There has been an extensive ongoing debate about the impact of social media on search engine optimisation and whether it genuinely helps your website rank among the top SERPs. The primary focus of this argument remains upon the wobbling belief that social media doesn’t directly, or even indirectly, affect SEO for businesses. However, the experts working in the field say otherwise.
For instance, we, at TopRankings, have worked tirelessly to improve several of our clients’ online presence for many years now. Taking this into account, we can guarantee that social media always remains one of our top priorities when handling website optimisation. It’s quite a simple logic, really – the bigger the net, the more fish you catch. The same goes for digital marketing!
In this article, we’ll discuss how social media affects your overall SEO strategy and why it is essential to concentrate on this attribute for a company’s better outreach.
Social Media and Search Engine Optimisation
The links and posts businesses share across their social media platforms enhance brand exposure and add up to influence search engine optimisation in seven different ways:
1- Gets Your Company Ranked Among Search Engine Results
Your social media profiles aren’t only limited to that particular platform, but they can be ranked in search engine results as well. This effectively improves your online presence on the internet. Moreover, people may also see snippets of reviews that customers leave on your social media pages on the search engine results. This is an approving nod that your content is valuable and not a scam.
2- Drives Organic Traffic Your Way
Once your business’ social media is ranked among the SERPs, it automatically gets noticed by potential customers looking for services that you offer. This drives more traffic your way without making any extravagant effort. Moreover, when those individuals share your content within their network, the rate of organic traffic coming your way further amplifies rapidly.
3- Enhances Your Content Reach
Social media platforms are an excellent medium for ensuring your content reaches as many people as possible, specifically to individuals looking for your services. However, contrary to how search engines work, social media also lets people discover content that they don’t even realize they should have been looking for in the first place. This type of outreach translates into high-quality organic traffic, resulting in your website’s better rankings in the long run.
4- Better Longevity of Posts
The content you post on your social media has a far greater lifespan and outreach than what you only post on your website. People like and share your content on social media platforms, even sharing links to your website within their network. This cycle continues to rotate its wheel continuously for a long time until the content itself gets out-dated.
5- Boosts Local SEO
Social media also impacts your local SEO when you remain consistent with listing your NAP (name, address, and phone number) information across all your social media platforms. When Google links your business and social media profiles, it specifically targets and ranks your company within the top results when someone in your area is explicitly looking for the services you offer.
6- Increases Brand Recognition
Not to mention that when all factors mentioned above play their part in enhancing your company SEO, it automatically pronounces your brand recognition in the best of ways. When a potential customer keeps seeing you being displayed in the top SERPs while also watching your online presence grow on social media, it is proof you’re getting the best out of your social media activities.
7- Works as Secondary Search Engines
Lastly, people don’t just use social media for entertainment, but they also make it a habit of using the platform for looking stuff up. This includes searching for service and product-based businesses as well. Moreover, when your social media profile is adequately optimised with the right keywords, that also works in your favour, even when someone doesn’t look you up by your company name but by the services you offer.
Now that we’ve established how social media affects your overall SEO strategy, let’s cover some of the basics that might help you put your SEO strategy in place for your up-and-coming business!
Best Social Media Platforms for Enhancing SEO
Considering that there are more social media platforms that you can count on your fingers, it’s crucial to get yourself familiarized with the sites that genuinely help with SEO. Here are our top five suggestions, based on a decade of personal experience working in the field:
1- Facebook
Facebook is one of the best platforms you can opt for to share about your business, whether in the form of promotional or educational posts or through blogs, infographics, and videos. Not to mention that Google crawls and indexes this social media platform when you link your posts to your business on Facebook.
2- Twitter
Twitter is an excellent site for sharing promotional and informational content. While Google doesn’t crawl its content like Facebook, it’s still great for reaching out to your followers and widening your stance in the industry. Plus, the hashtags used in these social media posts work as keywords that further help people discover your brand, encouraging them to visit your site.
3- YouTube
Utilising YouTube for promoting video-based content also boosts the organic traffic rate to a significant extent. Most businesses add videos to their site, linking them on YouTube, to send a positive go-ahead to Google. This elevates the chances for your business of being displayed in the top SERPs.
4- LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a business-based platform, and each post you share on this site is crawlable. The more you interact with your potential and existing customers through posts, the more it signifies to search engines that your content is valuable.
5- Pinterest
SEO and Pinterest go hand in hand, considering that several marketers solely depend on this platform to grow their business. In fact, people using Pinterest lean towards this platform independently to get inspired and make decisions regarding their future purchases.
Our Final Verdict
Social media plays a crucial role in optimising your overall SEO strategy, even if it’s more of an indirect impact that they cast upon your rankings. As long as you hire the best SEO agency to get your website and social media platforms adequately optimised, you’re bound to get the results you’re looking for to make a prominent mark in the industry.
