Integrating social media with your SEO strategies can greatly boost your search rankings and increase brand presence.
Social media marketing and SEO (search engine optimization) are tightly interwoven strategies. They are both inbound strategies that focus more on building an appealing online profile that naturally attracts online visitors. In this post, we will be looking at social media practices and SEO hacks that will boost your search rankings.
1) Grow the Number of Followers
The number of connections and followers you have on social media will significantly influence your rankings. For example, a company with 1000 followers on Twitter will not receive a ranking bonus as that of a company with millions of followers on Twitter and millions of Facebook likes. The point here is that the more followers and connections you have, the more people will see your content and the more shares it will get.
Even so, you ought to understand that Google can easily detect the quality of your connections and followers. Buying proxy Twitter followers will not do much in improving your rankings. It is important that you build organic following.
READ MORE: SEO lessons from the most successful social media campaigns
To grow the number of your followers, you have to be patient and consistent. Always present your brand in a unique way, using the same voice to update your followers/ connections daily. You need to post useful content, open inquiries, start general discussion and consistently engage your followers directly. Encouraging your followers and connections to share your posts will further improve your success.
2) Encourage External Inbound Links
One of the key reasons why social media is so important in SEO is because it encourages external sites to link to you. As you may already know, the more external links your website has the more authority it gains in the eyes of Google. However, for this to happen, you need to provide high quality and authoritative content in order to attract links.
Consider social media as a broadcast channel where you broadcast your original and useful content. On social media, you use your content as bait. For more visibility, make use of Hashtags and bring your content into existing discussions and threads. You should also not be afraid to ask your followers to re-tweet or re-share your content. The more people see your content the more you will optimize your potential for external link sources.
3) Influence Social Sharing
The secret to success on social media marketing is to encourage sharing. The more people share your content, the greater the number of people will see it. Likes, favorites, shares, replies and re-tweets all count towards increased authority.
To encourage increased social sharing, appeal to your followers directly. You can offer special rewards for anyone that shares your post such as entry into a draw for a prize. Interactive surveys that encourage people to ‘like’ or ‘comment’ will also work in your favor.
The simple truth in influencing social sharing is that the more people share your content, the more followers you will win. This will subsequently results in even more shares and increased traffic to your website.
4) Consider Posts that are Locally-Optimized
The social media offers great opportunities to engage the local community. For example, if your firm will be involved in a local event, make this known via social media. This is a great way of sending the word out and encoring larger turnouts. You should also take pictures and make posts of the events your company attends. This will not only reinforce your participation within the community but also make your company more visible in the local searches.
5) Make Your Posts Searchable
The fact that you are targeting persons on social media does not mean your posts don’t need to be searchable. Most of the posts on social media feature on search engine results. Making sure you incorporate the right keywords in your post will therefore increase your post’s visibility.
READ MORE: How to combine SEO and social media to grow your business audience
6) Use Long-Tail Keywords
Google recently changed its algorithm. In the past, all you need for your content to be ranked high was keywords that were relevant to your post. This is no longer the case. The new Google algorithms update focuses on keyword intent and search user needs.
If you have been keen on SEO, you may have realized that search engines are today able to give accurate results based on a question typed on the search box. This is because the new algorithm is based on understanding exactly how people talk. Voice searches are also available. Long-tail keywords are hence the best options in today’s SEO strategies.
7) Social Media Ranks in Search Engines
Your social media profile will influence the content of your search results. More often than not, social media profiles are ranked among the top results in search listings for most brand names. This is because social channels are perceived by search engines to be more personal than web pages.
Your social profiles matter significantly to search engines especially for people who are searching for you. Having several social media profiles will increase your chances of being found with ease. All in all, you must keep all your profiles active and with as many connections or followers as possible.
8) Social Media Channels used as Search Engines
Social media influences the decision of shoppers in many ways. For example, before buying a new product, people search the social media to see what other people have to say about that product. If your product or brand does not appear on social media, there is a good chance you will be ignored.
To be successful online, you have to be active on all major social media sites. For example, if you are active on twitter, it will be easy for new customers to discover your new app when they search for apps using the Twitter search engine. Simply put, you must expand from the traditional search engines to the social search engines.
Conclusion
The internet is all about building relationships and there is no better way of doing this than through the social media. With a huge number of followers on social media and an active account, you will have a louder voice when marketing online.
Vinod Jethwani is the CEO and Founder of Walnut Solutions and he helps web based companies with his SEO strategies to grown their revenue. He started his career in 2007 as a software developer with an Indian based MNC and later in 2011 became an entrepreneur. Follow him on Twitter @VinodJethwani or through his blog.
