What Social Media has to do with SEO!
You may be wondering if social media can help your SEO efforts. The answer is yes, but not in the way that you were possibly thinking. Social media is not a direct Google ranking factor, but it can indirectly help your website’s organic traffic through search engines. How? Let’s find out:
Social sharing is the new link building
Social sharing is like external linking. Search engines will rank you higher when they see that others consider you as a trustworthy source of information so you should write quality content that will increase your audience and their interaction with your brand.
The more relevant and eye-catching your content is, the more opportunities for other people to share it and link back to it from their own website domains. Even though social media cannot influence site rankings yet, it can potentially increase the number of authoritative backlinks and therefore, you will gain more authority in search engines.
Consider partnering with social media influencers that have a substantial number of followers and can help you generate more buzz around your brand and site traffic.
Visible, strong brand presence
More and more people interact with brands on social media by liking posts, sharing content and using @mentions. Increased reputation on social media leads to more brand awareness and this, in turn, leads to more branded searches on search engines.
When more people become aware of your product or service through social media, they will specifically search for your brand on search engines and/or recognise your brand in the results page. Since search engines give huge importance to organic click-through rates, this can significantly influence how your page ranks and increase your visibility.
In order to encourage more social media engagement, consider using a picture or video that stands out and also running a giveaway contest.
The truth is that an effective social media presence is one of the best ways to promote content, drive traffic to your website and get found online. If you want a strong online presence, you simply cannot ignore social media as social media and SEO go hand in hand. Understanding how these two organic, inbound strategies affect each other can ultimately help you integrate your SEO strategy into your larger social media marketing strategy. Always remember though, Google from time to time introduces changes and updates to its algorithm, so we have to be prepared to adapt and stay ahead of the game.
