Content is king, and what better way to show people than in search engine results pages (SERPs), right? Well, yes, people use search engines for their queries and to find the things they need and want. However, there is also another aspect that businesses and digital marketers cannot afford to ignore – social media. Search engine optimization (SEO) and Social Media have quite a complex, yet fruitful relationship. If you want your brand to be seen, you need to maximize these two. But how do you exactly do it? Here are some of the best ways to maximize SEO and social media.
How Social Media Affects SEO
Before you learn how to use both of these two to maximize your chances in the digital market, it is important that you understand their relationship with each other.
SEO requires constant improvements and refinements to work. However, you don’t have to be an expert to understand how fierce and unforgiving the competition in Google ranking is. This is why appearing on the first page of the search results is incredibly difficult, mainly because content gets pushed every day.
Google used to factor quality over quantity of social signals. This means they look at the reputation of the author or creator on social media platforms to determine their ranking.
In 2014 however, Google decided to no longer use signals from social media. Meaning, shares, mentions, likes, reactions, etc., has no bearing in terms of SEO’s perspective. With that said, social media still holds a big role in any digital marketing campaign.
The sheer volume of content being published and distributed daily by websites, blogs, and news sites, really slims down your chances of showing up on the SERPs. This is where the benefits of social media get into the picture.
Social media evens out the playing field for everyone. Now, brands and businesses from all over the world can compete against the biggest names in their industry, regardless of their size, popularity, and marketing budget.
While SEO doesn’t directly affect SEO rankings, the links shared across different platforms increases the brand’s exposure. These things add up and can absolutely affect SEO in six ways:
- Extensive distribution of contents
- Improve brand recognition
- Improve brand reputation
- Improve brand visibility through organic traffic
- Longer lifespan of contents
- Boost local SEO
In other words, SEO is about getting high-quality backlinks from trustworthy sources. Social network shares, on the other hand, can help get your content seen by new audiences.
And while Google doesn’t recognize Facebook posts, Tweets, mentions, tags, etc., it does recognize the backlinks that resulted from those shares.
Subsequently, social media profiles do turn up in SERPs!
Getting High-Quality Backlinks Through Social Media
Here are the important things you need to know:
- Contents that gets shared a lot are seen more
- Contents seen by influential media creators result to strong backlinks
- Contents with more backlinks rank better on Google
All these things can improve SEO rankings.
In other words, it is the backlinks, and not the social signals that improve your SEO rankings. Thus, it is crucial to build a strong following.
So, how do you get backlinks in social media?
- Again, content is king, so make and publish contents that are valuable for your target audience. This includes how-to guides, in-depth reviews, entertaining blog posts, or various topic clusters that attracts naturally link.
- Build a strong following across all social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.).
- Promote contents using social media and ask your target audience to press the email notifications
- Collaborate with key influencers
- Research backlinks used by your successful competitors
Integrating Social Media with SEO for A Strong Content Marketing
Once again, content is king. But for your contents to work, they must be seen. And the best way to do that is to find the sweet spot between SEO and social media, and use the two to complement each other.
This is where creating great content comes into the picture.
Content can be in any form, such as articles and blogs, eBooks, how-to guides, or infographics. However, it doesn’t always have to be written. You can use podcasts, video blogs (vlogs), etc.
Seems overwhelming? Well, the good news is, you can always reuse and repurpose content in different media and forms. Articles and blogs, for example, can be a basis for multiple infographics or a long video with in-depth explanations, chopped into bits or stories.
Tips to Maximize SEO and Social Media
So back to the original question, how do you really maximize both search engine optimization and social media for a stronger content marketing / digital marketing campaign? Here are some tips.
1. Humanize your profile
Remember the purpose of social media profile – to give a face to your brand for people to recognize and relate to. Thus, work on your profile; craft a profile that reflects your brand, business, or organization, and engage with your target audience genuinely.
You may need to include as many details as possible to help your audience paint a good picture of you and what you do.
Use relevant keywords that reflect your brand and common searched words and terms people use when looking for businesses like yours.
Drive traffic by including backlinks to your site contents.
LinkedIn for example, is incredibly helpful for B2B businesses, as it helps you expand your network with link-minded individuals and brands.
2. Create Quality and Valuable Content in All Your Social Media Channels
There are thousands, if not tens of thousands of other brands and influencers out there for people, or at least your target audience to choose from and follow. So what can you do to get their attention? Create quality, engaging, helpful, useful, or at least interesting content.
The first trick is to make sure your content is interesting and engaging. If not, then it doesn’t matter how valuable and helpful your think it would be, no one will read or watch it. Engaging content means you should connect with your target audience with a purpose.
Basically, your contents should at least do one thing (or more):
- Offer a solution to a problem.
- Entertain in different ways
- Educate in certain topics
- Connect in emotional level
As said earlier, contents don’t have to be in written form. You can use images, infographics, videos, etc. Experiment on different forms, mix and match different types of contents. Find out which ones works best for your audience.
3. Use Contents to Build Backlinks
People will share contents that they find good and/or relevant to them. Thus, if sources and/or time are an issue, it is worth prioritizing quality over quantity.
Take your time to do your homework and research stuff that interests your target audience (with relevance to your brand and niche, of course). Include high-quality research and links from third-party authority websites to corroborate your information, especially when you are including data, statistics, research, studies, etc. You can also quote industry experts to back up your point of view.
Moreover, adopt a tone and have an opinion on certain topics in your industry. Share your insights. That’s how you become an authority in your niche.
4. Know What Your Competition Is Doing
Scour the internet and listen to what’s going on out there, especially with your competitors. Notice how your competitors are connecting and communicating with your target audience, and take hints.
More importantly, understand what your audiences are saying; know their concerns and interests.
Ask questions, read reviews, and be open to new ideas.
5. Consider Collaborating with Influencers
People listen to people they can relate to.
Influencers’ reach and influence are undeniable; they provide insights into their personal lives and interact with others. They share opinions, ask the questions that people want to ask, and they are far more accessible than celebrities.
You probably already know an influencer or two within your niche or local area. All you need to do is check out their statistics to see how much they can help you.
You don’t need influencers with millions of followers for your marketing strategy. All you need is someone you think can relate to your brand and target audience more.
