In SEO news there has been a renewed discussion regarding how much social signals play into the Google algorithms that determine PageRank and positioning in the SERPs. The thing is, not everyone agrees that social signals actually are playing a part in it all. Even among those who do believe that social signals play into it, there is still disagreement over how much of a factor they are. Ideally, Google would step up and provide some sort of guidance on the issue, but as per usual, they have not chimed in on this latest round of debates.
There is logic to each side of the argument. Most social networks use NF (No follow) links which Google says they don’t consider under the traditional PR algorithm. There are others that claim that they do use them, just selectively – as in counting NF links from their own networks. It appears that as a whole however, Google is rewarding social signals more. Whereas Google used to only view public data, they have now bored into nearly everyone and know what you are doing everywhere.
Whatever the truth is, social signals do have value. They do get your visibility up on social networks which builds your audience. They do help on Bing considerably. Finally, the activity that is the root of social signals shows you’re a solid networker which increases your value as a social ally.
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