Optimising Your Social Media for SEO

By Abbeygail Urie

Time and again, we hear and read the experts say that you cannot separate SEO (search engine optimisation) from social media. Even Matt Cutts also confirmed the relationship between SEO and social. And, that was in 2010 when social proliferation is not as intense as it is today. The concern now is how you, as a digital marketer, may capitalise on social media to boost your SEO outcomes.
Here’s how to achieve a social SEO strategy success.

Social content as results

Social profiles as results

Even when a post garnered thousands to millions of shares, there won’t be any effect on the site’s position in the results page. What may affect your website’s displayability is the content of your social profile. Reasonably, you’ve already searched for a brand name and Google returns a results page with the domain as the first result and the social profile (mainly Facebook) as the second, third or fourth result. Facebook has an overall high authority.
Google may also display the Google+ information of the brand in the right-hand sidebar. The integration of the content of the social profiles is apparent more so through knowledge graph.
Takeaway: Make the social profile as relevant and informative as possible; include a working link and targeted keyword on it

Social links as credible backlinks

Both Google and Bing confirmed in a 2010 interview with Danny Sullivan that they look into social data. The results of the analysis of which may or may not affect the ranking.
Thus, when the social content includes a link that is shared many times over and one that leads to the website, the search engines may view this as a credible backlink. This won’t affect the authority of the website, but it will affect the rank of that particular page.
Takeaway: Publish social content that includes link to the main website, but use this tactic sparingly

Social engagement as a DA driver

DA stands for domain authority. This works much like soliciting credible backlinks. As such, if you will publish high-quality content and promote it accordingly, external sites may link to your website organically. Google may eventually view your website as an authority site. External links are verifiable and they validate the brand.
At times, when the content is so valuable to the point that not sharing it is a demerit, promotions are no longer necessary. It’s also a self-perpetuating cycle wherein the more people who share your content, the more external link you’ll acquire.
As already mentioned above, the social networking sites tend to have higher DA and ranking potential. Think of the process as passing the site’s DA to your website, thereby increasing your website or blog’s DA in the process.
Takeaway: More importantly, publish high-quality, share-worthy content

Social engagement as a way to drive more searches

A social strategy, experts would definitely agree, is more of a branding strategy. Indeed, building a community through your Facebook page increases brand awareness. Online reputation is also strengthened through it.
Nevertheless, the benefits of this strategy directly relate to optimisation purposes. The brand presence can lead to more searches on Google especially branded ones. When branded searches increase, searches for non-branded keywords also increase. That’s the trickle-down effect, leading to greater visibility on results pages.
Takeaway: Publish interactive social content that drives engagement at the post level
The power of synergy
Looking at it from a holistic SEO campaign perspective, a content strategy should not be complete without a social strategy. This is no longer a question whether you should include social media buttons on your website or blog because, evidently, you should.
In driving your SEO initiatives, you should think of the social media as a powerful promotion machine. It provides you the exposure, awareness, searchability, shareability, links, traffic, and ranking that your brand needs.
The good thing about this strategy is it doesn’t require any upfront investment. Key takeaways are already provided for each item. However, it would be advisable to consider these things.
First, align your topical contents with your target audience. Second, build relationships with like-minded people – may they be considered as influencers or not. Third, build a community and participate in pertinent communities. Fourth, share your own contents as well as that of others provided these are consistent with your theme and values.
Integrating the social media on your SEO efforts now would mean getting ahead with the overall SEO for tomorrow. That’s if you haven’t already integrated your search strategy with your social strategy – this cannot be emphasised enough.
SEO is not just about researching for the right keywords, optimising the site contents, and building links. You have to factor in social to achieve your desired results. Initiatives should be converging particularly in a social-first world that we are currently living in.
In sum, social engagement such as likes, shares, and comments are not just vanity metrics – there is real SEO value that can be obtained through them. The goal is to optimise for various social opportunities may it be the profile or updates themselves.
Bottom-line, you have to publish well-optimised social content to boost your SEO efforts. You cannot expect the desired results if the two is not properly integrated. Thus, start with synergising the strategies. The secret is being consistent on what you do on social media.

This post was contributed by a guest blogger, Abbeygail Urie a techie who love to be up to date with growing technologies. She is also freelance writer and blogger for MyOptimind: a web design, mobile app development and SEO company in the Philippines.