Social media is currently one of the significant platforms for marketing online – and that likely won’t be changing soon. But, the way it works to help your business grow in search engines can be a bit confusing.
Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to implementing strategies that help your website appear higher up in Google, Bing, and other search engines. Together social media and SEO help to reach a broad audience online through a comprehensive marketing strategy. However, despite search engines seeing web content AND social media, they do not work the same to improve search rankings.
Do My Business Social Media Metrics Improve SEO?
A common misconception about social media marketing is the idea that metrics like “likes,” “shares,” and other forms of interaction contribute to your SEO. While it would make sense given interactions often mean more valuable content, and search engines prioritize value when rankings results, these metrics are too volatile.
Google and other search engines prefer longer-term, organic factors when considering what makes a search result more qualified. With “likes” and “shares” dynamically changing over a period of time, it’s not something that can easily be monitored. Plus, someone could artificially inflate their numbers in excess, sending a shock through search engine crawlers and causing rankings to fluctuate regularly.
However, that doesn’t mean social media content that performs well can’t improve SEO. There are indirect benefits that make social media an essential part of any marketing plan.
Benefits of Social Media Marketing
Increases Visibility for Earning Backlinks
When you share valuable content on any social media platform, you have the potential to exponentially increase your reach, viewership, and engagements in a way that is hard to accomplish with other methods. Large corporations, huge influencers, thought and industry leaders, and every day people use social media. Social media provides unrivaled access to high-value networking or backlinking opportunities that can grow your site.
Research shows that more engagements provide more opportunities to earn backlinks, which can help to improve search rankings. [1] The positive correlation between rankings and engagement remained in all instances, with promoted campaigns (that earned more engagement) ending up with better rankings than those with fewer interactions. [1]
If a post you share on Facebook or Twitter performs well, it has a better chance to get in front of the right eyes. This means that a major authority site or another high-ranking platform may link to your blog post. That will provide a significant SEO boost due to the “trust value” that backlinking provides.
Increases Site Authority for SEO
Site authority is an incredibly important factor in your search rankings. And your business social media account can help you to develop your authority over time.
As you earn backlinks, interactions, and clicks for your web content, Google sees you as more of an authority “figure” on a topic or in an industry. You want your authority rating to increase in the eyes of Google. This is because when others decide that your content is worth reading, interacting with, and referencing elsewhere, Google tends to agree.
When you make content that provides value and post it on your social media account, you allow yourself to earn more of these value-increasing interactions to grow your authority.
Improves Brand Recognition
Branding is an essential part of any business. Terms like “Googling” or “Ubering” have replaced searching and “getting a ride” with much of society because of the sheer size of the brand and recognition they have.
If you can improve your brand recognition, your search engine clicks will also increase. When searching for information or a product, most users will gravitate towards the familiar sources. After all, would you rather trust an official store or a site you’ve never heard of when it comes to buying a product?
Social media profiles are also indexed by search engines and can show up near the top of results. By keeping your business social media up to date, you can improve site traffic and add a personality to your company that is harder to portray on a website. [2]
The more content you share, the larger your audience will grow, and the more your reach will expand. A broader reach will lead to more people knowing your name, which provides brand recognition and earns the trust of your audience.
Drives Targeted Web Traffic
In almost any situation, traffic to your website is beneficial for your business. However, not all traffic is equal.
Targeted traffic – traffic that comes from a specific demographic to your website – is a great way to increase your user base or customer base. When you share an informative post or great deal on your social media profile, the accounts following you are a targeted demographic because they know who you are and have an interest in what you offer. You’ll find that your conversion rate for sales and click-through-rate (CTR) for posts increases when they are put in front of the right people.
Maximize Your Business Social Media Profile and Improve Your Overall Marketing
Social media and SEO are complementary. By effectively using social media, you can indirectly benefit your search engine results and business just by sharing valuable content. From growing your brand in the eyes of Google to earning the trust of influencers and other sources through backlinking, your business social media account can help your business succeed – if you do it correctly!
At Full Circle SEM, we can help you to make the most of your social media. With effective social media marketing alongside SEO and other marketing services, you can grow your business as a whole without blowing through your advertising budget.
Get started with SEO and Social Media today.
SOURCES:
[1] https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-seo-experiment/
[2] https://neilpatel.com/blog/social-media-and-seo
