7 Ways Social Media Can Boost Your SEO Rankings

Can social media affect SEO?

Social media's influence on search engine rankings has been a long-term debate. While it's been confirmed by Google that social media isn't a direct contribution to your SEO rankings, there is evidence that suggests the social signals created by this presence are influential. 

Social media was designed for mass sharing and increased visibility. Likes and shares create social signals that also have the potential to do the following:

• Distribute content further
• Improve brand reputation & recognition
• Improve the longevity of your posts
• Improves organic traffic and visibility
• Boost local SEO & hyperlocal marketing

Social signals indicate to Google that your content is of value to your target audiences which ultimately encourages the crawlers to rank you higher.

Below are 7 tactics you can implement in order to produce these influential factors and social signals within your marketing strategy.

7 Ways to use social media to boost your website's SEO (search engine ranking)

1. Publish Quality Content

When it comes to content, quality comes first. By including relevant keywords throughout your content, you're encouraging search engine crawlers to find your website and rank it for the relevant search terms.

The most effective way to produce your content is to understand the needs and pain points of your target audience. Rather than your content focusing on "this is what my service/product can do", create it with the answers to your consumer's problems in mind and how you can provide the solutions to those problems (through your service/product and your industry knowledge).

Consider sticking to a regular update schedule - when you create regular content relevant to your audiences, and post it to your website as well as your social pages, this indicates to the search engines that you're an active user.

2. Create Shareable Content

There are several reasons you might want to use social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Google Business.

But, focusing on marketing for your business, social media is there to help you reach more consumers-- to spread your brand message and increase brand awareness. 

The more users you can reach, the greater growth you'll achieve and ultimately lead generation. A call-to-action within your post encourages the user to engage with the post.

To give your content a "shareable" edge, making it more appealing and engaging to audiences, you can try implementing the following factors:

• Create headlines and captions that are attention-grabbing and compelling.
• Create appealing visuals to accompany your post.
• Ensure the content is relevant to your audiences.

When you create shareable content, you also improve the potential quality and quantity of backlinks which influence how well your website ranks.

It might take some practice and long-term commitment to your content to really start seeing results in your shares, but the outcomes are worth being patient for.

3. Fully Optimise Your Profiles

When a consumer is on the hunt for a new product or a service, part of the process now involves researching options to see if a business is legitimate and trustworthy. With this in mind, there's a good chance potential customers will research and view your social media before they reach out to you.

One factor that can really let you down during this process is having social profiles that aren't fully optimised. In order to optimise your page, maintain a consistent image across channels and align them with your blog, website and brand image as well.

Not only does this help potential customers identify you, Google loves it as well.

4. Engage With Your Audience

Social media has made it easier than ever to keep engaged with your audience. When you make the effort to keep engaged, ultimately this helps foster and strengthen the relationship.

To help build trust and establish credibility, it's important to keep engaged with your audience. There are more benefits as well - you also develop a greater understanding of their needs and the problem they're trying to solve which will assist you in marketing to them more efficiently.

You can engage with your audience through some of the following methods:

• Responding to comments
• Creating polls - this could be as simple as asking what they'd like to see in your next blog
• Asking questions in your posts that encourage a response
• Run a contest
• Promote offers such as discounts or free shipping through your posts
• Look for any questions left on your posts

5. Optimise Your Images for SEO

Did you know visual content that the human brain can identify and process images as fast as 13 milliseconds? It's no surprise with this in mind that visuals are a vital aspect of marketing. Adding imagery to your social media posts is an incredibly efficient method of spreading your message and ensuring it gets across to your audience.

To make the most of using imagery, it's important they're optimised correctly in order to help your SEO efforts.

To optimise your images, including the following:

• Name the file of the image appropriately, using relevant keywords separated by dashes.
• Ensure the images are responsive.
• Reduce the size of the file to ensure it loads faster.
• Include intriguing captions with keywords.
• Add keywords to your alt text and title text, but be sure not to engage in blackhat techniques such as keyword stuffing.
• Use top-quality photos, as they're more likely to encourage engagement.

6. Measure & Analyse Your Results

If you look at your current marketing efforts, are you measuring your results? When you don't measure your results, you can miss out on pivotal information that can help you improve your marketing success.

Knowing whether your social media is generating positive ROIs is like gold to your marketing - consider the following:

• Are you able to identify key areas that are working for you on social channels?
• Can you identify tactics you can improve or remove from your strategy?
• Are you losing money and wasting your time?

Without defined social media marketing goals and the ability to evaluate the results, you can't decipher whether your efforts have been successful.

This data also can also enable you to make more informed decisions regarding your strategy when making changes and goals.

7. Focus On Engagement Rather Than Followers

Followers will come naturally with engaging content - what is most useful to your SEO is getting those shares and likes or the social signals. When you focus on creating compelling content that encourages engagement and conversation, you're more likely to receive the shares and likes you're looking for.

Comments, likes, and shares signal to Google that your content is worthwhile and valuable to the audience you're targeting, which is why engagement should be your key focus.

One way you can approach this is through intriguing captions and story-telling, using enticing story snippets to capture the audience's attention and get them to click and share your posts.

Key Takeaways:

• Social media itself isn't a ranking factor for SEO
• Evidence suggests social signals created through social media let Google know your content is valuable to your audiences.
• You can improve your social signals through a variety of factors.
• Publish quality content that's relevant and of value regularly.
• Create content that's shareable and compelling.
• Ensure your profiles on any social channels you have are fully optimised.
• Engage with your audience by replying to comments and questions.
• Optimise any images that appear on your social channels.
• Focus on engagement rather than your follower count - engagement builds social signals and the followers may come naturally with engagement.

Overall, there are many ways you can utilise social media to the benefit of your SEO, despite the lack of direct correlation in boosting your rankings.

If you want help with your SEO or social media, learn more about our digital marketing services or get in touch with us at (07) 5636 3700 or book a consultation today for more information.