When it comes to social media, you may either love it or dislike it, but you can’t avoid it. This is particularly true if you own a company. Customers and customers want companies to be present on social media. For many businesses, social media marketing is an essential channel.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is equally important for businesses. Any company with an online presence understands the significance of ranking high on Google search engine results pages (SERPs). Obtaining a first-page ranking for your chosen keywords may be the difference between your company flourishing and failing.
Far too frequently, companies consider social media marketing and organic SEO to be separate things. This is a mistake. When used correctly, social media may offer a significant boost to your SEO. You should consider the two sectors to be interconnected and complimentary.
To accomplish this successfully, you must understand how to utilize social media for SEO. This article will show you how to do just that. In the following sections, we’ll go through five major methods to use social media for SEO:
- Content directing and promotion
- Having an Impact on Generic Searches and SERPs
- Developing a quality following
- Digital networking
- Using the Strength of Social Media Groups
But before we get into those topics, let’s clear up some misunderstandings about social media and SEO.
The Relationship Between Social Media and SEO
When it comes to the connection between social media and SEO, most discussions revolve around the following two points:
- Do Google use retweets, mentions, and other social media interactions as ranking factors?
- Do social media connections to pages or pieces of content improve the page’s ranking?
Both of those queries have been answered with a resounding no. Matt Cutts, the former leader of Google’s webspam division, said as much in the Google Webmasters video below. Many of the points made by Matt Cutts in the video were supported by a more recent research by Hootsuite.
It makes sense when you think about it rationally. The sheer amount of social media signals would make monitoring them almost difficult for Google. The effect of PPC advertising and the relative simplicity with which you may purchase social media signals would further muddy the waters.
To give you an idea of the market’s size, according to current data, there are 3.499 billion active social media users globally. Each of these individuals has an average of 7.6 social media accounts. On a daily basis, this translates to a huge number of social media postings and interactions.
Although Google has enormous resources at its disposal, crawling and indexing all of that information seems to be a needless waste of those resources. A comparable logical examination of the problem of social media connections yields the same answer. On social media sites, connections to external pages are nearly always nofollow links. Even if this were not the case, the number of links produced would decrease the value of the search engine.
What’s the point of this article if social media doesn’t immediately improve SEO? It’s about how social media may be utilized for SEO in a non-direct manner. Our five methods to utilize social media for SEO will teach you how to supplement your SEO efforts using prominent social media platforms. So, let’s get started.
Content directing and promotion
To do effectively in SEO, you’ll need a solid content management plan. Sites must contain interesting, high-quality material that is relevant to the business’s goals. To stay current, such material must be updated and added to on a regular basis. The content must also match the user’s purpose, which is crucial when it comes to search engine ranking.
There are many main ways that social media may help with a website’s content management strategy. For example, social media may be a treasure trove for discovering subjects and ideas for your writing. The material will then be promoted and shared using the same or other social networks.
Ivan Karmanov, Product Marketing at SEMRush, highlights two channels that are underutilized when it comes to directing content through social media. Both Reddit and Quora, he thinks, are excellent resources for determining user intent. They may assist website owners in determining what visitors are really interested in. This may then be reflected in their content.
Reddit offers subreddits for virtually every subject you can think of. There’s a good chance you’ll discover several that are related to your specialty. You may discover conversations about what your target audience is interested in by visiting those subreddits. As a SaaS SEO firm, for example, we would be interested in the following threads:
Ivan highlights four main types of Reddit discussion to look out for:
- ‘How Do I X’ type posts
- Lengthy debates
- In an AMA, the most popular questions or topics that were upvoted but not answered
- Discussions or comments that have received a lot of upvotes but haven’t gotten a lot of feedback yet.
These kinds of discussions are excellent for developing content. They demonstrate what people desire to know but haven’t yet found satisfactory solutions to. You may use that data into your overall keyword research to come up with themes and long tail keywords that will truly help you out.
Another site you may utilize in a similar manner is Quora. The question and answer service is brimming with real-world inquiries. You’ll also come across solutions. A simple search on the site will reveal a plethora of questions that your content may address.
These are a few examples of how you may utilize social media to get excellent article ideas. However, it’s astonishing how many websites provide excellent material but fail to market it. This relates to the concept of a disconnect between social media and SEO. After you’ve finished writing a new post or article, one of the first things you should consider is sharing it on social media.
This is an excellent method to get your material recognized both inside your own network and outside. If the material is well-produced and helpful, you can earn some delicious links if the appropriate people notice it. Here are some basic guidelines to assist you properly market your content on social media:
- Create and execute a clear strategy for when and where to post content;
- Stick to that plan for each new piece of content;
- Reshare your finest content on a regular basis to ensure that it is seen by as many people as possible.
Having an Impact on Generic Searches and SERPs
The number of followers a business or website has on social media is not a direct ranking consideration. That doesn’t rule out the possibility of it affecting generic searches. In fact, there is proof that it accomplishes just that. For certain keywords, sites with large social followings score higher. This may be a direct or indirect consequence of their participation on social media.
When a brand gets well-known, for example, individuals begin to search for it using trademarked keywords that contain a product. An excellent example is Levis Jeans.
Brand connection has been shown to be a ranking factor for Google. Given that Google is attempting to offer the most relevant results for those looking for a product, this is reasonable. In the example below, you can see how Levis is ranked third in the organic search results for the keyword jeans.
Fashion Nova, a clothing company, is a good illustration of this in action. The site’s traditional SEO didn’t indicate that it should be ranking for competitive keywords, yet it is. The tens of thousands of branded searches each month provide Google information on what it should rank for depending on what people are searching for.
The company’s strong social media presence, which resulted in a large client base, contributed to these rankings.
Having a diverse social media portfolio may also help your business dominate branded search results on Google. To rank for your branded queries, you may utilize social accounts with customized URL ends and brand names for headers. This approach may help you dominate page one of those SERPs, allowing you to generate traffic to many websites.
Take, for example, a Google search for SEMrush. It returns a first page with a lot of SEMrush’s social accounts on it. This is in addition to the brand’s main website and other pages.
Developing a Quality Following
It’s not all about quantity when it comes to growing a social media following that may assist your SEO. Quality, as is so frequently the case, is maybe even more essential. If that 100 followers include the top five influencers in your industry, having 100 followers may be better for SEO than having 10,000.
Followers with high quality are more inclined to share your material. They may also use your material as a source in their own blog posts or publications. If major influencers in your industry follow your profile, such endorsements will be very valuable to your website. The holy grail of SEO link building is a link from a high authority site that is relevant to your topic.
You must first do something for these influencers in order to get their attention. This may include sharing some of their material on social media. It might be a guest post you create or a link to one of their posts on your own site. You’re likely to pique their interest in you and your material in any case.
Digital Networking
You may use social media for SEO once you’ve successfully built a solid social media following. This is accomplished via the formation of connections and collaborations. Digital networking may be accomplished in a variety of ways. It may imply, at its most basic level, cultivating a connection with fans or followers.
Reaching out to key influencers through social media may also be a part of online networking. They meet Google’s criteria for Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness (EAT). If you approach out to them thoughtfully, they may share your material, link to it, or collaborate with you more directly.
For our social media outreach, we use LinkedIn. Rather than being a social network, the site is geared at professionals. Once you’ve connected with individuals, it also has a high open rate for messages. This is an example of a LinkedIn message we sent that was effective in initiating a conversation with an influencer.
Using the Strength of Social Media Groups
The last method to utilize social media for SEO is to use a particular strategy that aids in the two major categories stated before. This is done by using the strength of social media groups. It’s a technique that may help you grow a loyal following and communicate with those who are part of it.
A group feature is available on most social networking sites. One on LinkedIn is especially excellent. Like-minded individuals or people who are interested in the same topics may engage in groups. This may be advantageous to your SEO efforts. It allows you to connect with individuals who are interested in and connected to your specialty.
Joining a group that is relevant to your niche may help you connect with people in your field. ‘I notice we’re both in the LinkedIn group…’ is a nice opening for a message to a prospective spouse, for example.
The group provides you with something in common, making it simpler to strike up a conversation. You may utilize this to get some high-quality connections from a high-ranking influencer. It’s possible that this person may start sharing your social media postings with their friends. Either of these situations may be very helpful to your search engine optimization. Not to mention the organic traffic you’re getting.
Spamming individuals is something to avoid in this region. You should do thorough research on the individuals you communicate. Before contacting them, you should also consider how you want to collaborate with them. You’ll irritate people and lose trust in your niche if you don’t.