We live in an era of social media. You’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who isn’t on some type of social media, whether it's Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Snapchat, or any of the other social media platforms.
It is because of their great popularity, that digital marketers rely so heavily on social media as a tool of marketing. However, social media is only one part of digital marketing and works best when used with SEO techniques. It is important for businesses to understand the relationship between social media and SEO in order to successfully implement digital marketing strategies.
Below are some of the best social media practices to help improve your SEO strategy.
Follower Growth
Having a large number of followers on your social media profiles is not only good for brand awareness, but also for search engine rankings. A company with a large social media following will rank much better than a company with only 100 or so followers on Twitter and Facebook. Google looks at the number of followers a profile has to decide if they are credible.
But be warned, Google also knows if you have bought followers, so its best practice to grow your audience organically, through relevant and engaging content.
Post Engagement
Speaking of engaging content, Google looks favourably on businesses that have a lot of interaction with its followers through their social media profiles. A high number of shares, likes and comments will all help increase your search engine ranking.
External Links
Having relevant and engaging content encourages external links. The more people and pages that share your content across social media, the more sites that are linking back to your website. Having a large number of external sites linking back to your website gives you more authority in Google’s eyes, which will increase your search engine rankings.
Another good way to get your content out there in the world of social media is to use #hashtags. Adding a hashtag to your social media posts helps you gain visibility amongst your target audience. But you should only add one or two hashtags per post.
Brand Presence
Having a strong brand presence on social media leads to more people searching for branded content which leads to your business ranking higher for non-branded keywords. It’s a complicated relationship, but well worth it.
To create a strong brand presence, you need all of the above. A large number of followers and good post engagement will show other social media users that your brand is worth following. Posts on social media that link to your content will help Google and other search engines understand which websites are credible, and which keywords they should be ranked for.
Social media is an important tool for your SEO strategy, but it also should be used to give consumers a great user experience. By enhancing the above, both your social media and SEO strategies will be optimised to provide the best possible online experience and grow your brand.
