At the agency, we often get asked by prospects if we offer Social Media as a part of our services.
While social media IS part of our Off-page SEO strategies, it doesn’t have the impact that people think.
In this article, we discuss social media, how it applies to SEO, and a brief guide on how to use it to maximize your SEO efforts.
Will Social Media increase my rank on Google?
This is probably the biggest question we get asked when it comes to SEO.
In short, the answer is NO.
Building a ton of social media profiles and linking back to your website will NOT cause it to climb the ranks no matter how many you create.
The main reason for this is that any links you create back to your website (or any website for that matter) are ‘No Follow’ links. If you read our guide on Off-Page SEO, you would know the impact of ‘No Follow’ links on your page rank (which is very small).
The Importance of Social Media to SEO
Even though it won’t rank your website, you can still benefit from building links back to your website using social media.
There are two main benefits:
- Increased relevance
- A balanced link profile
How SEO can increase the relevance of your website
Profiles on certain platforms are just as capable of ranking on Google as regular websites are. In fact, sometimes they are more capable of doing so due to the Domain Authority of the platforms hosting them. We have personally seen Instagram profiles for a business rank ABOVE the business’ website in the past for a branded search.
Similar to Directories, while the increased social media presence won’t necessarily drive your website up the ranks, what it will do is make your brand name and even your keywords associated with certain Google searches. As a result, what will happen is when people search for your name or keyword, they’re more likely to find something related to your business, even if it’s not your actual website.
What makes this even better is that you can often add links to your website on these profiles. So even if people don’t directly find your website in the search engine results pages, they can still land on it.
How SEO can lead to a balanced link profile
Social Media offers a ‘No Follow’ link back to your website. While this will do nothing as far as rankings go, it still offers major benefits in the form of a balanced link profile.
A balanced link profile will protect you from getting hit by algorithm updates. Websites that are naturally growing should consist of Follow and No follow links. A backlink profile consisting of almost exclusively Follow links looks suspicious to Google’s algorithms. This will cause Google to assume you’re trying to game the system and penalize your website.
Will Social Media grow my business?
This depends on your business and your offer.
When most people talk about growing on social media, what they mean is to develop a following. This is known as Organic growth.
For services that deal with customers 1 to 1 and depend more on the brand of the person offering the service, organic growth on Social Media can make a difference. Some examples of this include Barbers and Tattoo artists.
For most offers though, organic growth is a waste of time. Social Media does very little as far as bringing in customers goes. If you’re a dentist and you share a post about Root Canals, people are not exactly going to be lining up to get the procedure. And the time it would take to grow to a point where they might is absolutely not worth the effort.
Building a Strong Social Media Presence
Growing on social media is not what we do at our agency. However, we can still talk about how to do it.
Your journey towards success begins with building a strong presence on the right platforms. It’s essential to choose the ones that best align with your business goals and target audience.
These platforms tend to change all the time, so we’re not going to recommend any specific ones. What is important though is to ensure you’re focused on building a presence on one platform before branching out to others.
Keyword Research for Social Media
Similar to SEO, Keyword research is a fundamental aspect of social media success. It’s important that your page contains keywords that resonate with your niche and target audience.
The process of finding the correct keywords is similar to the process of keyword research in SEO:
- Look up keywords relevant to your niche
- Sort them by monthly search volume
- Choose the most relevant ones with the highest search volume
There are a variety of tools you can use for keyword research, including Semrush, Ahrefs, SEranking, and Google Keyword Planner.
Content Creation and Optimization
Content is a cornerstone of social media success. Craft your posts with both your audience and search engines in mind.
Whether it’s text on linked-in, photos on Instagram, or videos on Tik Tok, you want to make sure your posts are:
- Engaging
- Educational
- Relevant
- Visually satisfying
Making Engaging Social Media Content
Making engaging content simply means that it grabs the audience’s attention and compels them to respond in the form of likes, comments, or shares.
This is done with attention grabbing headlines and by encouraging the audience to take action.
Making Educational Social Media Content
Being educational simply means that the audience can learn something from indulging in your content.
You can do this by putting out guides, addressing common problems, and sharing information about your field that the average person might know.
Being educational has the added benefit of establishing you as an authority on the topic on the platform. This can lead to additional leads.
Making Relevant Content
Making relevant content involves posting about things that are not only interesting to your audience, but also directly related to the business or niche you’re aiming to build a following in.
For example, if you’re an e-commerce store selling golf equipment, you might make posts about golfing that could range from the best fields to play the game in to proper swinging technique. Anyone who’s into golf and would consider making a purchase has a better chance of finding your page the more relevant content you put out.
Making visually satisfying content
If you’re on a visual platform such as Instagram or Tiktok, it’s not enough to be educational and relevant. Your content must also look good to the audience. This involves good photography, videography, and editing skills. You can get away with not having the best looking content if you’re educational and entertaining enough though. But when you have this as well, your chances of going viral are significantly higher.
Paid Social Media
Paid Social Media, as you can guess from the term, involves paying for your posts to be seen by other people. If you’re trying to grow your business on social media, this is the route you should be taking. You’re no longer relying on your content being good enough that people share it (which might never happen depending on your niche). Your content also can get shown specifically to people who are most likely to buy from you.
Paid Ads is an art of its own and beyond the scope of this blog post. However, we do have good experience with ads, and will be covering them in a future post.
Conclusion
We hope you found this article useful on getting to know social media’s impact on SEO and Business growth. For more posts like this, check out our Blog.
Key takeaways from this post:
- Social media has little impact on your rankings
- The main benefit of for SEO is that it helps balance your link profile and gives your brand more relevance to search engines
- Paid ads on are the way to go if you want to grow your business on social media
FAQs
- What is the significance of SEO in social media marketing?
- SEO enhances your online visibility, attracts a targeted audience, and provides a competitive advantage.
- How can I choose the right social media platforms for my business?
- Research your target audience’s preferences and habits to select the most suitable platforms.
- What are some tools for keyword research in social media?
- Popular tools include Google Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest, and SEMrush.
- Why is user-generated content important for social media success?
- User-generated content adds authenticity and trust to your brand, increasing engagement and credibility.
- How can I effectively engage with my social media audience?
- Engage by responding to comments and by putting out content that’s engaging, relevant, and educational.