Stone Temple Consulting has produced some of the most comprehensive studies of SEO and social media ever conducted. You can find them all listed here.
Does Google Treat URL Mentions Like Links?
Some SEOs suspect that Google might sometimes pass link authority to a URL mentioned in the text of a page, even if that mention is not an actual link. We set up a test to find out!
What Post Factors Most Affect Google+ Engagement?
We studied over 32,000 Google Plus posts to see what elements brought the most engagement.
Post Google-Twitter Launch: How Is Google Indexing Twitter Today?
We compared the indexation of thousands of tweets before and after Google’s new “Firehose” access deal with Twitter
Mobilegeddon: Nearly 50% of Non-Mobile-Friendly URLs Dropped in Rank
We tracked over 15,000 queries before and after Google’s 21 April 2015 Mobile Ranking Update.
Hard Numbers on Google Plus Activity
We looked at over a half million Google+ profiles to gauge the level of public posting activity.
Does Google Sniff Your Gmail to Discover URLS?
We know Google “reads” your email to customize your experience. Do they use it to discover new URLs in email links?
How Often Does Google Answer Questions with Rich Answers in Search?
We asked Google over 850,000 questions to find out.
How Does Google Index Tweets Today?
We analyzed over 133,000 tweets to find out how many were indexed by Google Search, how long it took them to get there, and the factors that correlated most highly with tweets that did get indexed.
Twitter Engagement Unmasked: A Study of 4 Million Tweets
Over 4 million tweets analyzed to see what did and didn’t cause engagement. Results segmented by social authority. Some real surprises here!
View the study | See the Infographic
How Strong Is HTTPS As a Ranking Factor?
Google said that having HTTPS security could be a ranking factor for web sites. Find out whether it has any effect so far.
View the study | BONUS! HTTP to HTTPS Site Conversion Guide
Google vs Siri vs Cortana: Which Answers Questions Best?
We asked Google Now, Apple Siri, and Windows Cortana over 3000 questions to find out which gives the best answers.
View the study | See the Infographic | Watch the video version
Does Google Plus Impact Search Rankings?
A carefully controlled test that demonstrates that Google+ links do not significantly affect the search rankings of the pages to which they link.
How Does Google Index Tweets?
See how much of Twitter Google actually indexes, and what criteria most affect what gets indexed and what doesn’t.
Does Facebook Activity Affect SEO?
Our study shows that activity (likes, shares, etc) has little appreciable effect on Google rankings, and explains why.
Facebook Usage
Our two surveys of over 300 active Facebook users reveals the changing attitudes of users toward the network.
Is Facebook Usage Declining? (September 2014)
How Are People Using Facebook? (December 2013)