Social Media for SEO: Is It Important?

Social Media for SEO

Most companies neglect their social media accounts—or just flat out don’t have them in place. They instead focus their efforts strictly on search engine optimization and paid traffic. Social media marketing and SEO are two interwoven internet marketing strategies that go hand in hand. You shouldn’t think of one without the other. And there are hundreds of case studies to back this up. Social media for SEO is more relevant now than ever.

Benefits of Social Media for SEO

While social media is primarily for creating relationships and an online community for your brand, that’s not all it does. Kissmetrics reported on the interconnection of social media and SEO, quoting Neil Patel, a social media expert, as projecting that social media is the new SEO. Why is that?

Everything that lives on social media lives on the internet. And Google (and other search engines) index that content. Although Google and Facebook have a tepid relationship, Google is quite fond of its own brainchild, Google+, as well as Twitter. Those posts are indexed within days, sometimes in just hours. If you’re mentioning your brand and including relevant links, that can only help.

In addition, public social media profiles are included in search results. Go look up your brand name, and you’ll likely find your website along with your company on all of the social media sites. And that includes Yelp. You’re missing the boat if you’re missing the social aspect of SEO.

Follower Numbers Matter

Yes, social media is a bit of a popularity contest. The more followers you have, the greater your brand’s reach. Let’s say you have 100 Twitter followers. Your website won’t receive nearly the boost in your search engine ranking as your competitor with 10,000 followers.

Thinking about buying new likes and followers for a quick boost? Think again. Search engines can now discern the quality of your followers. Instead of buying some random followers, you’d be better off investing in paid advertising on social media.

The Power of Backlinks

Your smart social media campaign will include a mix of information / educational posts, engaging images and videos, and direct calls to action (i.e., sales). When you include your calls to action, you’ll likely have links to your website or review sites. Engaged, interested followers will like, comment on, and share that quality information. And that makes your network expand. Now you have backlinks not only from your social media identity but from those who shared the content as well.

Remember that backlinks are one of the most powerful driving forces in successful SEO.

Social Sharing Increases Brand Reputation

Search engines are looking for ways to verify your website’s value. Posting on social media (and having others do the same) can only help. The more likes, comments, and shares your posts get, the more authority your website earns. And that helps boost your ranking.

Target your posts locally for a local business since the shares in that area will help with ranking as well.

Rising Phoenix SEO Uses Social Media for SEO

At Rising Phoenix SEO, one of the things we do is set up a branded network. Through that, anything you post on your website immediately gets shared via social media. And we can incorporate social media management into our strategy. That’s because we understand how important social media for SEO is.