What metric directly indicates how content shared on social media affects website engagement?

The metric that directly indicates how content shared on social media affects website engagement is social signals. Social signals refer to the interactions that a piece of content receives on social media platforms, such as likes, shares, comments, and mentions. These interactions are indicative of the content's reach and relevance to the audience. When a post garners significant engagement, it can lead to an increase in traffic to the website, as engaged users are more likely to click through to the website for more information.

While other metrics like page views and click-through rate are important in measuring web traffic and the effectiveness of content, they do not directly capture the influence and engagement generated by social media interactions. Engagement rate measures how actively users engage with the content, but it does not specifically address the transitional effect from social media to website visits. Therefore, social signals are the most direct measure of the impact that social media interactions have on driving engagement on a website.