There is a mutual relationship between search engine opitmisation and social media. This means that upon creating good and original content that gets enough social shares, one will increase the rankings for that specific URL. Getting social shares demonstrates that it is good content and would be helpful for users when searching on search engines.
On social media, content is the fuel that is constantly required to succeed. The content can then be posted on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and blogs. All allow different means to optimise the content to get more SEO value and, essentially, further attention. Targeting the right keywords is a crucial element to have optimised content and to get further visibility on search engines.
Different social platforms allow various elements in optimising the content posted. This could include titles, descriptions, tags, hashtags, and more. Titles that are keyword-focused will aid SEO. However, they still need to look natural to grab the user’s attention. Other elements such as the tags on YouTube are primarily focused on including keywords.
The more optimised the content is, the greater its visibility. Besides optimising these elements for SEO, they are still important to be found on these sites. The content will be made more discoverable to the search feature on that platform hosting the content such as a YouTube video.
For instance, including and optimising all elements provided by the YouTube platform will allow the search algorithm to discover the content further. Apart from Google, Bing and other search engines users, also tend to make use of social platforms such as YouTube to find information. Social sites are very popular; YouTube is the second largest search engine.
Interaction is a key ingredient on social media so all the content must have the criteria of being sharable or that drives a user to perform a specific interaction on the social platform (such as a ‘Like’ or ‘Comment’). The more visibility the content gets, the more popular and the more links it will be able to acquire. All tools to get more social shares must be implemented. The social profile theme could be customised to look more professional to enhance engagement.
The social media profile should not only contain a link back to your main website but all available fields should be filled out. Social media should not only be embarked on social platforms but must be interlinked with your main website. Social media buttons must be clearly visible on the website and linked to your main social profiles. Share buttons should also be included, especially on blog posts. These features will facilitate the way users share your content, while your content will benefit from an increase in shares and likes. Whenever a story or post gets seen on social platforms, your website and company will be gaining exposure. Social media’s potential as a marketing channel should never be underestimated.
The SEO benefit social media passes to SEO still does not replace the entire ranking factors. Those factors consultants consider when performing ‘traditional’ SEO still apply. However social media is now a new channel to be included during SEO.
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Mr Bugeja is an SEO and PPC consultant at Alert eBusiness Internet Marketing team.