In today’s digital age, it is vital for businesses to have an online presence to stay competitive. One of the key components of online marketing is search engine optimization (SEO), which refers to optimizing a website’s content and structure to rank higher in search engine results pages. Social media, on the other hand, refers to platforms that allow individuals and organizations to connect, share, and exchange information.
Although social media and SEO may seem like two separate entities, there is a strong relationship between the two. Ultimately, they each serve as resources to discover and provide information.
Social media has become integral to digital marketing, providing businesses with opportunities to increase brand awareness, engage with their target audience, and drive traffic to their website. This article will explore the relationship between social media and SEO and how businesses can integrate both to improve their online presence and overall digital marketing strategy.
How social media impacts SEO
Social media plays a big role in helping companies get their content in front of a larger audience. When you get a lot of traffic to your website, search engines that crawl the internet will notice and think your brand is credible. Then, they might place your search result higher than others. So, if you post interesting, incredibly click-worthy social media content, you might see a boost in traffic.
Google ranks websites with robust social profiles, but those profiles aren’t directly influencing those rankings. Those websites as a whole have to perform well across multiple SEO strategies to rank highly. Social media can have an indirect impact on SEO as it can serve as a source of backlinks and a source of referral traffic. Leveraging both strategies will give you more chances for audiences to discover your brand.
Backlinks
Content can spread easily through social media, even if you don’t have many followers. Social media sharing buttons on your blog and website encourage visitors to share content on social media platforms. All it takes is one person linking back to you for even more people to see it.
Backlinks are a huge part of SEO. Google looks at backlinks as a source of trust in its E-E-A-T guidelines. They show search engines that other people find the content on your website valuable.
It’s important to note that SEO authority is not passed to your site when you post social media messages (such as tweets and Facebook status updates). These platforms are typically no-follow links. However, the URL you use in the body of these posts is a follow link and impacts your site’s authority and trustworthiness.
Referral traffic
Social media is an excellent source of referral traffic for websites because it allows users to share links to your websites or content. With the vast number of social media users, you can leverage their social media presence to promote their products or services and share links to your website. When users share your link on social media, their followers or connections can click on it and be directed to your website. This generates referral traffic, which is traffic that comes from another website rather than from search engines.
Referral traffic from social media platforms can be particularly valuable because it tends to be highly targeted and engaged. When users engage with your content by liking, commenting, or sharing, they create a pathway for referral traffic to your website. As social media platforms evolve, you can use features such as social media ads or influencers to reach a larger audience and drive more traffic to your website.
Building relationships with your audience through social media can open opportunities for guest blog posts and other link-building opportunities. Your site authority will grow when more people and credible sources see your posts on social and share your website’s link on their blogs or websites.
Social media platform-specific SEO considerations
Social media is not a ranking factor and won’t directly help your rankings. However, the ever-increasing reliance on social media builds trust with your audience, which indirectly affects your SEO. Think of your social media profile pages as extensions of your website.
Your social media profiles can give a different view of your business than your website alone and provide additional information for those who want it. If you’re just getting started with SEO, social media can also help attract visitors sooner than search engines. Learning how to use social media to attract visitors could be the boost you need.
Most businesses have social media profiles across multiple platforms which helps users regard these businesses as legitimate. Consumers tend to view businesses without a social media presence as untrustworthy. Note that different social platforms provide separate opportunities to expand your SEO. Some of the most commonly used platforms are
- YouTube
Arguably the most popular social media platform, Facebook has nearly 3 billion monthly users. Businesses that utilize Facebook as an SEO platform have a high chance of improving their visibility in search engine rankings. Creating high-quality content regularly while utilizing keywords in your posts and page descriptions increases your chances of appearing in search results related to your industry or niche.
You can leverage Facebook’s features, such as Facebook Live, Facebook Groups, and Facebook Ads, to boost your SEO efforts. For example, hosting a Facebook Live event can create engagement with your audience, increase visibility, and drive traffic to your business’s website. Participating in relevant Facebook Groups or creating one can also help your business connect with your target audience and promote your products or services. Additionally, Facebook Ads can be a cost-effective way to reach a larger audience and drive traffic to your business’s website or Facebook page.
YouTube
With the second highest number of active monthly users at 2.2 billion users, YouTube is the largest video-sharing social media platform and, technically, the second largest search engine. You can use your videos to engage with viewers and build a community around your channel with informative clips, industry insights, and presentations about your products or services. Shares, likes, and comments on your videos signal to YouTube’s algorithm that your content is valuable and relevant to your audience, which can help to improve your search rankings on YouTube and other search engines.
By encouraging viewers to engage with video content, your business can increase its watch time, a key metric that YouTube uses to rank content. Additionally, you can use YouTube’s community features, such as comments and live streaming, to interact with your audience and build relationships.
Use relevant keywords in your videos’ titles, descriptions, tags, and captions to capitalize on inquiries for those terms. Including closed captions and transcripts can also help to improve the accessibility of videos and increase their chances of being ranked higher on search engine results pages. You can use YouTube’s annotations and end screens to link to your website and social media pages, increasing your online visibility.
A visual-centric social media platform, Instagram has over 2 billion active monthly users. Google places a high emphasis on geographically relevant results for its users, making Instagram’s location tagging feature a great benefit to target local audiences and increase your visibility in local search results.
Instagram relies heavily on hashtags to discover and categorize content, making using relevant and targeted hashtags in posts, stories, and reels necessary. Instagram Stories and Reels are short-form video content that disappears after 24 hours and can be used to engage with audiences and drive traffic to a brand’s website or social media pages. You can further your audience reach and visibility by including your keywords in your bio, captions, and hashtags.
Another visual-centric platform, Pinterest has 444 million active monthly users. Pinterest’s search engine is image-based, which means that it uses visual signals, such as colors, shapes, and patterns, to identify and rank content. This platform allows users to save and discover ideas on virtual pinboards.
Pinterest is the platform where you leverage your visual appeal and search capabilities. Creating posts and shareable pinboards encourages users to engage with your content through likes, comments, and shares. You can utilize Pinterest’s group boards to interact with your audience and build relationships.
Twitter can be a powerful tool because of its real-time nature and the potential for content to go viral. With 217 million active monthly users, incorporating relevant keywords and hashtags into tweets provides a great platform for businesses and individuals to increase their visibility. Additionally, Twitter’s search function allows users to filter results by date, location, and other factors, making it easier for you to target specific audiences and demographics.
In addition to keyword optimization, you can use Twitter to build backlinks to your website or other social media profiles. By sharing links to blog posts, articles, and other valuable content, your business can increase its domain authority and improve your search engine rankings. Furthermore, by engaging with other users and influencers in your industry, your business can increase your reach and attract new followers, further boosting your online visibility and SEO efforts.
The future outlook on the relationship between social media and SEO
The relationship between social media and SEO has been evolving rapidly over the years. With 4.65 billion social media users, accounting for about 59% of the global population, many use social media as a primary source of information. Google’s March 2023 core update focuses on content, making creating high-quality content that engages users and builds authority for your brand an essential factor for your digital marketing.
While not a direct factor in SEO rankings, social media still significantly influences SEO in many indirect ways. For example, social media helps you build brand awareness, drive website traffic, and improve engagement metrics.
An important factor to consider is the increasing emphasis on user experience in social media and SEO. Search engines place more importance on user engagement metrics, such as click-through rates, time spent on site, and bounce rates. Similarly, social media platforms prioritize content that generates meaningful user interactions and engagement. In the future, brands that focus on creating high-quality content that resonates with their target audience across social media and other digital channels will likely see the greatest benefits in terms of both SEO and social media performance.
Improve your social outreach
Social media and SEO are intricately linked, and businesses need to consider their social media strategy when working on their SEO efforts. Social media impacts SEO in several ways, including providing valuable backlinks, social signals, and increased visibility. However, it’s important to consider platform-specific SEO considerations for different social media platforms. As social media continues to evolve, the relationship between social media and SEO will likely become even more integrated, with social media engagement signals becoming increasingly important ranking factors for search engines.
My Website Spot has been creatively involved in social media platforms’ SEO landscape and relevance since 2005. Our experts are well-versed in various industries and marketing strategies that help businesses reach their target audience. From content creation to social media outreach and implementing diverse tactics, our outside perspective gives you a new way to look at your business and reach wider audiences.
My Website Spot is always willing to give free advice about your SEO strategies. Drop us a line, and we’ll help you find your spot at the top of search engine rankings.
