How Social Media Can Help SEO
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Using social media is necessary for any website looking to improve their SEO. Links in social media posts and comments are signals that are incorporated in search algorithms. It is a vital avenue for SEO that no one can deny.
Now, Google reviews several hundred types of signals to find your site and proven research has shown that social media can greatly affect its performance in a search. Google is marking tweets and posts of all kinds within seconds, creating a bigger imprint for your website. However, it is not as simple as just putting together a bland facebook or twitter page with no picture and posting your links. You have to spend a little bit of time gaining a following, connecting with people, creating business pages, and create a buzz among the people in your niche. Having any sort of following is important because if you post or tweet something and your following shares or retweets it over and over again, the higher that link will appear in Google searches. Google has become more sophisticated in its ability to determine whether or not you have any credibility on your social media pages. This means that when creating your social media you must have pictures, have friends, have posts, and interactions with others. This type of credibility will affect how your posted links will translate in to searches.
Once you have the credibility, make sure you are taking advantage of that outlet. Add as many links as you can with every tweet, post, and picture you put out there.
Here are a few things to consider about using social signals to improve SEO:
- Google says they look at your author authority, how many people share a link.
- Bing says they look at how many people you follow, how many follow you.
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With Facebook, Bing looks at pages and status posts, Google treats links shared on Facebook fan pages the same as tweeted links, no personal wall data.
Connecting with as many people as possible is very beneficial. It not only influences your author authority but can increase the chances that you will reach those users/followers each time you make a post. You won’t just be reaching them via Facebook, Twitter, and Google + feeds but they will start to show up in their Google searches as well. This is why connecting with people in your niche is so important. When they go to search about a product or a tutorial in your field, Google’s, “Links from your friends” will pop up more of your content for them; bringing them back to you over and over again and improving your credibility to that user. So really, every social connection matters.
Get Involved:
- Link back to your site when posting on Twitter, Facebook, Google + and all other social media.
- Make your social media profiles public
- Crate Fan Pages and gain “likes.”
- Author Authority: Make sure to have photos, bios, and that you are interacting with your followers regularly
- Post interesting pictures and content people want to link to – the best way to get links shared and retweeted is to post things that other want to use and read into
- Do unto other as you want done unto: One of the best lessons to be learned when it comes to social media is post and get posted, meaning share and retweet others and they will do the same for you. This will not only attract more people (secretly hoping that you will share their stuff) but this will show search engines that you are a real person interacting on the internet. It is important to not look like a spamming machine just advertising your own stuff day after day.
So get out there and gain some credibility!
Charles Dearing has worked extensively in managing SEO campaigns. He enjoys keeping companies on the straight and narrow when it comes to SEO. He shares his insights on various blogs. Visit SEO Works to learn more.
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