SEO Ranking Relationships With Social Media
For many years, it has been a common debate on whether social media affects your SEO rankings or not. Here’s what we think; social media affects your SEO rankings indirectly.
Though social media marketing is one of the important marketing strategies all businesses should implement, all of these digital marketing strategies work hand in hand with one another.
What Are Social Media Signals?
First, let’s dive into what exactly are social signals.
Social signals refer to the number of likes, shares, comments, in short, the overall engagement your content gets on social media platforms.
Source: SEOsmooth.com
Most of the social media backlinks are NoFollow links, and Google themselves have confirmed that social signals do not count as a ranking factor on search engines. However, according to research done by optinmonster in 2019 matches the data done by HootSuite in 2018 where Social Popularity helps your website rank better.
Wondering why? Brand awareness! Google considers Brand Entity in SEO too!
How To Improves Your SEO Ranking With Social Media?
So, how do social media work together with SEO for ranking indirectly? It’s actually based on several factors.
1. Brings Traffic Back To Your Website
If you already have an active social media presence, you can use your social media following to drive the traffic to your website. Without a doubt, traffic to your website plays a part in your SEO rankings.
We all know the more traffic you get to your website, Google sees it as an authority and trustworthy website.
2. Social Media Profiles Appear On Search Engines
Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and so on naturally have very high domain authority. If a customer searches your company or business name on Google, your social media profiles will appear at the top of the first page.
Make sure you link your website on your social media profiles though! That’s when you’ll drive even more traffic to your website since social media platforms tend to always rank at the top of the first pages.
3. Keywords In Your Social Media Posts
The basis of search engines is keywords. When you include particular keywords on your social media posts, they’ll tend to appear when a user searches for that particular keyword on the search engines as well.
4. Content Marketing Is Key
Just like this social media experiment by HootSuite, the quality of your content plays a vital role. It doesn’t matter if you’re updating your social media platforms regularly if you’re not putting out good content, nobody will share or like your posts!
When you are posting valuable content, naturally, you will get many likes, shares and comments, which in return, helps to drive traffic back to your website.
5. Youtube SEO
Little did you know, Youtube also plays a part in SEO. Why? Search engines tend to display several videos on the first page as well. You don’t only see links to articles and websites!
With the right keywords and strategy, you can leverage by using Youtube to increase your SEO ranking.
Tips On Increasing Your Social Media Signals For SEO Ranking
1. Catchy or click-bait Headlines
Using unique, quirky headlines that are clickbait naturally will encourage users to click on your post. This is why it is also important to have a blog section on your website so that you can share them on your social media platforms to drive users back to your website.
2. Provide Call-to-Actions (CTAs)
Include some call-to-actions leading back to your website when you’re posting on your social media platforms. By including CTAs, you’ll encourage more user engagement not only to your website, but also on your social media platforms too.
3. Be Consistent
Google likes new, fresh content. Make sure to be active on social media in order to appear on the search engine results. Google is constantly seeking out fresh content and display them on the first page of search engines.
4. Building Brand Awareness
Again, this will not influence SEO directly. However, most of the users tend to believe online reviews, including Facebook posts. When you get customers to review on Google or Facebook, they’ll tend to influence new customers to purchase or engage with your service since you are viewed as trustworthy. It could also help build your reputation online. People are constantly searching for things online, so if you are able to maintain a good online presence, you’ll get customers instantly!
5. Social Media Shares
Provide an easy way for users to share content from your website on their social media platforms. Having social media sharing buttons on your website is important so users can straight away share your content if they find it relatable or informative.
In The Long Run, Social Media Signals Aren’t Sustainable (But Crucial For Brands)
The thing about social signals is that let’s say you managed to create viral content, and you’ll get shares and likes for maybe over a few weeks. Once the hype of your content dies down, you won’t be able to get steady traffic.
Source: ConvinceAndConvert.com
As shown in the image above, you can see the traffic for direct and referral (also known as social media platforms) have dropped. For the search traffic, however, it increased. This is the case for most of the organic traffic for websites.
With social media, it’s quick and fast to get traffic coming in. But this only lasts for a limited period of time. It won’t be a steady stream of traffic unless you have a huge following and most of your content you post will go viral.
If you want a steady stream of traffic, consider investing more in SEO instead of spending money on social media platforms. There are pros and cons to both, but for a more sustainable result, SEO is the way to go.
All in all, social media isn’t something that you should ignore. No matter what, social media plays a very important role in driving traffic to your website and increasing your sales.
When you combine social media with SEO, you’ll be surprised at how effective it is.
If you’re looking for someone to help you with your SEO, we are happy to aid you with our expertise and boost your rankings! Combine your digital marketing efforts with PPC, and you’re on your way to achieving your KPI and increasing your ROI.