Social Media and SEO
SEO guides relevant users to your website, engages leads, and converts traffic. Modern marketers generally agree that search marketing is effective and worthwhile. Social media marketing, on the other hand, is often a target of skepticism.
If social media is utilized in a company at all, it is often treated as a distinct marketing outlet. In reality, social media and SEO are correlated and can be used in tandem to strengthen marketing campaigns. Used properly, social can be a force behind your visibility on the web.
Why Are Business Owners Skeptical?
Skepticism surrounding the effectiveness of social media marketing typically stems from a few important questions.
1. Is my target audience actually on social media?
While specific platforms have risen and fallen in popularity, social media has flourished since inception, continually amassing a large user base. For perspective, if the population of Facebook were a country, it would be the largest in the world, encompassing nearly a third of humanity.
Still, organizations tend to overlook the viable audience present on social media channels. Simply due to size and popularity, it is likely that your target demographic is present on various social media channels, interacting with services and/or products offered by your active competitors.
2. Will social media hurt my brand?
Brand awareness is a significant element of social media. Organizations often join social channels for the sole purpose of introducing their brand to a broader audience. A startling 52% of brand discovery happens in public social platform feeds.
While positive brand promotion is important for business growth, social media is a public platform with potential for brand endangerment without a predetermined vision. Do you have a vision for your organization’s social presence? Launch from this platform.
3. Can marketers really define social ROI?
There is no way around it – social marketers struggle to define ROI. 55% of social marketers have cited ROI measurement as their primary challenge. Organization owners passionate about measurable ROI observe these statistics and shrink back from social media engagement.
In reality, challenges associated with defining ROI often stem from a lack of targeted goals and conversion analysis. Determining a key objective, establishing a strategy, and defining performance indicators is the straightforward formula to tackling social media with a measurable plan.
4. Does social media impact SEO?
In 2014, Matt Cutts of Google stated that social signals do not directly affect search rankings, contradicting his 2010 claim that they, in fact, did. Despite Cutts’ 2014 statement, research has demonstrated some correlation between social signals and search marketing success. Though social media itself is not a ranking factor at this time, it does impact search engine standings.
Social media and SEO are separate marketing channels, but they have the potential to corroborate and create a holistic digital strategy.
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How Does Social Impact Search Marketing Efforts?
Social media & SEO have overlapping goals
The purpose of search marketing is visibility on the web, ultimately increasing organic website visits and converting traffic. Social media is about winning the right visibility, sending traffic to your website, and converting. Although the methodology is different, these goals overlap.
Social media content is indexed
Like your website pages, much social media content is crawled and indexed by search engines.
In his 2014 video, Cutts stated: “Facebook and Twitter pages are treated like any other pages in our web index, and so if something occurs on Twitter or occurs on Facebook and we’re able to crawl it then we can return that to our search results.”
Social posts that point back to your website promotes those pages’ relevance, and Google takes note. For example, sharing a blog on social media and receiving visits to the content from social influences the success of the post. The correlation is clear: increased converting traffic improves Google content rankings. Increased traffic shows Google that your page is worth visiting, improving your placement in the SERP and further driving business to your website.
Furthermore, social profiles are indexed, ranking in search engine results pages. Searching influencers, such as Oprah Winfrey, will often return social media profiles. Organizations can experience the same result – in recent years, Facebook and Twitter URLs ranking within the top 100 on Google.com have substantially increased.
Social media builds authority & trust
Website authority is a critical SEO factor. Pages and domains with greater authority rank above others.
Web authority grows over time, enhanced by relevant backlinks. When other authorities link to your content, Google views this as a vote of confidence. Social media is an extraordinary tool in link-building efforts. Content is syndicated with shocking speed on social platforms. Every chance to share excellent content to a relevant audience increases content distribution and, ultimately, link-building opportunity.
Beyond website authority, social media builds trust within your audience base. 43% of internet users utilize social media during purchase research. If someone is interested in your brand, they are likely to search your name on a social media channel and evaluate your presence.
Social media increases reach
We have already hinted at the social’s potential to spread your content to your audience. Reach is increased as you and your fans/ followers share links. Sharing on social media is a great way to drive traffic to your website, introducing your business to a new audience that will click on your links, browse your pages, and even make purchases.
Furthermore, social sharing builds trust as customers are more likely to click on content shared by friends and family than organizations.
Social media marketing for businesses.
When you work with RivalMind, you gain a team of experts with the best tools and technology at their fingertips. Our social media marketing strategy is proven to expand reach, create and build stronger customer relationships, and increase brand awareness.
Social media channels are search engines
People perform searches on social media channels, just like Google or Bing. If your content is relevant to the search, someone may discover your brand while searching for a relevant term. On platforms that utilize hashtags, properly categorized posts rank. Thus, “search engine optimization” as a marketing tool extends beyond Google and Bing into robust social search engines.
Social activity and rankings - the correlation
In recent years, Hootsuite performed an experiment solidifying the correlation between social activity and search engine rankings. After completing research, Hootsuite found significant results: content shared on social media experienced a 12% increase in search engine rankings, and content shared and boosted on experienced a 22% increase.
RivalMind: Social Media Marketing
At RivalMind, we craft holistic digital strategies, centered around your primary goals. Our search marketing and social media teams work in tandem to craft powerful marketing plans that corroborate efforts and drive results.
To talk to a member of our team, give us a call at 331.228.9636 or complete our online contact form.
Meet the Author
Matt Scroggs
CMO RivalMind
Hi, I'm Matt Scroggs, a digital marketing strategist. For two decades I served as the senior digital marketer for several global, iconic brands. Today, I'm the chief marketing officer at RivalMind, an agency 100% dedicated to helping companies thrive by driving transformational growth through innovative digital marketing. I'm also a lifelong Cubs fan, a faithful family man, and a web analytics junkie—relentlessly tracking conversions, loyalty, and advocacy, which are often as elusive as the pennant!
Specialties: Helping Businesses Grow, Marketing Strategy, Idea Guy
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