Let’s now turn to the three strategies that I believe create the best opportunities for social media to help your organic search efforts.
- Create Link Opportunities. The number one opportunity for social media to help boost SEO is also the hardest.
- Increase Positive Brand Mentions.
- Build Partnerships.
In the past, both social media and SEO were worked on in silos. SEO was primarily focused on technical improvements and on-page optimization while social was (and often still is today) not even considered a part of the strategic marketing plan. To maximize your digital marketing efforts, SEO and social media need to be in a committed relationship.
- Social Signals Are A Ranking Factor
As the use of social media continues to grow, so does the influence it has on search visibility (the likeliness of being found within search results). Over a year ago, Google and Twitter agreed to make a deal that now gives tweets a prominent position within the SERPs (search engine results page). Additionally, Facebook and (especially) Google + both show up within Google’s organic search results. This not only means that you need to be active on these major platforms but also that it’s imperative to optimize your accounts. Create relevant posts to reflect your strategy (using the same keywords, message, and tying them all together).
Search engines don’t only take into account being listed on these social platforms – they also evaluate your authority..
- People Are Showing Love, Love Them Back
Your business’ digital presence is not limited to your website; it’s throughout the entire internet. People are talking about your business and their conversations have a direct impact on your efforts. You need to be a part of the discussion. This is where both SEO and social media come into play (in holy matrimony).
With SEO, your company will have complete access and control of your local listings, some of which incorporate popular review systems (Google My Business, Yelp, etc). With social, you’ll interact – through comments, likes, shares, and retweets – with the actual people that use those popular review systems. Through proper management, you’ll see when anyone mentions your company’s name (even when you are not directly tagged in the post). Facebook also has a popular review system. Most of the time, if a consumer is unsatisfied, he or she will immediately go to social media to complain or write a review.90% Of Customers Say Buying Decisions Are Influenced By Online Reviews. Not monitoring and responding to them is a huge missed opportunity.
- Social Sharing is Caring
In terms of outreach: the goal of SEO is to acquire more high-quality links and the goal of social media is to engage with the community and attract new audiences. Now, as social media and SEO have begun to blur the lines of separation, these have been somewhat combined.
As opposed to traditional, and often ineffective, outreach methods – emails or contact submissions – a more modern approach is connecting with target audiences via social. By creating these social relationships, you’ll not only know which of your followers to send your content to, but you also enhance the probability of them sharing and reposting it. While social links do not carry the same link juice that highly-reputable sites do, it does increase your content’s overall exposure. This increases the chance of reaching other industry influencers. Since it was shared by their peers, those influencers are more likely to share it on their site or blog.
- Your Social Audience Helps Shape Your Content
You need NEW content. With social media, you can stay up with the latest trends, events, and news, as well as monitor the type of content your audience is interested in. On top of this, you can evaluate what’s working or not working for your competitors. This information will allow you to craft content that is timely and meaningful to your users. In doing so, you’ll see engagement increase (comments, sharing, and contact submissions) and you’ll appear higher in the rankings for producing hot content.
- Get Engaged To Your Community With Social & Local SEO
Businesses, especially small ones, can not succeed without the support of their community. This applies to the digital landscape, as well. In terms of SEO, the impact of your local area has never been greater.
Aside from maintaining an accurate profile within the local listings, it is also extremely beneficial for your business to produce both localized content and social posts. Create blogs and other web pages that speak directly to your local audience. Then, utilize social media to disseminate it to local businesses and influencers (news reporters, bloggers, or those active in the community). This will increase not only the local discussion around your business but also the likelihood of earning local links. All of these signals will improve your ranking position within the organic search results.
Tying the Knot
Your SEO and social media efforts need to be tied together to maximize efficiency.