Over the last decade, I’ve worked with over 100 companies, and I’ve noticed some very useful strategies for increasing SEO through social media that always work. Today, I’m only sharing the best three social media strategies you can use to boost SEO. Before I start, how does social media affect SEO?
There’s no direct link between social media and SEO, but it’s undeniable that social media can indirectly impact a website’s search rankings. With a vibrant social media presence, your content becomes more visible and shareable among potential customers, attracting more backlinks, brand visibility, and website traffic.
Let’s get into finer details, and then I’ll share three powerful social media strategies that can ultimately increase your website’s SEO. But first, let’s discuss the importance of social media in SEO.
How Important Is Social Media for SEO?
While I’ve already acknowledged that social media doesn’t directly impact a website’s search rankings, it’s crucial to boost SEO through indirect factors. How? Let’s consider the psychology of social media users and how it’s a bit different from that of users making queries on search engines.
- Social media users are primarily looking to engage and interact with others, while search engine users are typically looking for information or solutions to their problems.
- Managing to redirect users from social platforms to branded sites is an art. It’s best channeled through funnels that begin with subtle, subliminal ads embedded within entertaining content.
Search engines’ algorithms favor branded sites that consistently pool users from social media because most social media users like to spend quality time browsing through their timelines and the profiles of people or brands they follow.
It’s also worth noting that social profiles and posts are also featured in search engine results. They can even top SERPS when you optimize them with relevant keywords, providing additional visibility for a brand or business.
Social media algorithms prioritize content that generates high engagement and interactions, such as likes, comments, shares, and clicks. Private or commercial profiles can gain followers and engagement on their posts by creating valuable content that resonates with their target audience.
Social media managers are crafty and always available to reply to comments, both on the brand timelines and in collaborations with relevant influencers or group posts.
How Social Media Influences Search Engine Algorithms
Search engines always try to serve users with the most relevant and helpful replies to their queries. Therefore, they tend to favor websites with strong online presence and credibility.
When there’s brand consistency across your social media and website, search engines and users trust you more than they’d trust a brand with no social media presence.
The more followers and engagement your social media accounts have, the more visible your brand is. Besides the increased traffic, search engines also assume that having many followers likely means your business is reputable, authoritative, and trustworthy.
Social media also helps search engines understand the context of a website or brand. By sharing content on social media, search engines can see how users are engaging with it and determine its relevance to certain topics or keywords.
I don’t want to give everything away in this section, so let’s spare the rest for the three strategies for increasing social media visibility.
How to Incorporate Social Media into SEO Strategy
1. Create and Share High-Quality Content
Increasing SEO through social media is not possible if you import the same content strategy for your website on your social media. Your SEO strategy should involve creating content specifically tailored for each platform, whether it’s blog posts, Facebook posts, Instagram images, or X threads.
Social media requires short and sweet content, but you can unload packed topics through discussions in comment sections or threads. Through your content, you can share links to your website that bring users back.
The Importance of High-Quality Content
The average user on social media platforms comes across a ton of content from different brands and creators. The key to standing out in this clutter is putting out quality content that’s ideal for your audience and helps foster a connection with them.
For example, if you’re a fashion brand targeting young adults, your content should be visually appealing and relatable to that demographic. Work with fashion inspiration posts, behind-the-scenes sneak peeks, and user-generated content featuring your brand to engage with your target audience.
Regularly post high-quality social media content to increase engagement and visibility and establish your brand as a niche authority, too.
Social Content Types and Formats
Creating tailored content for each social media platform is crucial. However, I like to categorize content types broadly into two main categories: static and interactive.
Static content refers to images or videos that are designed to directly encourage users’ active participation. These include posts, photos, infographics, and pre-recorded videos.
When creating static content, follow the best practices for each platform regarding image dimensions, resolution, and video length. This will ensure your content appears professional and visually appealing on the feed.
Using high-quality visuals that reflect your brand’s aesthetic and style is also essential. Consistency in visual branding helps build brand recognition among users.
Interactive content requires users to engage actively by commenting, liking, or sharing what you’ve posted. Examples of interactive content include:
- Polls.
- Quizzes.
- Live videos.
- Q&A sessions.
Interactive content cultivates online communities and creates a dialogue between brands and followers. It also increases the chances of your content going viral as more people participate and share it with their network.
Furthermore, interactive content can provide valuable insights into your audience’s interests and preferences. You can use this information to guide future content creation strategies for maximum engagement.
Repurposing Content
Creating unique social media content every time can be challenging and time-consuming. That’s where repurposing comes in handy.
Repurposing involves taking existing content and adapting it for different platforms or formats. For example, convert a how-to article into an X-thread or create a short video for Instagram summarizing your long-form content on YouTube.
With repurposing, you can acquire a wider audience through various content types while saving time and effort. It also helps to repurpose evergreen content that remains relevant over time, maximizing its value and impact.
Consistency is Key
For maximum reach and impact, you should be on multiple social platforms. You also need to have some brand consistency across all platforms, no matter what type of content you publish. Consistency includes:
- Posting regularly on your chosen platforms.
- Using consistent messaging and visual branding across all channels.
- Engaging with your audience consistently by responding to comments and messages promptly.
2. Use Social Media for Link-building
Backlinks serve as endorsements that bolster a website’s authority within a specific field. To enhance credibility and improve search engine rankings, building high-quality backlinks is essential. When users share your content on social media, they effectively promote your website by directing their friends and networks to your content through the shared links.
When your followers start sharing your social media content, you also generate new backlinks to your website easily. In turn, it signals to search engines that your content is valuable, leading to higher rankings.
That’s how to use SEO for social media, ultimately boosting your SEO. When SEO helps you acquire readers who love your posts or products, always include share buttons for all your social media profiles on your website.
Readers should find it easy to like and share your content. This will help create more potential backlinks and increase your online presence.
Engaging with Influencers and Communities for Backlinks
Another way to use social media for link-building is by engaging with influencers and communities. Find influencers in your niche and engage with them on their posts, or contact them for collaborations.
Join online communities and groups relevant to your industry. Once in those spaces, be active, share valuable content, and engage with other members. This will increase your visibility and build relationships with other website owners interested in linking back to your content.
Utilize User-Generated Content (UGC)
Getting users to create their own content about your brand can be extremely effective. For starters, that’s free, authentic content creation. Secondly, you gain access to a diverse pool of audiences that you couldn’t access with your profile’s networks alone.
How do you get users to send their own user-generated content? The old strategies involve:
- Interviews.
- Reviews.
- Testimonials.
- User photos and videos.
However, the trending strategy to inspire UGC is through challenges and contests. These competitions create a buzz around your brand and encourage users to showcase their creativity and connection with your brand.
UGC is powerful because it promotes authenticity and builds trust in your brand. It also provides an opportunity for backlinks, as people tend to link back to the original source when sharing UGC.
Encourage your followers to stitch or duet your TikTok videos, share user-generated product photos on Instagram, or leave reviews on your Facebook page.
3. Optimize Social Media Profiles and Posts
Profile optimization is crucial in boosting your online presence. It also increases the odds of people linking to your content. Load all your social media profiles with the following:
- A clear and concise description.
- Relevant keywords.
- Your landing page link.
When posting on social media, always attach links to your website or blog posts wherever appropriate. Social media algorithms minimize the reach of posts with links to external websites, but you can bypass that by posting engaging posts without links and dropping the links in the comments section as the first comment.
Remember to use eye-catching visuals, engaging captions, and relevant hashtags to attract more attention to your content. The more people engage with your posts, the higher the chances of getting backlinks.
Improve Your SEO with Social Media
It’s clear that social media and SEO go hand-in-hand. Since we all agree on that, we’ve explored how to leverage the potential of social media to enhance search engine optimization. You also already know the importance of social media for small businesses. But is SEO really necessary for a website’s success?
I’ll let you be the judge of that, but here are some quick stats:
- People make over 63,000 daily Google searches per second. That’s roughly 5.6 billion searches per day.
- About 91.5% of organic traffic comes from Google.
So yes, SEO is necessary for a website’s success, and social media can significantly improve it.
