Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
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
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
How relevant is social bookmarking for SEO today?
I've been doing SEO for a little over 4 years. I've never used sites like Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, etc. either personally or on behalf of my clients. This past week I had a discussion with another SEO who asked what I'm doing for my clients with regard to social bookmarking. I responded that I'm really not doing anything and they were shocked. I took a pretty good verbal beating over it. She was borderline offended. I have always been able to deliver solid results for my clients without any type of social bookmarking, so I struggle to see the need, but am surprised at how shocked this other SEO was that I don't do it. How beneficial is it and am I really missing out?
Social Media | | garrettkite0 -
Social media marketing strategy for an ERP company?
Hello Everybody, We are an ERP company and want to get into social media marketing. We have decided to use Google+ over Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. Any ideas what we can do besides regular updates and getting our clients link to us? Regards
Social Media | | IM_Learner0 -
Does social bookmarking still work? If so can anyone recommend a tool
Hello everything, I'm trying to find a tool I can use for my domain : www.van-plus.com to get it socially bookmarked? Can anyone recommend anything? Thanks in advance!
Social Media | | vanplus0 -
Deleting Poor Performing Social Media Accounts for Businesses?
I'm the Internet Marketing Manager for an ad agency and in charge of not only our social media and SEO but advising and hooking up clients with successful campaigns. I've taken the liberty of signing us up for almost every major social media account. Some are very successful (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, Vimeo is ok (we use it over YouTube), Vine is picking up) and others are very not doing well (Flickr, Foursquare, YouTube really is low, Google+ is very mediocre). I’ve been wondering if it would be more beneficial to just delete certain accounts. I think I need to keep Google+ (Google values it and we are not doing terribly on it) but all the others listed in the bad column I think are really cancerous to our SEO (and make us look bad b/c we are doing poorly on them) but I really don’t know. I used them kind of to see if they would work for us and to demonstrate that we knew what we were doing in these social networks, but I think they may be doing us more harm than good both from a PR standpoint and SEO. Doesn't it hurt your website for Google to see poor performing social media accounts, just as the opposite would be true (good sm accounts and mention/activity would give you klout & SEO...)? What do you think? I'm no novice but no master either. Love this forum. Thanks in advance.
Social Media | | JCunningham0 -
"Mister Wong" DoFollow Social Bookmarking Backlinks
Has anyone had any experience with the DoFollow social bookmarking tool "Mister Wong". Is it worth the fee for DoFollow links? Is this site subject to Google Panda penalties or others for essentially selling dofollow links? Is social bookmarking as a whole worth the time and effort? Does anyone have any alternative sites or strategies for acquiring a high volume of dofollow backlinks?
Social Media | | BethA0 -
Social Media Approaches for a Pest Control Company
Hi Everyone, I am working with a pest control company that is looking to branch out into social media. Their primary goal is to connect with their existing customers to improve retention. The secondary goal is to potentially pick up new clients. With that said, I wanted to see if you all had some ideas on things that they could tweet/facebook about on a regular basis? Posting about bugs on a daily basis gets pretty boring. I know Rand has been talking a lot lately about not being so narrow, so maybe we should talk more about general home improvement? Any thoughts or ideas? Thanks! EDIT: I should clarify that this is a company that has maintenance plans. You don't call them only when you have a problem. You sign up with them, and they treat your property every 3 months, or whenever you call. Only about 2% of their customer base is one-off phone calls to fix 1 problem and never come back again. I don't think their existing customer base will have any issues with Liking them on Facebook or following them on Twitter. The initial plan is to incentivize them to do so, but once we get the like/follow, we want to continually be in front of them with interesting content, contests as Jay suggested, etc.
Social Media | | brianspatterson2 -
Social Sharing - Reducing Button Size
I'm looking at implementing social sharing buttons throughout a site that I'm working on. I've souced the icons from one of the well known providers however when I test the pages with Firebug I get this: <colgroup><col width="303"> <col width="58"> <col width="86"></colgroup>
Social Media | | GrouchyKids
| Version | File Size | Transfer Size |
| | | |
| Home Page With Social Media Buttons | 1.02MB | 487.7kB |
| Home Page Without Social Media Buttons | 238.3kB | 218.8kB | As you can see the buttons alone have a rather alarming impact on the file/transfer size. I want to reduce the size, has anyone got any ideas/been here before? Justin0 -
Is there any SEO benefit to hosting your Facebook photos on your own site?
I will often post photos that I have taken to my Facebook page (either personal or my fan page). Sometimes these can get lots of likes. I got thinking that perhaps I host these photos on my site (i.e. www.example.com/images/photo1.jpg) and then share that "page" on Facebook. That way any of the likes would be counted towards my site. What do you guys think?
Social Media | | MarieHaynes0