Boost Your Business With Social Media SEO Tips and Tricks

How social media helps SEO has been a mystery many marketers have attempted to resolve. To this day, the debate rages on about its direct or indirect benefit to climbing the rankings. So, what we can tell you is, as far as any good SEO agency can tell, there is no direct impact.

However, there is an abundance of reasons why SEO and social media work hand-in-hand, and there are many benefits that a strong social media strategy can bring to your position in SERPs.

In this article, you’ll learn useful social media SEO tips and tricks that you can implement to help get your content in front of more eyes and towards the top of Google search results.

Want to learn more about the Digital Authority Partners approach to SEO? Watch this video!

How Does Social Media Impact SEO?

As mentioned, there is no concrete evidence to suggest that social media activity directly impacts your SEO rankings. You may notice some social media profiles and, occasionally, posts appear in brand search terms. However, Google tends not to show social media posts in results for non-branded queries.

One of the main reasons for this is there is so much content on social media — it’s changing by the second. Google can’t factor in the ever-changing landscape that is social media and assess the quality and relevance of each post and account.

However, social media does, without a doubt, indirectly impact SEO in many ways:

• Brand awareness
• Brand reputation
• Brand recognition
• Content promotion
• Lifespan of content
• Online visibility
• Local SEO search results

So, while your social media content doesn’t directly boost your rankings, it is sending social signals. When people share your content, this indicates that what you’ve produced is relevant and interesting to your target market.

The SEO & Social Media Partnership

Imagine social media and SEO as a cycle where social media enables you to drive more users to your website through the publication of engaging content.

• Step 1: Publish engaging content that inspires, educates, and informs your target audience.
• Step 2: Share content on social media and encourage backlinks.
• Step 3: More people begin to engage with your social media account, and your website receives more referral traffic.
• Step 4: Establish a strong community of advocates built around your brand message and social media personality.
• Step 5: Interact and engage with your community via social media and continue to publish engaging content on your website.
• Step 6: Search engines begin to rank your website higher thanks to increased social and SEO activity and interactions.
• Step 7: Your website and engaging content begin to rank organically with search traffic numbers increasing.

Do you see how your social media presence and brand building can impact SEO and rankings? It’s all about building your brand, establishing a community, and backing it up with compelling content that keeps them engaged.

Social Media SEO Tips

So, now you know social media does have an impact on SEO. Let’s learn how you can harness its power and over 4.65 billion users to improve your rankings.

Remember, as part of your social media strategy, any action you take should contribute to your overall SEO objectives. Often, businesses and marketers get caught up in the meaningless but ego-boosting metrics of social media. Aligning your thinking and objectives of both channels keeps you focused on attaining your overall goals.

     1. Create Shareable Content

This sounds obvious, but creating high-quality and shareable content can be challenging for many businesses. Your mission with both SEO and social media content is to provide something your users want. Give them the information they need, and they’ll share it with like-minded people and buy into your brand.

Back in the early days of the Google algorithm, keyword stuffing was how you got your content ranked highly. However, that is no longer the case. The algorithm is much more sophisticated and has developed to understand search intent and to assess how relevant content is to a search query based on more than keywords.

Research your audience and understand the questions they’re asking, their pain points, and the topics they’re discussing. Then, you can join the conversation and position yourself as a thought leader.

Furthermore, it’s not about churning out a copious amount of articles. Quality trumps quantity, so focus your efforts on producing shareable and rankable content over simplistic, regurgitated blogs written hundreds of times before.

     2. Bring Your Brand to Your Profile

The social media impact on SEO comes down to how you optimize your profile. Ask yourself: does it truly reflect my brand and is it attracting the type of people who will buy from my business? If not, you need to rethink your social strategy.

Much like website traffic, it’s pointless to have 100,000 followers if none of them are interested in your products. If they’re following and engaging because of the hilarious memes you post rather than the software you’re trying to sell, are you doing it right?

     3.  Get Your Media Right

Depending on the platform you’re using, you need to decide whether text, images, or video is the best method of engaging with your audience. Images and videos are notoriously more engaging and shareable than text.

To expand your reach, you need your followers to engage and share your content. Serving it to them in their preferred format will help this.

     4. Be Social

Social media is designed to be a conversation, a place where people go to build relationships, vent their frustrations, talk about hot topics, and form communities. As a brand, you need to get involved with these conversations.

You should engage on a personal level to get your content on more screens. Repeatedly smashing the like button isn’t going to get you anywhere. Comment, save, subscribe, and reply to stories. You’ve got to give engagement to receive it.

In Summary

Now you know that social media does not directly impact SEO. However, it does give you the platform to elevate your brand, increase engagement, and influence factors that push your content up the rankings.

Refining and intertwining your SEO and social media marketing strategies is essential for creating a consistent brand with which your target audience resonates. If social isn’t your thing, or you can’t get your messaging correct — reach out today for expert assistance.