Myth or Fact: Social Media Dashboards Bad for SEO?
-
I want to start using HootSuite to pre-schedule Facebook/Twitter updates, but am plagued by nagging concerns because I have heard that HootSuite may impact SEO in a negative way.
Is this truth or bull? If it i true, how so, specifically? And can anything be done to mitigate the negative SEO factors?
Also, does anyone prefer another dashboard over HootSuite?
Thanks in advance for your inputs!
-
@ThompsonPaul: I'd welcome additional input...here is the scenario:
We're a 2-man agency, so there really only needs to be one user for the dashboard. The goal is creating an active Facebook/Twitter presence with minimum time commitment, for 3 or 4 small clients - these are local, independently owned businesses with small budgets.
My goal was is to re-purpose newsletter & blog content as pre-scheduled Facebook & Twitter updates in order to be able to "set it & forget it".
These clients don't necessarily view Social as a priority - but as we are creating blog/newsletter content for them anyway, I thought it would be good practice to re-use the content on other platforms, to keep Facebook / Twitter from being completely overlooked.
In terms of the degree of importance placed on analytics - I think if it could be demonstrated that Social is driving traffic to their websites, we would be able to persuade these clients to allocate more budget to social. Each of these clients does use GA.
-
Most welcome, Lucy. I've also used a number of different dashboards - if you can describe the highest-priority things you want to be able to do with your dashboard, I may be able to make a suggestion or two.
eg how many and what types of accounts? Are Analytics and tracking important? Do multiple team members need to collaborate/manage the same accounts?
Paul
-
@ThompsonPaul - Thanks very much for this well-crafted reply - greatly appreciated.
-
There is only one way the use of Hootsuite could negatively affect SEO - if you choose the ow.li URL shortener as your default instead of the default ow.ly version (in the setup section).
The ow.li version is using 302 redirects instead of 301s which is a no-no for SEO.
Otherwise, since the dashboard is only posting contents to Twitter/Facebook and not your website, there's no possibility for harm.
HOWEVER!!! Using Hootsuite (or any 3rd-party tool) to post to Facebook can definitely cause user-engagement problems. Any update posted to Facebook using a 3rd-party tool (like a dashboard) automatically has a harder time earning views by your followers. Facebook's Edgerank algorithm is what determines how many of your followers might see your post, and posts by 3rd party tools always have a lower Edgerank.
So for all important Facebook posts, it is best to submit them using Facebook's own site or their mobile app rather than Hootsuite. (You can now pre-schedule posts from within Facebook itself, so this helps alleviate one of the reasons why most people used 3rd-party tools) In fact, I still believe it's better to make all Facebook updates directly.
Paul
-
Hi Lucy,
Like-wise as Robert, I myself have used hootsuite before for several social media complaints. Besides a huge outage at an important time, I didn't really mind using the service (took a small while getting used to it, that's all).
I suggest you read http://www.seomoz.org/blog/url-shortener-owl-li-indexed-in-google (was released today, excellent timing) as well, which actually talks about using one of the URL shorteners provided by Hootsuite.
Best of luck.
-
Well to be honest lucy i havent at all, not to say hootsuite put me off but its the formula 1 of interfaces so i said to myself "this may not be for me" lets not try and over complicate things and just do it manually.
I might have a look at sproutsocial all right now that you mentioned it but i dont know how it can get any better with my 17" screen (clutter)
It may or may not, i,ll keep u posted
-
Thanks for that input.
Have you used other dashboards with better interfaces? I am also looking into SproutSocial as an alternative & wonder if they have a better user experience.
-
I have used hootsuite and all though it has some great features, its not something i enjoy using because of the cluttered interface.. The only good thing i can think of is that you dont have to login to multiple accounts and simple click between projects, ultra quick.
I'm thinking its bull, i have not heard anything at all concerning seo that may impact on social media projects at all
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
What is everyone using for social media reporting now?
Now that Moz has retired the social element, I'm at a loss as to what to use instead. What have you all switched to? We use Hootsuite to schedule Twitter and LinkedIn posts for our clients, and Facebook native mode for scheduling there. At the end of each month I produce an SEO report for each client and up to now, that's always included the social report from Moz. I want to be able to report on the following for Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. what traffic has come to the client's website from each social channel growth in followers/fans engagement for the month eg how many retweets, likes, shares etc best performing posts on each channel I've looked at Sprout, but it seems to me that in order for Sprout to give you all the reporting info you need, you have to use it to manage all your social media channels, and as mentioned above, we already use Hootsuite for this. I don't want to switch completely. Twitter Analytics gives me the info I want for Twitter, but doesn't output this to a pdf style graphical report. I just want a nice summary to give my clients every month. Any ideas as to the best way to report on all this while still using Hootsuite to do the scheduling? My feeling is that I just want a flexible, easy to use and comprehensive reporting tool that covers all social channels, and not a social media management tool.
Social Media | | mfrgolfgti0 -
Social Bookmarking is it spammy?
is social book marking seen as spammy ? And if it helps SEO how can you weed out the good sites from the bad?
Social Media | | Cocoonfxmedia0 -
Offshore SEO Providers - Recommendation?
Hi Folks Has anyone had a very good experience with an offshore SEO provider who they would be happy to share? I am looking for a professional offshore firm to manage a 100 Long Tail key word campaign. Social Media, facebook campaign experience a bonus. Kind Thanks, Justin
Social Media | | jchapman50 -
What about Google + and SEO has this effect on your organic results?
Can somebody give me an answer on this question? And when so what to do? With your Google + account? And what about Google + and the future of SEO within the organic search results in Google ? Hope to get some answers???
Social Media | | SearchOptimization
Thank you in advance 🙂0 -
Do i direct traffic to all social platforms or not?
Hi ...I have a brand that is very strong socially..specifically facebook and twitter and this is where we have directed all strategy and traffic. We recently wanted to establish a presence on google+ and have done so. My feeling at this point is to maintain a presence on google+ but only direct social traffic to facebook and twitter from the brands website....so we can keep the focus here aswell as the stronger community. I have noticed other brands doing something similar.....is this a good strategy or should we be directing traffic to all the platforms from the site?...bottomline should we be linking to all our social platforms from the brands website or keep it linked to the stronger platforms and just maintain a presence on the others? thank you
Social Media | | nomad-2023230 -
Social Media Signals with AddThis?
Good day guys, Just a quick question. By having the AddThis sharing tool to share content such as blogs, does it still send the same social signals to Google as you would get by having the official Facebook/Twitter plug-ins? Regards
Social Media | | Michael-Goode0 -
Whats the SEO value of getting Likes to your brand's Facebook Page (not your site's URLs being Liked)?
UPDATED: I meant to say SEO VALUE, not just business value Lets say I have a site - www.company.com, and I set up a Facebook Page - www.facebook.com/company. I understand the SEO value of having the domain www.company.com "Liked", using the FB Like button on my homepage lets say, or the same goes for individual pages - www.company.com/page. My question is rather about having my Facebook Page - Facebook.com/company "Liked". Are those likes counted by the engines as a strong signal that www.company.com should rank well? Or only that the Facebook Page - Facebook.com/company should rank well in searches for that company?
Social Media | | Jeff.Gold-315371 -
Roundup of Facebook Share & Facebook Like. Which one is better for SEO?
There doesn't seem to be clear cut advice / data on whether Facebook Share or Facebook Like is more valuable from an SEO standpoint. So I'm asking you SEOmoz fans have you come across conclusive evidence or have your own sites / testes proven that one is stronger than the other.
Social Media | | walidalsaqqaf0