Having a successful business is like baking a cake. This might sound like a far-fetched analogy but just think about it. When baking a cake, you need all the ingredients for the cake to turn out well. So, if you skip just one ingredient, your cake will not come out the way you planned it.
For example, if you skip the baking powder, the dough will not rise in the oven. This means that your cake might be too dense, and you might not be able to cut the sponge cake in fluffy, perfect halves and put the cream between the layers. Or if you leave out the frosting, the cake will be dry and not look as tasty.
Now, the same principle can be applied to your business. If you have a fantastic SEO strategy, but no social media marketing skills, then your business will not get to the level you want it to. Simply put, you need all the ingredients to establish a solid market presence and build brand awareness and trust. Neglecting one of these aspects will only result in missed opportunities.
But what’s the relationship between social media and SEO? How do SEO and social media work together? Why are both so important and how can you combine them to get the best results for your business? Let’s find out!
The State of Social Media and SEO
By now, we all know that social media has become one of the most popular forms of marketing in the business world. If you want your company to be noticed, you will create different social media accounts for it and try to gain as many followers as possible. And this is not just a marketing gimmick, it drives real results.
But that doesn’t mean you have to forget about SEO. After all, 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine. And the fact is that when somebody is looking to buy something, a custom necklace, for example, they won’t go on Facebook to see what they can find there. They will most likely turn to Google and make a purchase based on the top results.
But how does social media impact SEO?
Let’s say you have great SEO and your website pops up first. A potential customer clicks on it, everything looks great, but they are not ready to buy because they have some doubts. So they will turn to your social media to see your posts, the number of followers, and how your company’s interacting with leads and customers.
Both SEO and social media can help your company get the clout it deserves, but the mistake that most entrepreneurs make is choosing one or the other.
Something that we have also seen business owners do is invest in both of these marketing techniques, but only half-heartedly. What most business owners don’t understand is that SEO and social media are different, which means that you need to approach them with different mindsets and tactics.
So let’s see how we can make them work together and how you can use social media for SEO purposes.
How SEO and Social Media Work Together
Let’s take the previous example. We can see that if done correctly, SEO will help prospects find your website, while social media will gain their trust by educating and entertaining them — if they choose to follow your page.
But there’s more to the collaboration between social media and SEO than this. What many people would like to know is if there is a correlation between social media shares and search ranking.
There has been a lot of research performed on this topic and the answer is not an easy one. Although social media pages do not directly improve your search rank, your website’s links shared on different platforms increase your brand’s exposure. This prompts other websites to share your website, which eventually leads to link-building and achieving a higher rank.
Does Social Media Help SEO?
Social media might not directly impact your rank and quality score, but it has a lot of benefits to offer. So if you do well on your social media platforms, your score will steadily increase as well.
So how can social media help your SEO? For starters, social media is a perfect tool you can use to promote your business. You can create promotional posts and share them on all the different platforms you are active on to get a wider reach. These promotional posts are not only meant to educate your followers and inform them of your services, but also give them easy access to your offering.
Social media can also build brand awareness and trust. Studies have shown that 40% of consumers will go check different social networks when researching a new brand or company.
By posting regularly on your social media accounts and interacting with your followers, you can form bonds between them and your brand. Not only will you gain the trust of the followers that you have interacted with, but you will also keep new visitors engaged and informed. If they see just how involved you are and that you care about your customers, they will most likely consider purchasing from you.
And of course, social media allows you to form a big list of followers and connections. It allows you to put your business and brand out there right from the beginning. So while you’re struggling to build your rank and improve your quality score, you can also work on getting more followers. Your followers can either be established customers that have decided to stick around or better yet, potential customers.
By having a link to your website in easily accessible places, like in your bio, in the comments of your posts, and the posts themselves, you can encourage people to check out your website, which will drive traffic to your website. Just make sure that your landing pages are built well and can handle the additional traffic.
Social Media SEO Tips
There are a lot of things you can do on social media to improve either your posts, your engagement levels, or your number of followers.
When it comes to search engine optimization, we all know that keywords are essential. They are, after all, an important part of getting a good rank on search engines. But what if you were to use some of the keywords in your hashtags and your content?
A lot of social media websites use search engine principles, so hashtags are important when it comes to finding certain types of posts and accounts. You can try to integrate some of those keywords in your hashtags and see the results. In short, you should A/B testing your hashtags, together with some of your posts.
Also, by using your keywords in your content, you are creating links between said keywords and the product or service you’re promoting. That way, next time your followers will think of purchasing your product, they will use the keywords that you have been associating with the said product.
But make sure that the content you share on social media isn’t just promotional. After all, people don’t want to see just ads. Try to make your content fun and engaging by sharing quotes or facts. Also, when creating visuals that accompany your copies, use brand colors and of course, your logo.
And don’t forget that social media is a great opportunity to reshare existing evergreen content to make the most out of your content marketing efforts. So if you have great content, you can schedule it to be reposted regularly. After all, any individual post that you put out is only going to be visible for a small portion of your audience. Regular reshares will help you maximize that exposure and keep your audience informed and engaged.
Social Media for SEO Purposes — The Bottom Line
The conclusion should be pretty clear. SEO and social media are both very important for your business, which is why you should spend time on both. Although some people would suggest focusing on one or the other, doing that will eliminate a lot of opportunities.
And focusing on both should not be considered as separate endeavors. You need a comprehensive strategy to keep your SEO and social media tactics on track and adjust your efforts based on measurable results. To get things started, you should look into what you share on social media and establish where that content would fit best. Each social media channel appeals to a different target audience, so your content should respond to those respective needs.
For example, Instagram appeals to a younger audience, so colorful imagery and a more relaxed tone would work better. In comparison, LinkedIn is a professional platform where a serious tone should be adopted.
Of course, any strategy that you develop should be informed by a set of pre-established tactics and procedures that would include your keyword research, your promotional content, and your evergreen content, among other things.
In short, both social media and SEO can put your business on a path to growth. Understanding the relationship between the two can help you unlock new opportunities and use the resources you already have in your arsenal to get the best results.
Author’s bio: Ovi is the co-founder of SocialBee, a company that offers smart solutions for a successful online presence – starting from social media management, to digital marketing services. Together with his team of experts, he has helped several businesses build a strong social media presence, increase followers and engagement, and most importantly, gain considerable profit.
Image 1 by Austin Distel from https://unsplash.com/
Image 2 by Stephen Phillips from https://unsplash.com/