Getting your brand found online is probably a top priority for you as a business owner. To do that, it’s likely you know that search engine optimisation (SEO) is important for ensuring that your website appears organically (without paid advertising) on the coveted first page of Google.
While what happens on both the back end and front end of your website is most important, what you may not realise is that your social media efforts also have a part to play in boosting your organic search engine rankings.
First, here’s a quick rundown about SEO
Put simply, the main objective of search engines like Google is to make sure it’s serving up the most relevant, helpful information every time someone searches for something online. To do that, it uses bots, or ‘crawlers’, to canvas website content and decide what content best answers a query or keyword search. It uses a number of different measures to index, or rank, a website on how authoritative or relevant it is. ‘Optimising’ your site means you’re improving its visibility by taking those measures into consideration, both on-page (the front end your site visitor sees) and off-page (links and content that is managed in the back-end of your site).
Part of optimising your site involves publishing fresh, helpful content that answers common search queries and includes keyword search terms. Of course, you don’t want to be updating and adding to your landing pages every month - which is where having a blog is so important. A blog allows you to regularly post high-value content that not only builds trust with your audience, but also sends a message to search engines that you’re a trustworthy, helpful site.
So, what does all this have to do with social?
Social media profiles appear in search results, but social media posts themselves are not actually indexed by search engines, so won’t directly contribute to your ranking. However, your social efforts can indirectly influence SEO in a number of ways:
Your profile will get found
Search engines do index social profiles, in fact they are often among the top results. Therefore, actually having your business profiles set up and active is important in itself. Social profiles are often a place where your audience comes to find out more about you. Keeping your profiles up to date and engaging will help you in driving more traffic to your website.
Share your blog post links
There are mixed reports that search engines consider links from social posts as a credible backlink (Bing says it does, Google hasn’t confirmed). However, what you can know to be true is that the links you share through your social channels do increase your exposure. Qualified traffic has always been a key ranking metric for search engines. When you create and share quality social content that links to a blog post, you’ll boost visibility and drive traffic to your website from social media. If those posts get re-shares, your opportunity to reach a wider audience expands.
Add social sharing buttons to your content
Again, the better your content, the better your reach is likely to be and the more traffic you’ll have directed to your site! Add social sharing buttons to your blog posts, making it easy for your audience to share your link directly from your website to their own channels.
Quality content gets backlinks
Backlinks provide excellent ‘Google juice’, as it tells search engines that your content is a trusted source or reference. Sharing your content through social encourages virality - the more shares you get, the more likely you are to attract backlinks from another site to yours, and the more Google is likely to recognise your site as an authority.
Pinterest is an underrated platform
The fact that Pinterest is more of a visual platform can actually play into your favour and boost your discoverability. Images uploaded on Pinterest have longevity - they are surfaced over and over again, depending on what someone searches for. It’s essentially a visual search engine - users will search within the platform for images using keywords; you can then add a link from the image back to your site. Those same images though, can also be found and indexed by search engines. If someone performs a Google image search, let’s say for ‘navy cushions’, Pinterest images with those keywords will appear in search results. If that searcher clicks to view the image, they’ll then be able to follow a link to your site.
Let’s not forget, that social media is essentially a search engine of its own. Many people prefer to search here to find relevant products or services, and checkout reviews and feedback online. Again, consistent content is going to help you get found by a wider audience - especially if you’re leveraging hashtags in your captions.
At The Social Shop, we’ve never paid for SEO or SEM (search engine marketing) services, but we frequently receive new business enquiries from organic search results thanks to our consistently good social media (which includes regular promotion of on-point blog content, like this!). This keeps the SEO algorithm working in our favour.
So, there’s a bigger-picture benefit to keeping your social calendar consistent with high quality content. Great social media starts with smart strategy - which is where our DIY Social Media support package is ideal. It will help you get a 6-month content calendar in place for consistently good social media that supports better SEO for your brand. What’s more, you may be eligible for a Regional Business Partners subsidy, too. Find out more about what our DIY Social Media Management package includes and then get in touch with us for more info!