You know how important SEO is. It’s how you help people find your site when they search for topics related to your great products or service. You’ve worked on your titles and metadata, and you have optimized your content with a few keywords.
But do you know how crucial social media presence, or more importantly, social media sharing and actions are to your SEO success? Social SEO applies SEO principles to every aspect of your social media campaigns to ensure that your efforts on Facebook and Twitter (and more) actually boost your organic search results.
Why Social SEO: Real Link Building
At the beginning of SEO, search engines used links to your site as a way to measure your site’s authority and relevance. And it made sense. According to a Social Media Today article on why Social Media is critical to your SEO, links are like “votes” for a site. The more sites that link to your content that are out there, the more likely that your content was authoritative and helpful to searchers.
The original principle of SEO is still standing today. But after spammy link building tactics, Google and other search engines had to find a more authentic way to weigh the quality of links to your site. An incoming link from a site that no one ever visits just isn’t good proof of your site’s quality. And in the long run, it really doesn’t help your site to create links that don’t actually generate traffic to your site.
Also Read: Black, White and Grey Hat SEO – Website Hacking Explained
Enter social media. Social media also builds links to your site, and thankfully the links are harder to manipulate. When someone shares your blog post via Facebook or Pins your latest info-graphic on one of their Pinterest boards, they are not only building links to your site, but also proving that your content is worth reading and sharing with their friends.
Finally! A real, organic way for people to “vote” for your content. Unlike the lonely, spammy links that no one real ever clicks on, links produced by social media sharing are a very successful way to curate a dedicated, highly-converting audience for your content.
Plus, social media has the power to bring real people to your site, and, even better, turn those people into customers and eventually brand ambassadors themselves. That, friends, is the Why of social SEO. Ready for some quick tips on how? Read on!
Social media SEO tips – Hows of Social SEO
#1: Profile Audit – Social media SEO tips
The first step in your social SEO journey: make sure that your social media content will show up when someone searches within each of the social media platforms and, for platforms that are indexed by Google like Twitter and Pinterest, on organic search.
The best place to start is the About section in each of your profiles. Take a moment today and audit the descriptions that you have out there. Ask yourself a few questions:
- Is your information still up to date?
- Have you added all the information that you could?
- Have you incorporated keywords when possible in a natural, readable way?
- Facebook Focus: According to Constant Contact’s easy Social SEO tips, it is crucial to make sure that your Facebook category and address are up to date. For local businesses especially, a correct address will allow customers to check in at your location. And check-ins are an even stronger social indicator to Facebook than page likes.
Also read: 15 Time-Saving Tools for Content Development
#2: Content Tips – Social media SEO tips
Much like your web content, your social media updates need to be high in quality. Here are a few ways to ensure that each post you share will help your social SEO.
Keywords: When possible, incorporate industry related keywords in your updates. As always, they need to sound natural in your copy. This touch will help you keep your content focused, and connect your updates with the products and services you deliver.
Business Name: One major keyword you can use often is your business name. This is yet another way to associate your company’s social updates with the keywords you use.
Links to Content and Your Site: Make link-building a natural part of your social media campaign by sharing links to your original content (blog posts) and your site. When someone does share your social posts, they will be sharing links to you content. The key here is creating content that people want to engage with and share with their friends.
#3: Start Pinning – Social media SEO tips
As we mentioned earlier, Pinterest allows its content to show up on Google search results. Translation: start pinning for even better social SEO. We actually just posted some tips on Pinterest optimization.
Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Create unique, keyword-rich boards.
- Find images that resonate with your audience best. Research says longer, red-based images tend to fare better than most.
- Rename images you upload with descriptive titles.
- Try out the rich pins that are applicable to your industry (like product, location and article pin options).
#4: Get on Google+ – Social media SEO tips
It may come as no surprise, but Google+ stats like followers and +1s actually seem to have the strongest positive boost on Google organic search than social actions from any other social platforms. So, get out there!Also Read: Search Engine Marketing – Choose Best SEM Services for your Online Business Make sure to follow tip 1 above and fill out your profile completely. It is especially crucial to add legitimacy to your profile by taking the time to add a link to your site. You will also have a chance to add a link to your blog and other social media profiles. Do it!After your page is set up, start sharing your content. Google+ allows you to create a very focused audience with its circle set up. Take advantage of this by finding people who are interested in your industry and sharing content just for them. Again, a focused audience is one of the best benefits of Social SEO. You are taking the time to connect with people who are very likely interested in your industry and services.
#5: Encourage Brand Ambassadors – Social media SEO tips
So far, all of our Hows have been about you getting your content out there on social media, and it is crucial for your profiles and updates to be optimized. But it is time to take it up a notch.
Turn your blog readers and eCommerce shoppers into your brand ambassadors by making it very easy to share your content on their social platforms on your site. This will allow people to easily create links to your site. It will also allow people to share your content with a wider audience.
So make sure to:
Also read: Reaching More Prospects Using Social Media
- Add widgets to your blog or site that will allow people to Like, Pin and +1 your content.
- Add buttons that will also allow people to become a fan of your page or follow your boards directly from your site.
- Include call to action in your posts. Ask people to share or like to increase your chances at scoring meaningful social signals.
#6: Tag Check – Social media SEO tips
If you are encouraging people to share your content, make sure that the content on your site will create optimized posts. Did you know that with a few meta tags you can control everything from the image that will display when someone shares your posts to the title and description that show up?
Also read: Usage of Social Media In Online Reputation Management
Take this extra step to really make your social content that much more appealing.
If you are ready to get social, remember that just creating profiles won’t give you solid results. You need to share quality content and engage.
