on facebook ( and there are fewer bots, for now )..Google knows this..
If you are using an instagram account to drive traffic and interest to your site ( although many instagrammers(<= may not be a word ) do not have sites, for them instagram is their "site" ) it can be useful.
But it will require work, and is not suitable for everyone or every site or product or service ..Depends on your target demographic.
reddit..is an "odd one"..I have seen some of the specific reddit boards drive huge amounts of traffic to many sites..the traffic tends to be very specific,( one could almost say "pre-qualified" ) and frequently those who will visit a site from reddit will return to reddit to comment upon what they found at the site..if the site is good, it can help, if the site is bad, the comments about the site may very well outrank the site in Google..so..be careful what you wish for..
pinterest..depends upon your niche..it is behind a login ( although they allow Google to index much more than a non logged in visitor can see ) Google ranks it very highly despite the "login wall" and the huge amount of stolen imagery there.However, if you have good imagery , and if you watermark it with your site name, and it gets repinned it can drive you traffic, but that traffic will try to take your images if you let them..so ( if you let them ) make sure any images on your site are also watermarked with the name of your site..
Getting repinned on pinterest is no guide to the quality of your site..but.. people rarely repin bad images, if your target demographic is the same as the pinterest one, and you are selling products that they will repin, and you have good watermarked images...pinterest can be good for you.. as Google "loves" pinterest.
( Now for anyone who is still with me all the way down here :) )
Youtube..despite the vast amounts of clickbait and viral and copied stuff on youtube, it is IMO and IME the best of the social media to be active in..
Why ? ..Because Google can see everything that goes on in youtube..it is their property..they adore it..it is all over normal Google SERPs too.
Many videos on youtube get thousands, tens , of thousands, millions, tens of millions of views, each view has the potential for the publisher of the video to be paid ( if the viewer doesn't ' "skip"..and skipping" can be blocked ) ..many ads on youtube can be avoided, but not all of them, some are "embedded"..
The comments on youtube are entirely parsable ( <= may not be a word, or maybe misspelled ) by Google..
Thus Google can tell who "likes" or "dislikes" the content of any video, and, despite it being "early days" for AI, Google can certainly pick out comments that say how good ( or bad ) the video is ..
If your videos are good ( for a given definition of "good") then Google know it from parsing the comments, Google also know "how popular" the videos are, they also know the number of views ( and ad views ) that the videos each "rack up"..
Many "youtubers" also have links to their own sites*, either in their descriptions, or in their "channels", or in their videos ( usually by mentioning the website or in an overlay text )..many also link to , or mention their Patreon account where they can be "supported"..Youtube is easily available on phones and tablets and desktops and on many TVs..and looks better on mobile devices, ( is easier to browse, is far more "sticky" than many websites..except maybe facebook ) than many websites and ...no coding required..
*These links are not considered by Google to be "spamming"
Youtube is the ideal platform for affiliates ( nod to mrsavage here :)..shift to youtube )..It takes work, but can work very well, either to drive traffic to a site, or, as a way to earn money in itself..and, something which happens a lot on youtube , but which happens rarely elsewhere.. youtubers who are competitors will frequently mention each other, as "influences" or "inspirations"..
The commenters will mention other youtube videos too..and sometimes link to them, or link out to other websites ( maybe yours ) or mention other websites ( maybe yours ) their comments can drive traffic to you..
Yes, your videos will probably be copied almost immediately, but ..being a big company ( brand ) "youtuber" that copies another video does not mean that it gets to be top of the list..unlike what can happen when a big site with lots of links copies your content and outranks you with it in SERPs
Google do not "police" youtube for "copied" content on you tube ( by which I mean content or ideas or "how tos" copied from other youtube videos )..They do however "police" for content that belongs to the movie and record studios that is used without permission, but a huge amount gets through..
Bear in mind ..If your website that your youtube videos link to is not "quality" ( for example ..if it looks abandoned because the last time you touched the "about us" page was many years ago..or it reads like all the other "we have many fortune 500 clients" generic sites do, etc )...the comments on your videos from those who have visited it will probably mention that..which will not send the signals that you want to either visitors, commenters, and indirectly to Google.
Google loves freshness ..if it looks like you abandoned your site , or your channel, Google will abandon it too ..the only thing it will rank for is it's own name...But if your channel and your website is "quality", some comments will mention that too..and you'll get more views, more traffic to your site..which will lift your site in non youtube SERPS as well as in youtube SERPS..
Note..I don't count G+ as "social media" worth using to acquire traffic or send signals to search engines via it because it does not get enough traffic itself..Google know this too ( they'll probably quietly fold it one day ) and so I'd be very surprised if they counted mentions links or "likes" ( plus or + "whatevers" ) on there towards anything..
Especially as the SEO industry jumped on G+ and Google know that the place is now heavily polluted by SEO people and marketing people self promoting or promoting their friends in that hope that they'll get some clients or customers back.
A few things that I have observed about what constitutes "good" videos on youtube..
** A "good" video ( in my experience on youtube ) is one that does not have the kind of irritating music that fills the comments section with complaints about "the thrash metal music blasting"..
A good video is one that is not speeded up so much as to be seizure inducing, a good video, if it has "voice over", should have the speaker speaking clearly, and not too rapidly , if your speaking voice is not good, get someone else to do the voice over not all videos need any sound at all )..
A good video is not necessarily one in which the presenter ( male or female ) is attractive and on camera..although , as Cheech and Chong" said when "advising".."it helps to..." So maybe get someone else to be "on camera"..
But very many videos work and get very many views and drive huge amounts of traffic with no more than a pair of hands in shot..and sometimes not even hands are required..make it visually interesting..
A good video on youtube can drive a lot of interest to your site or your product or service, may make you some ad or affiliate money, may make you some money via a Patreon account..and because youtube has interactive comments ( and is therefore in my opinion "social media") the comments sections can drive you traffic, and can send all the right signals to Google about your products or services, and your site.
youtube is already huge, and only going to get bigger, the under 30s spend most of their free time ( and some of them spend much of their work time ) on either it or instagram via their phones..
