This factor counts how many X (Twitter) share links appear in a page’s rendered body — legacy status links and Twitter/X intent links that match the detector’s supported URL shapes. It returns a raw count of matching URL text, not a measure of distinct, verified, or working share controls.
| Factor ID | RG-SOC-034 |
|---|---|
| Family | Social Links |
| Measurement | Count |
| Measured zone | Rendered body HTML with scripts removed |
What it measures
The factor counts legacy Twitter status links and Twitter/X intent links that match the detector’s supported paths. It is a tally of matching URL text found in the page body — a structural read on how many X (Twitter) share links a page exposes, not a judgment of their quality or function.
How RankGear measures it
RankGear runs a case-insensitive regular-expression scan over the rendered body HTML (with scripts removed) and returns the number of matches. Each occurrence of a supported URL shape is counted, so a page with several share controls — or several copies of the same link — returns a correspondingly higher number.
What RankGear looks for
<!-- legacy status link -->
<a href="https://twitter.com/username/status/1234567890">…</a>
<!-- Twitter/X intent (share) link -->
<a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://example.com/page">Share</a>
<a href="https://x.com/intent/tweet?url=https://example.com/page">Share on X</a>How to optimize it
Treat the count as an observation, not a target to inflate. If you offer an X sharing control, make sure it is genuinely functional, privacy-conscious, and points at the correct canonical URL for the page — not a stale or mismatched address. Adding more matching links purely to raise the number does not make the page more useful, and the count says nothing about whether a share ever succeeds.
Important considerations
- It counts matching URL text, not distinct, verified, active profiles or successful shares.
- Repeated matches are counted separately, so duplicate share links inflate the count.
- The detector follows a specific URL shape, so other valid modern URL forms may not count, and look-alike text may count.
- Treat this as a structural observation. A count correlates with, but does not cause, position within a measured result set — more social links do not make a page rank.
Related factors
Part of the Factors reference · how RankGear measures · glossary.