Jack DawsonTypically social media promotion and SEO promotion seem like polar opposites, with one focusing on newsworthy content and the other relying on long tail evergreen posts.
But really, Search Engine Optimization and social media promotion work together, and it’s important you understand how in order to get the most traffic to your website as possible.
Emphasis on social media
With so many social media platforms available, there are even more avenues open for you to attract more prospective clients online. In 2010 Facebook had 100 million users, in 2015 it reached 1 billion and now Instagram is at the 100 million mark. The audience is there, it’s just a matter of targeting them.
With social media platforms for just about everything, this means you have a lot of work to do. If you want your social media channels to support your SEO efforts, there are a few steps to take first.
- Create content to share on social media.
- Generate a following on social media.
How does social media help SEO?
You may assume that social media promotion and search engine optimization have nothing to do with each other when it comes to ranking your website. This cannot be farther from the truth. Social media will help your SEO activities by:
1. Building your following
When Google is determining domain authority, it considers the following that you have on social platforms. A following of 20,000 rather than 200 will help your site rank, considerably.
2. Earn shares and become popular
When you post viral content on your social networks you can become popular on search engines as well. That’s because when you post awesome content that builds your following you get attention from the search engines like Google and your content will rank well for associated search queries.
3. Optimize posts for search
Google and Twitter recently became partners, which there is a possibility that your tweets will show up in Google searches. Simply put, it does pay to optimize your twitter posts for search. Even if a tweet doesn’t show up on the results’ pages of Google when you optimize it using brand-relevant keywords, at least you should be able to cement your reputation as a thought leader on social in that particular area.
4. Principle of reciprocity
Engaging with other businesses online is really good for the health of your website. In the event that you are looking forward to optimizing your site for local searches, you can try to engage with other businesses that are similar to yours. One of the rules of social media is the old adage: do unto others as you would like them to do to you. Therefore, when you share the other businesses’ content and comment on their profiles then they should do the same for you. This helps to grow your audience. Even the search engines learn to associate you with those other brands that you engage with most frequently.
5. Let people know what you are up to
The best way for your website to rank is to be active. Share content on social media regularly and let people know what is happening on your website, including new blog posts or deals. And it is not enough to share the content just once. Depending on your posting schedule, you can share the link on social media several times – perhaps three times a day on Twitter and several times on Facebook. The more actively you produce content, and share it on social, the better your chances of ranking on search.
Final word
The relationship between SEO and social media is important, and a good and active social media account typically means an improvement in SEO rankings.
Tom Whatley
Pam Neely