When most people see I’m a millennial, they assume I’m all over social media because mine was the first generation to (sort of) grow up with it. You might be surprised to learn that I was actually the very last person in all my friend groups to adopt social media. I was the last one to get on Facebook, the last one to get on Twitter, the last one to get on Snapchat, I’m still not on TikTok. You get the idea. I’m basically a boomer trapped in a millennial’s body.
None of this is to say I hate social media. Once I got on it, I recognized the value in being able to communicate with my friends, especially as we graduated college and moved across the country. I still use Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family I almost never get to see in person anymore. I’m no longer on Twitter thanks to a certain crazy billionaire, but for a while there I was on it daily, using it to gather information on the pros and cons of self-publishing vs traditional publishing, but that’s a topic for another blog post.
Once I started my own business and got serious about growing it, social media officially became something I could no longer ignore. While I still wanted to use it to stay in touch with loved ones over long distances, I also wanted to use it to grow my business. Keeping the two separate has been, and continues to be an issue for me, so if you have any tips on that, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Before we get into this, I want to clarify that I am not an expert on social media marketing. I know just enough to be dangerous, especially when it comes to the benefits of social media for SEO. There are many people out there who know much more about social media than I ever will, so I tend to leave the social media to them while I handle the website content and SEO. That said, I love working with social media marketers because our efforts are always better when they’re in sync, so let’s get into why that is.
Table of Contents
- Benefits of Social Media for SEO
- How to Use Social Media for SEO
- Which Social Media Sites Can Boost My SEO?
Benefits of Social Media for SEO
Social media marketing has no shortage of benefits for anyone looking to grow their business, but it has a couple distinct advantages when it comes to improving your SEO.
Content Distribution
When Google sees people visiting your site and consuming your content, it will assume your content has value, which will boost your rankings. Social media is a great way to get your content in front of people so they can see it before Google has a chance to crawl and index your content.
Brand Recognition
Just like Google takes it into account when it sees people clicking through to your website from social media, it also takes into account when people are talking about you on social media. The more mentions and engagement you can get on social media, the better your SEO performance will be. It’s also a great way to build organic traffic and brand recognition, which makes it a win/win!
Just remember that the key is to create content that’s valuable and interesting to your target audience. Having a post go viral can be great for your brand, if you have a strategy for turning all that attention into customers. But going viral for the sake of going viral is a waste of time and energy.
How to Use Social Media for SEO
Now that we know some of the benefits of using social media for SEO, let’s talk strategies for getting the most of your social media efforts when it comes to SEO.
Personal vs Company Pages
There’s a lot of debate around the pros and cons of personal pages vs company pages on social media. The idea was to make it easier to keep your personal and professional lives separate on the internet, but that’s easier said than done. Turns out, most people aren’t interested in interacting with brands on social media. They want to interact with people. Most of the social media channels have recognized this and have responded by promoting content posted from a personal profile over content posted from a company page. That makes it much harder to gain traction on social media using your company name.
On the other hand, it’s your company name that Google tracks. When people start talking about your company on social media, that’s what boosts your SEO. Mentions of your name are less likely to get Google’s attention, especially if you have a common name.
It’s not impossible to have a strong social media presence for your company, it just requires some extra time and effort, so be prepared for that.
Create Quality Content
The best way to create content that goes viral in a way that will actually benefit your business in the long run is to create high-quality content that answers the questions your target audience is asking. When they see the value in your content, they’ll be more likely to share it with their buddies, who will be more likely to share it with their buddies, etc.
If your niche is small, don’t worry if your posts aren’t getting tons of views. If you’re consistently creating quality content for your niche, you can dominate that market in no time, positioning yourself as the go-to resource for your products/services for that audience.
Create a Schedule (and Stick to It)
I say this all the time when it comes to blogging, but it’s true of social media as well. Consistency and quality are the two most important factors in all your marketing content. It’s not enough to post on social media when you remember to do so. You need to have a content calendar for your blog and your social media, and you need to stick to it.
Have a Call to Action
Remember when I said don’t try to go viral for the sake of going viral? That’s because that’s a great way to get a lot of eyeballs on your content, only to lose those eyeballs because you didn’t direct them to the next step in the buyer journey.
Whether people are coming directly to your website from a Google search, a social media post, or some other channel, you need to have a plan to get those people to the next step in the buyer journey. That step does not necessarily have to be to buy from you, but it could. It could be to follow you on social media, subscribe to your newsletter, buy your book, sign up for your webinar, etc.
Keep in mind that, while at some point you do need to drive traffic back to your website from social media, most channels don’t like links because they don’t want people leaving their site. They like people to hang around and look at the ads they’re getting paid for. That just means you have to use links sparingly.
I’d say 1-2 times per week, include a link back to your website. The rest of the time, post content that can stand on its own on the social media channel of your choice.
Make It Easy for Users to Share Your Content
You’ve probably seen websites that embed Twitter posts into the content on their website. All you have to do is click on it, and that tweet will show up in your feed and go out to all your subscribers. Like I said, I’m no longer on Twitter, which is why I don’t use that technique. But if your company is on Twitter, it can be a great way to get your brand in front of more people. It’s also super effective because people are more likely to pay attention to a post like that from someone they already follow than if it shows up in their feed with just your logo and company name attached to it.
Optimize Your Social Media Profiles
People often forget that Google crawls social media sites for content just like it crawls your website. If you’ve ever done a Google search of someone and the first thing that pops up is their Facebook or LinkedIn profile, that’s because Google considers those to be the most valuable types of content using your keyword (in this case the person’s name).
This same rule can be applied to so much more than just your name (but don’t forget to include your name/your company’s name). Include the problem you solve for your clients in your profile. What keywords are they likely to be searching when looking for the products/services you provide? Include those keywords in your social media profiles.
People also tend to forget that each social media channel has its own search engine. Those search bars they have at the top of all their pages? That’s so people can search anything they want across the website. Keep that in mind when naming your profile, describing your profile, using certain words in your posts, etc.
And please keep your social media profiles up to date. I cannot stress this enough. New job position? Update your profile. New award or other type of recognition? Update your profile. New hair color? Update your profile.
Engagement is Key
No one likes someone who only talks about themselves and never responds when you try to have a conversation with them. If you want to make the most of your social media marketing efforts, you have to engage with other people and brands on the site. There’s no other way around it.
Tag people in your posts, but only when it’s relevant. Don’t spam all your followers by using the dreaded @everyone.
Respond to comments on your posts.
Follow influencers in your industry and engage with their posts. Start a conversation in the comments section, but make sure it adds value. Don’t leave a comment just for the sake of leaving a comment. It has to be relevant to the post you’re commenting on, and it has to add value to the post.
Which Social Media Sites Can Boost My SEO?
I always recommend sticking with the social media sites where your target audience is hanging out. For example, my business is B2B, so I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn. I’ve also gotten some clients off of Instagram, so I’ve been investing more time and energy into that recently.
While going where your audience is already hanging out is important, which channels will help you get the most out of your SEO efforts?
I’ve seen a lot of LinkedIn pages pop up when I search for something or someone. That’s because LinkedIn has been encouraging people to create and publish long-form content directly onto the platform in the form of LinkedIn articles and newsletters. Google can see all that content, so if you’re in a B2B space, it absolutely makes sense for you to invest your time and energy into Google.
Facebook is the oldest social media channel in existence, and while that means its audience tends to skew older, it also means investing in your Facebook presence can pay off in a big way for your SEO strategy. Facebook is gets more traffic than any other website aside from Google and YouTube. That means, if you want traffic, piggybacking off Facebook’s massive traffic can be a great way to drive traffic to your site.
I’ve already said I’m no longer on Twitter, and I know I’m not the only one who left that platform when things got crazy last year. But a lot of people said they were going to leave, but never actually left. They just stayed quiet to see what would happen.
The fact is hundreds of millions of people are still using Twitter every day, and that number is expected to keep going up. Assuming the platform doesn’t crash and burn, it could be a great way to drive traffic to your website.
Again, this is assuming your target audience is already hanging out on Twitter. If your ideal customers are like me and left when things got weird, then you might want to invest in other platforms.
People go on Pinterest, not just to see pretty pictures, but to conduct searches, get information, and get help making purchasing decisions. As a result, Pinterest has proven to be an incredible resource for people looking to grow their business’ online presence, especially if there’s a heavy visual element to what they’re selling.
While we don’t provide social media services, we do provide other SEO services. If you want website content that drives results for your business, let’s chat.
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