Social Media SEO

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Is Social Media a Ranking Factor

No. So why do SEO experts talk about social media marketing?
The answer to this question is not as straightforward as it appears. Indeed, social media is not a ranking factor. But it impacts the website rank. Is it confusing?
Let’s explain.
Reviews, shares, retweets, likes, are called social signals. The more reach your social media post has, the more visitors you’ll get on the website. It could lead to an increase in the conversion rate.
Now wouldn’t that affect your website rank? It would, right?
Also, just as the crawls search through our website, they do the same to your social media pages as well. That’s why you see Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube pages in search results.
Combine both and add another factor called brand recognition. You’ve got social media playing an indirect role in increasing visibility, website traffic, and ultimately the website rank.

Does Social Media Support SEO

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Yes. Social media indirectly supports SEO in many ways-

• It improves the visibility of the brand on the internet
• It increases brand recognition
• It builds brand reputation
• It increases the lifespan of the posts
• It helps in distributing content across various digital platforms
• It boosts local SEO and brings organic traffic

Search engines can recognize a post gets a lot of likes/ shares/ comments on social media. They will notice that the brand is gaining popularity by sharing posts relevant to the target audience. It will lead to a better website rank.
We’ve previously talked about brand recognition. Does it mean that it considers the number of page likes or followers? No. Brand recognition refers to the percentage of activity on a post shared by the business on social media. If you are active on social media, your website will benefit from it.

How You Can Use Social Media To Improve SEO

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1. Use Quality Contents in Your Social Media Posts

SEO is not what it was a few years ago. Back then, you could get results by sharing content with a lot of keywords, irrespective of whether it helped the audiences or not. But now, keyword stuffing will penalize your website.
The search engine algorithm is ever-changing. Website posts are alone not enough to survive the increasing competition.
What you need is high-quality content on the website and social media. The quality and usability of the content decide the reach of the post. It can be your Facebook posts, tweets, Instagram posts, YouTube videos, blogs on Medium, LinkedIn, or Pinterest.
Instead of posting ten random posts every day, if you put up one well-researched post, you are likely to get better results from it.
But how will you know what kind of posts will get the reach you want? There’s a procedure called the Skyscraper Technique. In this technique, you search for the leading topics in the relevant industry and check top links. Then create similar (and latest) content using the keywords and post it.
People who have linked to the original content will follow yours as it offers them the latest information on the topic.

2. Optimize the Social Media Images for Search Engines

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When you hear the word ‘content’, you will automatically link it to text. But content also includes images, videos, and infographics. Images are important for Social Media SEO. By optimizing the images on the posts, you can attract more audience and increase the reach of the posts.
How to optimize images? You can use WordPress plug-ins to do that. Many bloggers, influencers, and business owners noticed an increase in website traffic after optimizing the images.
The reason is quite simple. We all know that visuals have a greater impact on the human mind. When you compare a block of text and an attractive image, the brain will want to focus on the image. And if the picture also has a text on it, it becomes even easier for people to read, understand, and retain the information. People also share the post with others in their social media profiles.
Use high-quality and clear images. You can add the logo of the business in a corner to further promote the brand.
If you are using images from the internet, make sure they are copyright-free. There are popular websites like Canva that allow you to create attractive visuals for social media.

3. Create Social Media Posts That are Easy to Share

How will your post reach several people on social media, especially if they do not follow your page? You can’t promote/ sponsor every post (through ads) to reach a wider audience.
The easiest way to achieve your target is by making it easy for the users to share your posts. Social media has already set the stage for it. Will just one click, you can share a post on Facebook on personal timelines. It’s the same with Twitter and YouTube.
You can share the posts on Medium and LinkedIn. And you can also share it on various social media platforms through the ‘share post’ option at the bottom of the page. You will need to activate this option to allow visitors to promote your posts.
But, why will a visitor share a post? What if they don’t? Is there any other way? Yes.
That’s where creativity comes into the picture. Your post should engage the audiences and make them respond.
Ask a question, tell them to drop a ‘hi’ in the comments, create a hashtag and ask them to share it with the post, run a Q&A session or a tiny contest, or simply wish them with a cute image.

4. Optimize Your Social Media Profiles

How do users and prospective customers choose you? They check your website, yes. But they also check your social media pages. It is similar to running a background check before hiring employees.
Your social media profile should be up to date and provide them with authentic information. The more details you add, the higher will be the chances of the prospective customer contacting you.
Imagine changing your contact number and forgetting to update it on Facebook. You might have lost a share of customers because they called the previous phone number and did not find you.
Users are hardly going to waste time to know more about your business. They will simply go to a competitor. It is something you cannot afford in today’s market.
Also, it is necessary to optimize the profiles on all social media platforms and align them. Use the same image (preferably the logo of the business) as the profile picture. Include a brief history of the business and share links to the website and contact email.
And most importantly, your profiles and posts should reflect your brand’s core values. Don’t share contradicting posts on different social media platforms.

5. Focus on Building Relationships - Engage in Conversations with the Audiences

We’ve talked about engaging content to increase visibility. But engaging content also builds relationships, which are vital for any business to grow and thrive.
Interacting with the audience is one of the best ways to prove your credibility. People prefer businesses where the staff engages with them by responding to questions ad queries. Be prompt, be polite, and be assertive.
While having a standard response template is a wonderful idea, a bit of personalization will add to the advantage. You will also be able to understand your target audiences better and cater to their requirements.
Direct interaction will give you insights which a general survey, done on a random sample audience, cannot provide.
Do you have to wait for the audience to ask you a question? Of course not. You can ask them a question and reach out to them. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (stories) allow you to create poll posts. Ask the audience to share the post so that more people can vote.
Start a discussion about a topic related to the brand. You can also talk about social and political scenarios. But, make sure it correlates with your business values and the target audience.

6. Target the Local Audience Through Social Media

Do you know that local SEO impacts your website rank? Search engines track how well you interact and engage with the local audience. Though having a global audience will bring more traffic, you can no way ignore your local audience. They are a must for your business to survive online and offline.
Adding the business to Google My Business, local listings, and directories are one way to make the people in the region aware of your business. But how can you do the same on social media?
For one, live videos are a great way to let people know about the business location. If there is an event or a gathering near your business, you can live to stream it through your social media accounts.
Live videos have a lot of reach on Facebook and Instagram. You can post pictures and tag the location. Mention in the description that the event was close to your store/ office.
You can interact with the organizers of the event and tag them on your posts for greater visibility. Use their hashtag and include yours as well. It will be a win-win situation for both of you.

7. Generate External Links Through Social Media

Link building is a factor considered by the search engines for website ranking. However, the focus is on quality links. That means you will need links to the website from platforms that have high value and authority.
Thanks to its popularity, Facebook gets the highest authority in this aspect. A link on Facebook is going to give your website good traffic and visibility. People say that your Facebook page (even if it is new) is likely to have a higher rank than your business website.
That’s the reason we talked about optimizing your social media profiles and including the website links in each profile.
That alone is not going to be enough. You will need to include the links in your posts as well. How do you do that without annoying the users?
One way is to post the content on the website blog and share this link on Facebook and Twitter. A preview of the link will show users what the content is about.
One-click on the post will take them to the webpage. You can add a small description to the original post and ask users to check the link for more information.

8. Increase the Follower Base

We did that say the number of followers is not an SEO factor. But does that mean you will not increase your followers? No, right?
However, you have to be careful about the approach you choose to build a solid follower base on social media. There are ways to add followers to the page irrespective of whether they will contribute to the growth or not.
Some methods are legitimate, while others are not.
But to what extent will these followers help in boosting the reach is the main question.
The most important thing your business needs is an organic base of followers who are active on social media. They could be your employees, customers, partners, other businesses in the region whom you follow, and prospective customers who like the content you share.
Once you decide on your target audience, create posts that will make them want to stay in touch with your page.
Organize contests and giveaways and ask them to like/ follow the profile. Then, share it on their timelines as a part of the participating rules. Be consistent in sharing quality, valuable, and authentic content that your target audience will love.

9. Keep in Mind That Social Media is Also a Search Engine

Yes, social media platforms also function as search engines. They are not the same as Google and Bing. But, we cannot ignore the fact that users search for things, topics, news, brands, products, and services on social media.

• If a person is looking for a video tutorial, they are more likely to search on YouTube because of the exclusivity it offers.
• Similarly, if the user is looking for a giveaway contest, they are going to search on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram (possibly on all three).
• Pinterest is another platform that has a lot of users who pin themes, images, and ideas to their boards.

Also, as we mentioned in the earlier points, users check social media platforms to see if you have a profile and are active or not.
When a user finds a social media page that was last active a year ago, what kind of impression would it create on them? If the Instagram account hardly has a post or two, will the user want to do business with your brand?
On the other hand, a verified social media profile is a stamp of authenticity. It will encourage users to try your business.

10. Measure and Evaluate Your Social Media Performance

Now that we have a list of things to do. How will we know if our efforts are delivering the results?
Posting, commenting, and conversing is essential. But, tracking and evaluating the results of these actions is also equally important. It will help you identify which strategies are working and which ones need to be improved.
People use social media for various purposes. It can be creating brand awareness, increasing engagement, getting organic website traffic, or increasing sales and profits. One way to measure social media traffic is through Google Analytics.
Also, the platforms themselves provide in-depth insights into the number of views, comments, shares, and the demographic details of the users. You can see the gender, age group, location, time frame, and many other details of users who saw the post. The analytics will show pie, bar, and line graphs and give you a gist of the overall reach of the post.
You will need to regularly check this data and compare it with the conversion rate on the website. Your social media performance will have a significant impact on your ROI.

Best Social Media Websites to Use:

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1. Reddit

Reddit is scary and overwhelming to first-time users. It has such a blend of topics, themes, and posts. Usually understanding how it works can take a while. But the platform is popular among the young crowd. If your target audiences range between 18-35 years, Reddit is the place for you to promote your business.
But remember that this is not a marketing platform. If you blatantly promote your business, you may end up with negative results. The trick here is to become one of them, interact with them regularly, and talk about your brand. Recognition is important on any social media platform, and Reddit is no different.
Start by identifying subreddits that are relevant to the business. Read the descriptions of each one and follow them. People use the platform to find answers to various questions. The best way to get some traction is by answering these questions and backlinking to the website. Don’t forget to add a disclaimer.
Check the popular content and identify the keywords. Start posting similar stuff and get upvoted. It is going to time and effort, so be prepared. Reddit can bring some great SEO results if you consistently work on it.

2. Linkedin

LinkedIn is a famous B2B social networking platform. It is professional and official as opposed to the laidback and fun-loving platforms like Facebook and Instagram. That said, LinkedIn is not a portal to share your business details and expect wonders.
Social Media SEO works when you provide as much information as possible. Fill the business profile with the required information and include links to the website and other social media pages. Google will find it easier to connect your accounts and boost your business.
Keywords are important but don’t overuse them. You have a limited word count. Create a positive impression by emphasizing the values of the business. Check out the connections recommended by LinkedIn. It will serve better to interact with them and stay in touch.
You can share posts by writing a new one on LinkedIn or by sharing a link to the website blog. Provide a backlink on the website and other social media accounts to the LinkedIn profile.
While it is not clear whether endorsements help organic SEO, they sure serve the same purpose as reviews do on Google. It’s good to get some recommendations, especially from accounts with better connections.

3. Medium

Medium is something like an upscale blogging platform with high-quality content. It doesn’t matter how old a post is; if it is of good quality, it’ll show up in the search results. And Medium is very SEO-friendly. You can see a good number of Medium links on the search engine results page.
From a business point of view, having a blog on Medium is a great way to increase brand recognition and visibility. You don’t have to post content regularly, either. Whatever you post should have the required keywords and should be of good quality.
You can republish content from the website to Medium (with a disclaimer) and reach an all-new set of audiences. Create a theme or a collection related to the business industry and start posting blogs with useful information. Text, images, infographics, and even comic strips work on Medium. The content has to be meaningful and attractive.
Give a backlink to the business website at the end of each post. You can hyperlink the keywords and share links to other social media accounts. Just remember that Medium is where you share information rather than promote a brand. Provide something of value to the users.

4. Twitter

Twitter is a famous microblogging website that can boost bring your brand a lot of visibility and traffic. The content on Twitter is short and to the point, so much that you have only 280 characters to write a single post. How can something like this help?
Well, for starters, it is easy to read multiple posts on Twitter. People scroll through their newsfeed reading, liking, and retweeting posts at a great speed. You can add images and videos to increase visibility.
There are quite a few ways to use Twitter to get SEO results. (Remember, your tweets also show up on the search engine results page).

• Hashtags are keywords - use no more than 3 in your post.
• Optimize the handle - keep the same username across all platforms. No numbers or funny characters. Keep it professional.
• Optimize the bio - use the 160 characters wisely. Tell what the business is about in easy words.
• Include any awards/ recognition the brand has received.
• Add website link - also add the Twitter account link to the website. It will create more credibility.
• Get the business account verified - the blue tick will do its job.

5. Facebook

Oh well, don’t we all love Facebook? Even Google does and considers it a high-authority source. When your website gets traffic from links shared on Facebook, it’ll help increase the credibility.
The reviews on Facebook show up on the search results page just as the posts do. You have countless ways to promote the brand aggressively. You can also work on your brand to get better SEO results through Facebook.

• Start with the name of the business page. You can include a primary keyword to bring more traction. Keep it short and related to the business.
• From the about section of the posts to captions and notes, you can use keywords anywhere. Scatter them throughout.
• Fill in the details. Users want to know your address, contact information, and a website link.
• Choose the business category right. It is very important and will decide your target audience range.
• Add custom buttons on the page. You can add a ‘call’ button on the header. It will help the users can directly call your office for information.
• Don’t forget to claim the custom URL Facebook provides when you create a page. Keep the name as the one used on other social media platforms.

6. Pinterest

Pinterest is a colourful platform that offers various opportunities to discover new ideas and businesses. Backlinking to the website will generate substantial organic traffic.
You can also opt for paid traffic from Pinterest. The platform is different from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, in many ways. The first difference is the way you use the keywords. The second one is the ranking factor.
A business account will allow you to see Analytics (similar to other social media platforms) and access the Ads Manager. Use the same name as other profiles and keep it SEO-friendly. The business name usually does the job.
Don’t ignore the ‘about’ section. Fill in the details, and yes, including the website link. Then start creating boards.
The board name is also important to get visibility. What’s your business industry? What do you offer? What kind of information can you share? The answers to these questions will determine the type of boards you create for users to pin.
By creating a small HTML code, you can add a save button to the images on the website. Users can save the images in the app.

• Link your website to Pinterest.
• Verify the site for more credibility.
• Keep posting useful content.

7. Quora

Quora is a community-answered Q&A platform. It is a place where users get answers to questions. So how does it help businesses?
Simple. You answer the questions and leave a CTA at the end of the answer. Add the website link to your profile. Answer as many industry-relevant questions as possible.
Also, Quora is a wonderful place to identify longtail keywords. Since users ask the questions, the presence of a keyword in a question is doubtful. But you can use the keywords in the answer. Not just that, you can also blog on Quora and put up detailed posts about various topics related to your business.
One thing to keep in mind is the tone of your answer. Make sure it is conversational, clear, and detailed. Users are not looking for promotional responses. Of course, you should add a backlink to the website at the end of your answer. You can also hyperlink keywords to specific webpages so that users will be able to get more information.
You can use the keywords you identify on Quora on other social media platforms. Quora answers also show up on the search results page and thus boost SEO results.

8. Youtube

YouTube is where you find an endless collection of videos for billions of people across the globe. From personal to educative to funny to promotional, the range of topics and themes is vast. But how does it help with Social Media SEO? How will sharing videos on YouTube improve the website rank?
Well, this platform works differently compared to others. It has its own set of rules and procedures. YouTube SEO is different, yet the same when compared to regular search engine optimization. That’s because YouTube is a search engine itself, though not as huge as Google.
But anyone who wants to watch a video goes to YouTube, not the Google search page. The preference is visual content. However, it doesn’t mean that keywords are not important.
On the contrary, keywords decide the reach of your videos. More visibility will bring more views and more subscribers. When you add the website link to the profile and a backlink with every post’s description, you are increasing the chances of bringing more traffic to the website.
The keyword(s) should be in the video title, description, and tags. Add a custom thumbnail image for each video. Use cards and end screens on the video as CTA buttons.

9. Tumblr

Tumblr is another image-dominated microblogging social networking platform. It appears like a mix of WordPress, Facebook, and Twitter. The company removed external backlinks in 2016. But you can still embed links to images and get backlinks to the website.
So how does it work? Well, the initial steps are the same. You create a business account and use the same username mentioned on other platforms. Then you add a Tumblr button to your website so that visitors will know that you have an account there. These buttons will show up on the search results page, along with your Google Business profile.
Images are crucial in Tumblr. Even if you want to put up a good morning post, make sure it is an image. Embed the website link to the image.
Also, this is a place where people follow one another. You can build a good follower base. But, you will need to follow accounts (personal and business) that are in some way related to your business industry. Be regular, share useful posts, and interact with other users (reshare their posts). Keywords are essential, and you should not ignore that at any cost.
Are you looking for more help on social media SEO? Speak with our social media marketing experts today or drop your details here.