Social Media Strategies to Boost Your SEO

If you’re a regular reader of the Chetaru blog, you’ll know that we’re very keen to stress how important SEO is to boosting any business’s online visibility and lead-generation activities.

In short, if you’re not investing in organic SEO, the chances are that you’re falling way behind your competition.

But SEO isn’t all about landing pages, blog posts, refreshing copy and all that on-page stuff, as vital as those tactics might be to your overall digital strategy.

It’s also about the off-page things you do away from – or linking back to – your website. Not least social media!

Read on to learn about social media insights and strategies you can use to boost your SEO…

Does Social Media Directly Impact SEO?

Strictly speaking, no, social media doesn’t directly contribute to your SEO ranking .

But because the links to website content that you share across your preferred social platforms increase brand exposure, they do influence SEO in the following ways:

1. Wide-reaching content distribution
2. Longer shelf life for your blog posts (especially when you refresh and reshare older but still relevant content)
3. Enhanced online visibility and organic traffic
4. Boosts your brand profile
5. Increases your brand reputation
6. Improves local SEO (be sure to check out this blog on local search engine optimization)

When more people like, retweet or share links to your website content, it signals to Google and other search engines that your posts are relevant and useful to your target market.

And because Google is now so geared towards giving users the best possible experience, it rewards content that gives those users relevant, specific and useful answers or solutions to their queries.

Key takeaways:

1. Be sure to continually include links to your website content in social posts
2. Don’t be afraid to refresh blog posts and reshare them through your social channels
3. Google is a friend to brands that share useful content that answers its users’ specific questions or helps them to solve challenges

Engaging Content = Better SEO Results 

What’s the greatest value social media content gives your SEO results? It drives quality traffic (i.e. potential leads) to your website!

If your target readers see your social post, click on the embedded link and are taken through to quality content that they find useful, the likelihood is that they will become brand advocates and regular visitors. 

That’s because you’ve given them something of real value that they’re happy to share with their friends and followers. Their followers will do the same, thereby creating a virtuous circle. 

The long and the short of it is that investing in great content will attract more visits to your website because Google ensures that the cream rises to the top.

A Working Example

We’re absolutely delighted that several of our much-cherished – but by no means ‘big’ – clients are currently at the very top of global, UK, US and Australian Google rankings for search terms highly relevant to their products and services.

This has naturally resulted in huge increases in visits, inquiries and sales.

How has this happened? 

Because we and they have invested an awful lot of effort and passion into:

1. Creating great organic content specifically aimed at target audiences
2. Sharing links to that content through engaging social media activities 
3. Excellent technical SEO practices that blend with and support the above

Remember that content can take any form, so long as it engages your audience. Yes, writing blogs, landing pages and refreshing website content are very effective ways to improve your SEO results, but think about using these content types too:

• Video (remember that YouTube is owned by Google)
• Infographics, because they’re quick and easy to absorb
• Podcasts that people can listen to on the move or at their desks

Key takeaways: 

• Focus on creating content that your target audience will actually find useful and keep them coming back for more
• Always share your content through social media to keep that website traffic (and those leads) coming through 
• Amplifying your website content (e.g. blogs, videos or podcasts) through social media increases visibility, traffic and backlinking opportunities

Which Social Platforms Create the Best SEO Results?

As we say to every client, potential client or reader of our content: focus your energy and content marketing activities on the channels that your target audiences are most likely to hang out in.

1. Do your persona research to work out:
2. What your ideal buyer is interested in
3. The kinds of content they like
4. Which social media channels they are likely to use

For instance, LinkedIn is the best social channel to laser in on if your target audience is primarily B2B-focused because they’ll be looking for content that helps them improve their products, services or processes.

On the flipside, if you’re trying to target teenagers with B2C products, create tailored content for TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

You’ll find, in many cases, that most consumers will look at and engage with a brand’s social media content before they look at their websites.

That’s because social media – given its curatorial nature – provides users with a more personalized experience, and the customer service response time is often quicker.

Also, users are likely to perform searches on social platforms because they get immediate, relevant and actionable results without having to leave the respective app.

For instance, do a quick search for a service or product you’re interested in on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or your preferred social media channel, and you’ll be presented with lots of intriguing and useful information, suggestions and recommendations.

Key takeaways:
1. More than 54% of people use social media to research products and services
2. An increasing number of B2B and B2C buyers join social media networks to find reviews and recommendations
3. Build a prominent presence on social platforms that your key audiences actually use

A Quick Catch-All

Bear the following points in mind when thinking about how social media activity impacts your SEO:

1. Posting content your target audiences find valuable on social media will help you gain traction, increase your content reach and generate backlinks
2. Google will reward quality content recommended by social media users by pushing it up the rankings, thereby increasing visibility and leads
3. Links from social will help Google indexing
4. Indexing will lead to increased search traffic, better rankings and more leads

Conclusion

It’s mind-boggling that companies persist with pursuing separate organic SEO and social media activities.

For heaven’s sake, make sure that your social media marketing and SEO team share a joined-up strategy at all times! 
If you don’t have the capacity to create and execute joined-up social media and SEO content strategies, well, please get in touch with our expert team using our contact form.