With social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter attracting millions of followers, savvy internet marketers have made them the cornerstone of their marketing efforts.

The power of social media’s reach is immense to say the least, and this makes them a perfect tool for driving traffic to your website. In fact, you don’t need high search engine rankings at all in order to take advantage of social media traffic.

But let’s face it, doesn’t everyone want to rank higher on the search engines? Enter social media once again. In fact, these sites have a direct impact on SEO. Here’s why.

The Search Engines Take Ranking Signals From Social Media

Google and Bing both have stated openly that they strongly consider social media in their ranking processes. In the social media world, ranking is measured by popularity. Popularity is easily measured by the volume of favorable “re – tweets” or “likes”. The results are obvious. When you publish popular content, the search engines will reward you with higher rankings. And, as an added benefit, expect your site to surge in comparison to sites that don’t take advantage of social media marketing at all.

Your Social Media Posts Can Rank At The Top All On Their Own

Google’s search platform doesn’t just measure websites anymore. In fact, Google also ranks videos, images, news, and, of course, social media content.

How can you benefit?

With enticing, popular “tweets” it’s entirely possible for your “tweet” alone to rank number 1 in Google – even if your website is still climbing. While top ranked “tweets” are short lived, you can easily take full advantage of your sudden popularity.

Social Media Provides Valuable Inbound Linking

SEO thrives on quality inbound links. In Google terms, think of links as a “vote”. Because the search engines love social media, links from these sites are particularly valuable “votes”. Each time someone “likes” or “re-tweets” your posts, the search engines reward you with an important link.

Your Social Media Content Is News

No kidding. By its own admission, if Google deems that a particular post or “tweet” has created a stir in the social media world, they are likely to pick it up in Google News. Because these items are usually placed towards the top of the news rankings, you get to reap the benefits.

You Are Who You Know

Translated, that means you are likely to gain more authority links when your “likes” and “re-tweets” come from a recognized authority.

The search engines make no secret of the fact that they analyze where your votes are coming from. What that means for you, is that when recognized authorities are responding to your content, you will be rewarded with particularly important inbound links. This is not to underestimate the power of popularity from a wide variety of users, but it certainly does demonstrate that quality wins over quantity.

Guest Post By Kirsty LaVier, editor for Shopping Cart Reviews, the leading shopping cart software information website.