Helping Site Rank & Generate Sales for over 16 years
Although you may feel it’s just another overhead, there are many advantages to adding social media to your brand in today's competitive marketplace. Fortunately, and possibly surprisingly, your SEO is also an area that can benefit.
Read on to discover how social media can improve your website's ranking and grow your business.
Although we are all aware that social media platforms can give us greater exposure to our target markets, not everybody is aware that they can help with other parts of digital marketing. Today we're going to explore how social media works to progress your SEO results.
Despite there not being a direct technically driven link between the rankings of any site and what activity takes place on any social media profile, there is definitely a link.
To keep things interesting, as usual - Google does not share exactly what the link is, just as they don't share the criteria of each search algorithm. The outcome is that we have a puzzle to solve.
When gathering the evidence of there being a link – it's essential to look back to 2010 when it became clear that there was signalling to Google from social media platforms—keeping social media habitually updated helped with organic results.
And that's not all.
A statement from Matt Cutts of Google in 2014 indicated that Google did not reference social media profiles when defining search results. And that social media produced their own search results.
As time went by, there was still some clarity to be gained. But we do know that those sites that do well on the SERPs also have robust social presences using engaging content. There must be part of the algorithm that checks for a presence.
So the way it stands, although social media does not directly impact your rankings, there is a tie between them, and your SEO will benefit from using social media. If you're working on getting better SEO, you must invest in social media.
Here are the reasons why:
Your Content Can Showcase Your Business
If social media hasn't been a crucial part of your content promotion, it should be. It's a great place to be found and followed by your target market and helps potential buyers become more familiar with what you offer and the 'feel' of your brand.
In addition to posting images, you can also post content from your website, bringing in more traffic to your site and helping your SEO. Not promoting your site content is a waste of the time and effort that you put into creating it. It's essential to get the most of every piece you have by putting it somewhere it can be seen by more people.
Social media can bring in more traffic, but that's not the only benefit. It can also make it easier for another site to link to your content.
Backlinks are a vital ingredient for effective SEO, and they signal to search engines that others value your content and, therefore, your content is beneficial to others. No matter how great your content is, if it isn't given the best chance of gaining backlinks, it's not going to help much.
If the social media users who found your content were pleased with it, they could well share it so others could benefit. Content can go viral on social media. You only need one site or person with plenty of followers to share it, and you can get seen by an incredible amount of people. Your social media profile can support you in achieving this goal.
Surprisingly, a social media profile can rank in search. It's all about setting it up correctly. Google can rank your presence alongside your website when people search for your brand.
Taking up more ‘real estate’ space on the search results can mean you are seen as a credible and well-established outfit.
When people search for your brand, they are typically interested in what you have to offer. So they will want to see what's on your social media too. This is a chance to show another side of your brand. Potential consumers who search for your brand on social may find just what they need to make their buying decision.
Although the primary objective of SEO is to bring more traffic to your site, it's not just improving your search results that will bring in visitors.
Staying active on social media, using relevant hashtags and making it possible to get found by the people who are likely to find you interesting and may buy from you can also bring more traffic to your site. Your target market is out there, you just need to connect with them, and they are accessible via the social media platforms.
Another benefit of social is that you get more rapid and instant results than you can expect from SEO. It can give your website the boost it needs to bring in potential prospects and buyers.
Credibility is essential for people making a buying decision, and social media is one tangible way to build trust.
There are so many options available to consumers today. They know they can choose from many different suppliers, but that can also make it hard to decide. Your social media presence can be what makes you stand out from the rest.
Of course, in every pool of businesses, some don't have a good reputation and aren't reliable. Consumers know this, and it makes them wary of who they should trust. Keep in mind that not having any content on social media or a poor presentation can be a red flag to prospects.
Summary
All that you do online to build the presence of your business through digital marketing should work coherently. There are benefits of having both SEO and social media, and both can be used to support one another.
Although you may get a few visitors from having a social media presence, when you add in search engine optimisation – you get far better results as they work well together.
If you'd like to know more about setting up social media to support your SEO efforts, get in touch today, and I can give you a quote or advice on your next best step in a no-obligation conversation.
It’s time to get found and make headway.
I'm Paul Gordon an SEO freelancer who has spent the last 16 years helping businesses expand and grow through effective SEO strategies.
