Currently, the SMM industry is worth over $7.5 billion. Studies show that at least 90 percent of marketers partially rely on social media to help in brand promotion and in connecting with both potential and prevailing markets.
People that are not familiar with digital marketing usually think that social media and SEO are separate entities, with completely different goals. But the reality is organic social media and SEO work together to create value and give your audience the best content. If any digital strategy is to become a success, it should integrate social media and there are several ways this can happen as discussed in this article.
How Social Media Can Improve SEO
1. Google-Twitter Partnership
Google has a partnership which Twitter but we are yet to know its impact on the future of search and social marketing. But it’s not strange to see relevant tweets in a number of Google search results, for branded searches. When Twitter posts show up in search results, they don’t have any effect on a site’s SEO but can improve brand authority, awareness and increase link building with other sites.
One major way to take advantage of this partnership is tweeting often. Provided the partnership lasts, user search will lead Twitter hashtags and tweets with the similar keywords.
2. Increased Brand Awareness
Social media increases brand awareness which in turn improves SEO. As much as this seems to offer more branding advantages than SEO advantages, SEO benefits largely. If you increase your brand reputation on social media by publishing consistently and increasing engagement, you will have more online brand presence. If brand presence increases consistently, you will eventually get more branded searches on Google. The number of branded searches a brand receives is directly proportional to its potential rank for non-branded keywords.
3. Social Media Promotes Content
Social media indirectly helps search engine ranking with content promotion. No matter the amount and quality of content you produce or the level of optimisation you do for it, there is no guarantee it will get the desired attention. With social media, you have the ability to take your content and promote it on several channels.
The biggest advantage with social media is the ease and effectiveness with which you can pass your SEO-based content. As much as incoming links from social media may not compare to authentic links from high quality sites, they have an ability to significantly influence your time-on-site engagement and bounce rate. If your content is high quality and your audience is spends time on your site, the engagement metrics will communicate value to search engines.
4. Social Sharing may Result in Link Building
Social media can lead to link from highly influential websites. Upon realising the potential of social media, influencers are now using it more than ever. By having high-quality content on the same platforms they’re on, you stand a chance of catching their attention, and if lucky enough they’ll see it and link to it from their blog or websites. Without social media, it may be impossible for you to get such high-value link building from influencer marketing.
Social media also increase the likelihood of more external sites linking to your content, and the number of external links you have is directly proportional the authority you’ll gain from Google’s eyes. The idea is you must have high-quality and authoritative content or the probability of attracting links will be very low.
5. Social Media Encourages Engagement
Social media can improve a site’s SEO by increasing engagement. For example, if a person finds your content and shares with other social media users, this won’t have any impact on how search engines rank you but is engagement. Good news is that engagement matters for SEO.
Other than improving your online reputation, engagement also generates leads for your business and increases the number of connections. Content with high engagement on social media ranks for the topics it covers.
Balancing Social Media Practices and SEO
You need to straighten social networks and SEO efforts so your brand can get maximum exposure because the two enhance each other.
The following strategies can help balance your social media practices and SEO
i) Incorporating Social Media into Your Website
Enmesh social sharing tools in your website architecture. This includes; adding social media sharing buttons to individual posts, including Google Authorship for site factors, including social media commenting functionality, including social network sharing button to your electronic newsletters, and adding social media profile badges to homepages.
ii) Align SEO Keywords and Social Media
Compare your SEO keywords and social media keywords and leverage replicate keywords across all your outlets, including your Facebook page, LinkedIn business page, Slideshare deck titles, and press release headlines.
Make sure to include the keywords both in static content and in day-to-day content. This will produce the best results.
iii) Frame Your SMM in From the Keywords’ Perspective
Keywords are very important for SEO. You need to centre your SMM around the same keywords as this will focus on your target audience with pinpoint accuracy.
Start with the broad themes that attract followers, and narrow into more specific keywords. Make sure to figure out the specific keywords or keyword phrases your followers browse your social network with.
iv) Capture Attention when Wave is at the Peak
Be on the lookout for the hottest topics so you can capitalise in time if you wait until too late, there are high chances you will be lost in the sound.
Use social listening software to proactively tune into topics your audience is discussing. This way, you won’t have to wait to determine what becomes hot to create your own content as by then everybody else will have.
v) Measure Success and take Corrective Action
Just like any other digital marketing effort, you must monitor to know what’s working or not working. Consistently monitor your social media activity and internet site to get your accomplishments and failures.
Analyse traffic or volume, but most importantly, the quality as this is what will give you real sense of whether your SMM and SEO methods are effectively reflecting each other.While in most instances social media helps improve a website’s rank in search engine results, with time it will have other invaluable benefits. One of them is ability to use social media to increase conversions and organic traffic through search.
Because SEO directly benefits from social media, SMM efforts bring great benefits to the digital marketing strategy. Also, a successful marketing strategy must take into account content development because content is a very important element of social engagement and SEO.
