News
In the biggest study of its kind, we have found that there is strong correlation between the amount of tweets about a URL, and its Google ranking.
Key Stats
- Study shows that URLs receive a significant boost in Google rankings when they are shared on Twitter
- The effects of this boost seem to level out at around 50 tweets, and the subsequent benefit of gaining additional tweets is minimal until around 5,000 tweets
- After 5,000 tweets the average ranking of URLs improves considerably
- URLs receiving over 7,500 tweets almost always rank inside the top 5 results
- Average rankings are heavily correlated to the number of tweets about each URL
Impact on brands
Brands need to be encouraging users to retweet links to commercial pages as part of their social media campaigns, in order to take advantage of the increased rankings that this strategy can deliver.
SEO benefits can help tie social media activity to revenue figures and encourage further investment in the channel.
About the study
Using our own award-winning Twitter petition site; Twitition.com we conducted a study into the effect of tweets on rankings in Google (no other search engines were used for this study). This is the biggest study of tweets conducted anywhere in the world, and we think it’s produced some really interesting results.
When someone signs a Twitition a tweet is sent from their account, thus starting the viral effect; so in this instance, we are making the assumption that the number of signatures equals the number of tweets about that specific URL.
Our study was just for the Twitition website, and similar conclusions may not be drawn for all websites, however with over 1.4 million Twitter followers and 7.6m signatures across 198,000 Twititions; Twitition is the perfect utility for this research.
Objective
With over 140 million active users, Twitter has well and truly taken the social media world by storm, and using it has become an integral function of everyday life.
For years, the SEO industry has questioned the value of tweets in rankings, and whether the number of tweets about your website has an impact on your rankings; but nobody has ever undertaken a meaningful study over a substantial amount of tweets to try and find out the answer; until now.
Our aim was simple, to find out whether the amount of tweets to a specific URL affected its ranking on Google.
What we did
We collected our data from Twitition on 28th February 2012, which included the Twitition short URL; the Twitition’s name and title; the Twitition’s start date; and the Twitition’s number of signatures (tweets).
There were a number of Twititions which were not included in the study, as some had little or no signatures, and we didn’t want the data to become overwhelmingly skewed with ‘lower end’ tweets.
Our sample size consisted of 8,528 Twititions – a large enough sample to provide statistically significant and mathematically sound results.
We divided the Twititions into the three following groups:
- 1-99 tweets (5,322 Twititions)
- 100-499 tweets (1,382 Twititions)
- 500+ tweets (1,824 Twititions)
We then checked the rankings by removing any special characters from the Twitition titles, taking the first four words from the new Twitition title, and checking the rank for Twitition.com from that one to four word phrase in Google.
For example, a Twitition with the title ‘We want Justin Bieber in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil!’ became ‘We want Justin Bieber’.
We gathered the rankings on 6th April 2012, and collated the results into graphs to reflect any correlation.
Twititions with 1-99 signatures (tweets)
Between 1-50 tweets provided a significant rankings boost, as shown in the graph below.
Twititions with 100 – 499 signatures (tweets)
The boost levels out and doesn’t seem to provide a major additional increase.
Twititions with 500+ signatures (tweets)
- This provided the most interesting results
- There is a much stronger, positive correlation
- The average ranking positions were as follows:
| Number of tweets | Average Google ranking |
|---|---|
| Over 500 | 46 |
| Over 1,000 | 41 |
| Over 5,000 | 31 |
| Over 7,500 | 5 |
The graph below shows the Google ranking positions for URLs over 1,000 tweets. This shows that from 7,500 tweets, you’re almost guaranteed first page rankings.
Summary
What our findings show, is that tweets appear to provide a rankings boost up to 50 tweets, but anything from 50 to 1,000 tweets, don’t really affect the ranking any further.
From 1,000 tweets onwards however, a URL’s ranking is significantly boosted, and URLs with over 7,500 tweets rank on the first page.
Of course, there are so many factors at play here; URLs with lots of tweets are more likely to have media coverage and have links from blogs and news sites, and also many of the Twititions with over 1,000 signatures will be specialised and so will rank higher as they’re in a small niche; but our study has conclusively found that there is a correlation between number of tweets and Google rankings.
Whilst you can never prove anything in the unpredictable world of SEO, our study is the biggest of its kind, and we have succeeded in what we set out to do.
Obviously, correlation does not imply causation and we are fully aware that sometimes URLs which receive a lot of tweets also gain attention from bloggers and other websites, and it might be these links that are influencing rankings. It would be impossible to completely isolate these factors in the study.
What this means for brands
Most brands understand the need for social engagement but relatively few have plans in place to actively encourage users to share links to their primary commercial pages. Now that the correlation between tweets and rankings has been demonstrated, we are recommending that brands develop strategies to build more social engagement using tactics such as ‘retweet to enter’ style competitions, and other innovative social media ideas designed to encourage customers and fans to share commercial pages and help improve rankings.
Feel free to download the data sample yourself to take a look at the figures, and please get in touch if you want to find out more about the study, or if you want some advice on how to alter your social or search strategy to incorporate these findings.
After training the SEO teams of some of the biggest brands in the UK, we’ve now launched a one-day Advanced SEO training course for in-house SEO teams and Search Marketers, offering industry-leading skills and techniques designed for achieving top rankings, no matter how competitive the sector.
We keep our clients at the top of their game when a search algorithm or filter is updated, and we let them know exactly what to do to ensure their rankings aren’t affected.
In these sessions, we’ll share with you our insights, tips and tricks on how we achieve this.
It’s just a few days until Branded3’s Head of Search and Social Media Manager take to the stage at Internet World to deliver some expert presentations on their SEO and Social Media thoughts.
Search expert Tim Grice will be offering his advice on future SEO strategies and the recent Google algorithm change; and social guru Stephen Creek will be presenting some revolutionary findings which are sure to prove a talking point in the industry.
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We’re kicking off the award season in style here at Branded3 with a prestigious Insider Yorkshire Digital and Technology Award nomination for our talented web design team.
We’ve had the pleasure of working on some great projects in the last year, and our design team have had the chance to truly showcase their creative talent, and we’re thrilled that this has been recognised.
The design and development experts at Branded3 have launched a fantastic newly-designed free reminder service for Interflora, focusing heavily on usability and user experience.
Dedicated to reminding users of upcoming birthdays, anniversaries and other special dates; myReminders will not only boost Interflora’s conversion rates, but offers customers a valuable service.
If you’re heading down to the popular TFM&A event in London tomorrow, you’ll find a few of Branded3’s SEO and social media experts in the VIP area, ready to offer you any advice you may have regarding your digital needs.
Branded3 CEO Vin Chinnaraja and Search Expert Matthew Jackson will be around all day at the VIP area, whilst Head of Search Tim Grice will be taking to the stage twice tomorrow at Earls Court 2 to deliver expert SEO and social media talks.
A few of our SEO and social media experts will be available next Tuesday at the TFM&A event in London to offer insights and tips on your strategies and campaigns.
We’re sponsoring the Search Marketing Theatre this year, where our very own Head of Search Tim Grice will be taking to the stage at Earls Court 2 to discuss SEO and social media strategies over the coming months.
Members of the Branded3 SEO Team and the Social Team are speaking at some of the industry’s biggest and most influential events over the coming months.
If you’d like to learn a bit more about how to implement a successful SEO campaign, improving your link-building strategy, or using social media for SEO benefits; check out the some of the events below and book your place:
Head over to Twitition, our Twitter-based petition site, and you’ll see we’ve proudly pledged to support Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution campaign.
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In creating the Social Team, Branded3 CEO Vin Chinnaraja recognised the growing need amongst existing and prospective clients for creative campaigns that engage customers with brands and get people all over the web talking about companies, products, news stories and events.
With just 10 days left of 2011, we take a look back over the year at some of our highlights, and the defining moments which have brought Branded3 to the forefront of the UK’s digital industry.
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