Even if you have a robust SEO strategy, your site still may not rank as highly as you want. If social media isn’t part of that strategy, you are missing out on opportunities to boost visibility and engagement. In this blog post, we’ll teach you how to combine SEO and social media marketing so you get the benefits of both.
Does Social Media Impact SEO?
Yes, social media has a huge impact on SEO performance. Here’s how:
Increase your website traffic. Social platforms allow you to promote your own content and drive traffic back to your website. Each time someone likes, shares, or comments on your post, you increase your social shares and website traffic. Eventually, this boosts your search rankings.
Improve your brand’s visibility. When you regularly engage on your socials, you increase your brand’s online visibility and recognition. This leads to more users searching for your brand on search engines like Google, Bing, etc.
Amplify your content. Your content doesn’t have to just stay on your website. By sharing it on social media, you expose it to a whole new audience.
Create new backlinks. When more people see your content, more people link back to your website. Backlinks are a major SEO ranking factor because they signal to search engines that your content is valuable.
Create social signals. Social signals are a web page’s collective shares, likes, and general visibility on social networks. These signals aren’t a direct ranking factor, but they do contribute to your online presence. This attracts more traffic and engagement, thereby boosting your SEO.
Matt Cutts, former head of Google’s web spam team, has this to say about social signals:
“Facebook and Twitter pages are treated like any other pages in our web index. And so if something occurs on Twitter or occurs on Facebook, and we’re able to crawl it, then we can return that in our search results.
But as far as doing special, specific work to sort of say ‘Oh you have this many followers on Twitter or this many likes on Facebook’, to the best of my knowledge we don’t currently have any signals like that in our web search ranking algorithms.”
What Is The Difference Between SEO And Social Media Marketing?
When used strategically, SEO and social media marketing work together to enhance your overall digital marketing strategy. However, there are some key differences between them:
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the practice of improving your website to increase visibility in search engine results pages. The idea is to attract organic (aka non-paid) traffic by ranking highly for relevant keywords and queries. Here are three main aspects of SEO:
On-Page SEO focuses on the content on your own website. This means using relevant keywords and writing high-quality content. You should also ensure your meta-data (titles, descriptions, and tags) appeals to search engines.
Technical SEO focuses on the “behind the scenes” of your website. This includes site speed, mobile-friendliness, indexing, crawling, and security. These all work to help search engines access and interpret your website effectively.
Off-Page SEO focuses on everything else that isn’t on your website, but still helps it rank in search engines. Mainly, this is about building backlinks from reputable websites to increase your own site’s authority.
On the other hand, Social Media Marketing uses social platforms to drive traffic, increase sales, and build your brand. This involves comprehensive social media management, including either paid ads or organic posts. Here are three main aspects:
Sharing and promoting content directly to your followers and target audience. The goal is to increase the reach and engagement of your content.
Fostering a sense of community around your brand by engaging directly with your audience. This involves replying to comments and messages and featuring user-generated content.
Leveraging paid ads. Many platforms offer targeted advertising that can drive traffic, generate leads, and increase sales.
SEO and social media marketing have some important differences. But, when they come together, they can enhance your overall digital marketing strategy.
What Social Media Is Best For SEO?
Any popular social media platform can help boost your SEO. Popular platforms tend to rank highly in search results simply because they have a lot of users. However, you should choose the platforms most relevant to your brand:
YouTube is both a social platform and also the second largest search engine (behind Google). According to Semrush, about 30% of Google SERPs feature a video. Since Google owns Youtube, these videos integrate well with search results pages.
Facebook is the most popular platform, with around 2.9 billion active users. This high amount of reach can drive significant traffic back to your website.
Instagram follows Facebook close behind with 2 billion active users. This platform is great for visual content aimed at Millenials and Gen Z.
Pinterest, with nearly 500 million users, is great for lifestyle brands who want to connect with a creative audience. ‘Pins’ often appear in these creative search queries.
LinkedIn has over 830 million users, and is ideal for brands aiming to reach professionals.
X (Twitter) has roughly 368 million active monthly users and is perfect for leveraging trending topics. On this platform, people discuss news, politics, current events, and pop culture with instant updates.
TikTok is a rapidly growing platform with over 1 billion active users. The platform’s algorithm sends a stream of highly-tailored content to each user. However, as of writing this, there is a potential U.S. TikTok ban on the horizon.
Reddit, known as “the front page of the internet” is all about community and discussions. Forum sites are effective for niche marketing and can drive targeted traffic to your site. Reddit content can also attract backlinks since users often share and cite discussions in other forums.
According to Semrush, about 30% of Google search engine results pages (SERPs) feature at least one video. Incorporating video content into your social media strategy can enhance your SEO efforts.
5 Tips To Incorporate Social Media Into Your SEO Strategy
1. Optimize your social media profiles
Your profile is often your first impression to potential customers. Plus, optimizing your profiles helps users find and recognize you. Use these tips:
Fill out your profiles completely. Include a clear description of your brand in the “About” or “Bio” section, including contact information and location.
Choose an eye-catching profile picture and cover photo. Make sure it represents your brand well, and is consistent across platforms. Switch up the cover photo when your brand has new events or releases.
Do keyword research to find high-traffic keywords that are relevant to your brand. Select a couple of them and include them in your profiles and “About” sections. However, don’t cram a bunch of keywords into your profile, and instead try to incorporate them naturally.
Use consistent branding across all your profiles. This means using the same username, pictures, etc. That way, people will recognize you and be able to find you on different platforms.
If possible, get a verification badge for your profile. This will differentiate you from spam or fan accounts and helps users trust you.
Most importantly, make sure to include a link back to your own website in your profile.
2. Share relevant, high-quality content
The key to creating an engaged, interested audience is sharing relevant, high-quality content. When people are interested in the content you share, they are more likely to share it themselves. This increases your content’s reach, which in turn boosts your SEO efforts. Use these tips:
Post content that is relevant to your brand and resonates with your target audience. You should either educate them, entertain them, or inspire them in some way.
Posts with images and videos tend to get the most engagement. If you only share text-based posts, people might just scroll by, so make sure to make your posts eye-catching.
Maintain a regular posting schedule to keep your audience engaged. You don’t have to post constantly, just consistently; focus on quality over quantity. In fact, posting too much might just annoy your followers, so find the sweet spot.
3.Utilize keywords and hashtags
Using targeted keywords and hashtags means that new audiences can discover your content. This improves your visibility on social media channels and helps to drive traffic back to your website. Use these tips:
Tools like Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs will help you find relevant keywords. Find ones that are specific to your niche but also broad enough to attract new users and traffic.
Include these keywords in the hashtags and captions of your social media posts. Like any piece of content, you should incorporate keywords naturally. Don’t make them read as forced, as this could deter potential followers.
You can find new hashtags by using the explore options on social media sites. Check out our other blog post about how to use hashtags effectively for more information.
When possible, adding Geotags to your posts will attract local audiences and increase your visibility in location-based searches.
4. Engage with your audience
Creating a loyal community around your brand is all about engaging with your audience. Brand interactions encourage participation, which boosts your presence on social sites. In turn, this boosts your SEO by increasing engagement and traffic. Use these tips:
People expect fast responses, so reply to comments and messages promptly. To learn how to do this, check out our other blog post about social listening.
Run campaigns that encourage user-generated content. Have followers use a branded hashtag to keep track of the posts, and feature them on your platforms.
Create an interactive experience by sharing Q&A sessions, polls, and live-streams for instant audience interaction. These interactions help people feel like they are part of the brand.
Ask your audience for feedback and make sure to show them your appreciation.
5. Link back to your website
As we mentioned earlier, one of the main benefits of social media is the ability to create new backlinks. Make sure to include links to your website wherever possible. Use these tips:
Include a link to your website prominently in your profile, like in the bio section. This makes it easy for followers to find it and click on it.
Where relevant, include direct links to your website in your posts. This is particularly important when sharing new blog posts, product launches, or events. For example, when sharing a blog post, include a link directly to the blog post.
Use link stickers or the “Swipe Up” feature in Instagram/Facebook stories to direct followers to specific pages. This helps drive traffic directly where you want it to go. (Note: Only accounts with 10K+ followers can use the “Swipe Up” feature on Instagram. If you can’t use it, definitely utilize the link stickers).
Offer your followers exclusive promotions or content that they can only access by visiting your website. This both increases traffic and also increases conversions.
Closing Out: Have Your Social Media and SEO Work Together!
SEO can get you far, but incorporating social media into your strategy can get you even farther. By using these tips, the two can work together to boost your online presence and visibility.
While growing your online presence, it’s important to keep your brand’s reputation in mind. When you need reputation help, the expert team at Reputation911 is here for you. We offer both personal and business reputation management services. Contact us today for a free consultation.
William DiAntonio is the Founder & CEO of Reputation911, a reputation management firm he founded in 2010 that has earned the trust of its clients for over a decade by helping individuals, businesses and brands control their online search results.
Even if you have a robust SEO strategy, your site still may not rank as highly as you want. If social media isn’t part of that strategy, you are missing out on opportunities to boost visibility and engagement. In this blog post, we’ll teach you how to combine SEO and social media marketing so you get the benefits of both.
April 30, 2024
April 12, 2024
April 5, 2024
