The extent to which social media impacts SEO has long been debated. Some people believe social media is not a ranking factor, but others think it plays a critical role. While the debate will continue, it is clear that many of the factors involved in SEO are also crucial to social media. There are many additional business benefits to growing your social profile, so it is worth integrating it into an overall SEO policy. So how can you use social media to benefit your SEO campaigns?
Brand Awareness
Strong brand awareness is one of the trickiest things for a business to build. This difficulty is recognized within SEO Sarasota as Google monitors for visitors heading directly to a website within their browser. Also, searchers will often type a brand name into the Google search bar to get to the main site. Social media can help increase brand awareness, with many different types of content cutting through to audiences.
Building Links
Link building is central to a successful SEO policy. Links from social media are not as impactful as those from individual authority sites, but they can play a role in a campaign. Links from social media are personal recommendations, leading to a lower bounce rate and higher dwell time. They can also lead to additional links from blogs and news sites, with the possibility of your content going viral.
Content Amplification
Content marketing is another crucial element in modern SEO. There is so much content getting produced online, though, that most of it fails to gain traction with audiences. Social media promotion can help your articles and videos stand out, driving traffic to the content. As long as you are promoting yourself effectively, a portion of visitors will then share your content on their platforms.
Engagement Rates
While engagement on your social media won’t help with SEO, it can lead to improved engagement on your website. Your social platforms introduce you to followers and help build up trust. When you then direct people to an article or web page, they are more likely to stay active for longer. You can also encourage people to leave comments which adds more content and keywords to a page.
Traffic
Traffic is an important ranking factor, showing the search engines that real visitors are attracted to your site. Factors like backlinks can be artificially gained, but the existence of traffic shows the popularity is genuine. Social media is crucial as you can drive targeted traffic, with popular content gaining interest as it starts to get shared.
Social Profiles Ranking
Along with ranking your website, it is also possible to get your social profiles a prime position in the search engines. Typically, your profiles can rank for brand-related terms, enabling you to control what searchers see on the first page. You can, though, potentially rank for breaking news stories and niche terms if you post content at the right time.
Video SEO
If you conduct many searches across varying niches, there is a good chance you will find many videos ranking. Videos usually rank in Google based on backlinks, embeds, and video popularity. Popularity will largely be determined by the video quality and relevance to viewers. Your backlink strategy for social media can follow the same process as content amplification techniques. Embedding can grow when you promote your content on social media, ensuring the video gains exposure.
Social media is a factor in marketing that needs your full attention. Most social media campaigns will be distinct from SEO, with a variety of goals getting set. Social media can, however, play a crucial role in the success of your Google rankings. Social media divides opinion when it comes to the search algorithm, but it is clear that factors like traffic, brand mentions, and links are essential for ranking. Integrating social media ideas into your SEO ensures that you are set up for all possibilities when it comes to ranking.