Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.
Ben Baligad: How much does popularity count in SEO?
Masatake Wasa (wasaweb): Could you clarify what you mean by popularity? How is popularity measured?
Ben Baligad: Thanks, good question. ;Popularity is measured by the number of visitors to your site. ;Let's say you just wrote an article for your site. ;
I am looking at two scenarios. One, you don't do anything in the social media to promote it. Two, you do. How much does that increase of popularity counted in SEO?
Masatake Wasa (wasaweb): Google does not use social media as direct ranking signals (listen to John Mueller's response - https://youtu.be/a63vAglRmHU?t=53m50s), so social media popularity on its own does not translate into SEO benefit. It may be argued that there is however indirect causation thus correlation between social media popularity and search engine rankings: the more a web page is shared on social media, the more people will visit it, and the more likely it is to accrue links therefore ranking higher in the search results.
Dave Elliott: yeah, social media gives increased visibility to your content. This in turn can lead to lots of SEO goodness and conversions and blah. ;
Brett Saltalamacchia: Not to sure what answer you are looking for, but if you are talking about the amount of hits your website receives and whether or not this impacts ranking. No. Why? Because it can easily be manipulated.
Let me quickly go create a site, go buy over 100,000 hits and get first ranking placement. Know what I mean?
However, clicks on your snippet in the Google search results - will help with minor ranking increments. Google will pick this up and realise that this is an important site, and deserves a better ranking because all the users are bypassing the first couple of snippets and clicking yours.
In terms of what +Masatake Wasa ;was stating in regards to social media ranking signals, and the fact that your ranking won't increase due to social signals. It's stupid to believe this.
Don't go by what others say, be different, differentiate yourself from the crowd and believe what you think is right. That is what makes a true SEO, dont ever do something just because it isn't in the ranking algo's. Plus. it's always nice to have a diverse link profile.
Masatake Wasa (wasaweb): +Brett Saltalamacchia: I've made a distinction between direct and indirect relationship between social media and search engine rankings. I don't dispute that social media represent a good source of traffic and a diversity in traffic sources is a good thing. Indeed I think people with internet presence should be out there on social media, but not for direct SEO benefit.
Can you substantiate your argument beyond being different and believing what you think is right (just because someone is being different and believes the world is flat does not make it true)?
As far as I am aware, ;+John Mueller ;has been quite consistent and clear in his hangouts for some time that Google does not use social media as a direct ranking factor.
The onus is on you to make a strong argument that there is a direct link between social media and search engine rankings (if that is what you are arguing).
How much does popularity count in SEO? 
