Social Signals

Social signals are measures of engagement with content on social media, such as likes, shares, comments and follower counts. Google has said these are not a direct ranking factor, but social activity can still support SEO indirectly by spreading content to people who may link to it or search for your brand.

Written by Paul Hoda, SEO consultant since 2005. Last updated 8 November 2026.

What counts as a social signal

  • Likes, reactions and favourites.
  • Shares, reposts and saves.
  • Comments and replies.
  • Follower and subscriber numbers.
  • Mentions of a brand or link on social platforms.

Do social signals affect rankings?

Google representatives have said for years that social signals like shares and follower counts are not used as a direct ranking factor. There are practical reasons: Google cannot see much of what happens inside logged-in platforms, numbers can be faked easily, and social data changes very quickly.

Search engines can still crawl public social pages like any other web page. That means a public profile or post can appear in search results, but its likes and shares are not what decides where your website ranks.

Links on major social platforms usually carry a nofollow or similar attribute, so they typically do not pass link equity either. Pages that rank well may also have lots of shares, but that is correlation, not cause: popular, useful content tends to earn both shares and links.

The indirect benefits

Even without a direct effect, social media can help SEO in several ways:

  • Content discovery: journalists, bloggers and other site owners find content on social media and may link to it, building backlinks.
  • Brand awareness: people who see your brand repeatedly are more likely to search for it, increasing branded search.
  • Faster crawling of new content: wider sharing can lead to links and visits that help search engines find new pages, though this is not guaranteed.
  • Social profiles in results: profiles on major platforms often rank for brand searches, helping you control more of the results page.
  • AI answers: some AI search tools draw on public discussions, such as forums, which is covered under forums in AI answers.

How to make social media support SEO

  1. Share genuinely useful content, such as research, guides and tools, that people may want to reference.
  2. Add Open Graph tags so links display a clear title, description and image when shared.
  3. Use consistent brand names and links to your site across profiles.
  4. Engage with journalists and industry voices in your field.
  5. Track social referral traffic in your analytics alongside organic traffic.

Common myths

Buying followers or shares will not improve rankings and can damage trust with real audiences. Another myth is that SEO and social media are separate jobs. In practice, they support each other: social media helps content get seen, while search brings steady, long-term visitors.

Key Takeaways

  • Social signals are likes, shares, comments and followers on social media.
  • Google has said they are not a direct ranking factor.
  • Most social media links are nofollow and pass little link equity.
  • Social activity can still lead to links, brand searches and awareness.
  • Open Graph tags help shared links display well.
  • Buying followers or shares does not help rankings.

Related Terms

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