5 Ways Social Media Can Improve SEO

Social media is one of the most popular ways to market your business today. It’s affordable, efficient, and constantly improving.  But many companies, small businesses in particular, don’t know how to approach social media in order to improve every aspect of their marketing. It shouldn’t be treated as a separate entity. Instead, it should be treated like a partner for search engine optimization.

When you adopt this ideology, you join the majority of marketers who interweave the two strategies. According to surveys, approximately 74 percent of companies and 82 percent of marketing agencies believe that social media and SEO should be highly integrated for SEO success.

These marketers have discovered that things like link building, great social profiles, and social search engines all play an important role in search engine rankings.

If you’re looking to improve the connection between social media and SEO, here are some things that may help:

1. Grow Followers

There’s a direct correlation between search engine rankings and the total number of followers on your social media profiles. An Instagram account with 300 followers won’t have the same impact as one with 3,000 followers. Search engine algorithms recognize that engagement as a sign of higher credibility and reward it with higher rankings.

It takes time to build up a solid following, but if you’re consistent with your efforts and continually try new things, you’ll see a positive change in both the number of followers and rankings in search engine results.

2. Engage in External Linking Strategies

Link building is a useful tool in both blogging and social media. When external sites link to your content, you gain some authority in the eyes of Google. This content must be high quality and credible if you want it to make a difference in your rankings; otherwise, it won’t do anything to attract links.

Linking on social media is more important than many companies realize. Links on social media are often considered to be more high quality because social sites already have high authority rankings. Incorporating links and excellent content into each one of your social profiles can attract the right kind of attention.

3. Optimize Posts for Search

Search engines obviously rely on popular search queries when determining the kinds of content to yield in their results. Social media pages also have search engines, and though the search queries here don’t work exactly the same way, they do have some standing in how your pages rank.

Everything you post on social media needs a strong anchor, such as a high-quality blog post, video, or infographic so that it will appeal to search algorithms. You can help promote this content by framing it when it’s published with keywords, and optimizing the content.

4. Create Local Listings

Local traffic is incredibly important with social media, particularly if you’re not an online business, and Google Plus can help. This platform is excellent for highlighting user-generated content and helping customers find business profiles that match their queries.

Optimize your pages with lists of locations or maps for your business on Facebook pages and other relevant social channels. This will make it easier for local customers to find you both online and in person.

5. Use Keywords

Though keywords don’t have as much clout as they used to, they’re in no way dead. Google’s search algorithm is extremely intelligent. It can tell what a consumer wants from an entire phrase or search habits, but keywords help, particularly with social content.

When you’re pinning items on Pinterest, for example, you can use keywords in your pins and boards. Keywords on Facebook posts can also help boost your content in a few places. Don’t rely solely on keywords for rankings, but recognize that they can help.

Don’t ever underestimate the power of social media for leveraging SEO. Every aspect of your marketing campaign should be interwoven and utilized to improve other aspects, and this is no different.

Employ a few of these tricks, and watch the way your social power grows in your industry and in the search results.