Every day, your customers are facing a big choice – picking between you and the competing brands. Since people trust people more than ads, chances are they will go for the business that has more clients vouching for them. The right stories from real people can grow your business profit within a very short time. This is why social proof is so important for your brand.
And despite the many changes to the SEO algorithm, reviews you get from your customers still play an important role in your search rankings and visibility. Still, if you are just getting to the game, combining social media and SEO can be very overwhelming. There is just so much to learn and do. So, in this post, we are giving you a straightforward breakdown of what you need to get started.
How Does Social Media Impact SEO?
You may have heard people say that social media does not have a direct impact on SEO. That is true. Still, it has a significant indirect impact. In fact, used effectively, you can get your SM channels to:
1. Push Your Content to More People
Every business wants to be seen. And the more people know about you, the better. While it can be quite tough to achieve, social shares can really help here. That’s why when coming up with a social media plan, you have to be strategic. As your main goal is to find a relevant audience, you have to choose your channels carefully.
For example, according to Selbery, many e-commerce brands choose WhatsApp as their go-to platform for driving sales. Sharing posts there is simply easy since most people use it already and don’t have to download a new app. Yet, of course, you have to test different channels and see what works best for you.
2. Improve Your SEO Rankings
Do you know what has a direct impact on your SEO ranking? The time users spend on your page. The longer visitors hang out on your site and engage with your content, the more the search algorithm is likely to rank you higher.
If people stay for longer, search engines believe that your site is useful and has some real answers. Plus, since your bounce rate is low, Google interprets that as a sign that your content is really good, so it recommends it more often.
3. Get Backlinks
Building the right network to get backlinks isn’t only time-consuming but also tough (especially for beginners). Yet, your social media presence can help you connect with writers, influencers, marketers, and webmasters in your industry willing to collaborate with you.
This way, social media can make it easier to both start link building and scale your efforts by giving you more article submission and guest posting opportunities. As a result, you gain more backlinks and improve your SEO.
4. Push Your Branded Search Traffic Higher
Branded search is where the big names get to flex their muscles. Why is it even important? You see – 82% of people who want to buy stuff usually go for a brand they know. That’s why every business should leverage the power of their name.
Wouldn’t it be great if customers were searching not just for a product but for your product? It can become your reality if you build up your branded search traffic. How? One of the most effective ways is to share your posts on different SM platforms. This way, you will start gaining that precious brand recognition that helps you stick in your clients’ minds longer.
5. Make Your Brand More Credible
Lots of businesses use social media to share reviews and testimonials from their clients. And, since 91% of customers make judgments about local brands based on reviews, you can build more trust for your company by using social media as well.
It’s even better when there are other SM channels (besides yours) talking about you in a positive light. Overall, social media impacts SEO in many different ways. That’s why you simply can’t ignore its effects.
Why Is Social Proof Essential for SEO?
You don’t really trust strangers, right? The same works for your potential customers. They don’t know who you are, so they aren’t ready to buy from you, even if you have the absolute best product or service to offer.
That’s why all these reviews people share on socials are so important. Seeing other customers (just like them) talking about your brand makes it easier to trust you. 71% of people who had a positive experience with a brand on social media will go on to recommend it to their circle of friends and family. Quite impressive, isn’t it?
But still, what does this have to do with your rankings and SEO as such? The thing is that the more people talk about you online, the better it is for your positions in SERPs. All those reviews either simply mention your brand or link to you directly, which has a positive influence on your search engine optimization.
6 Ways to Combine Social Media and SEO for Better Rankings
There are billions of people already using social media, and that number is only going to keep increasing. That’s why if you can combine social media and SEO effectively, you will gain a competitive advantage. But how do you start? Here are some time-proven best practices:
#1 User-Generated Content
There is no better social proof than user-generated content. UGC is all about authenticity, which is what makes it trustable. But let’s face it, not all user content will meet the best standards, so you have to be picky sometimes. And this means you need to come up with a strategy for choosing the best pieces.
When you find that special gem, you should hype that thing – it could be a photo and a caption from a happy customer raving about their favorite product from you. Sometimes, it’s a video review or something along the same lines. Either way, you can repost those with a warm, appreciative comment. But don’t stop there.
Put up some of the best user content on your website. New visitors will see these, and their trust will be reinforced. The same applies to search engines. Besides, you can always add some playfulness and start a challenge or a fun contest to motivate even more people to participate.
#2 Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is one of the most powerful social media SEO strategies. Why? Well, we’ve already seen how important it is to get users to talk about your product or service. Now, imagine you get the same thing, only from someone who has a huge following and a great amount of supporters.
By collaborating with bloggers, you get many more people to learn about your brand. The only secret is to make it as genuine as possible, almost like UGC coming from an influencer. Besides, of course, this only works if you choose bloggers in your niche who have both a relevant audience and some good statistics.
#3 Shareable Website Content
Want a strategy that builds even more SEO proof for your site? Then, go all in on content that is so good that your consumers can’t help but turn into your brand advocates. After all, great content is still the key to better search rankings.
Always do your keyword research to ensure that your topics are based on questions or issues your readers struggle with. Make sure that each content piece matches the search intent. This will increase your chances of drawing more attention and engagement. And as soon as you manage to create content that users want to share, you will automatically get more people to trust you.
#4 Catchy Social Media Feed
Making sure your content is easy to share is one great way to combine SEO and social media marketing. That’s why add social buttons everywhere you can. It has to be easy for your readers to share posts they like with their friends and followers. As a rule, if it takes anything more than a click or two to share your posts, most people won’t bother, even if they really liked it. So, keep it as simple as you can.
Besides, get your audience excited about engaging with your content by liking their comments, responding to their questions, and just being relatable. But what if you are just starting out and don’t have any active following? Some people solve this by paying for comments at the beginning to help boost engagement.
#5 SEO-Friendly Social Media Profiles
There are different ways to improve your web visibility and get more traffic. Yet, often, a lot comes down to choosing the right marketing platform. Based on your choice, you’ll have to learn how to optimize it properly. It is especially important when using social media for SEO.
Apart from making your post engaging, you have to make sure both in-app and external search engine optimization are fine. A good idea is to learn from the best in your industry. Try to analyze their most successful posts – what makes them so special?
#6 Backlinks That Drive Traffic
Remember how we said building backlinks is hard? It’s also hard to talk about SEO without links coming up somehow. They are a huge part of promoting your website and making it look good to search engines. So, get into link building as early as possible because it can improve both your social media and SEO strategies.
You can start off with guest posting, or if you’re more savvy, jump into the game with the help of expert service providers. Either way, the main goal is to get links from real, credible websites with lots of traffic whose audiences overlap with yours. Do that often enough, and you could be dominating the search results in your niche sooner than you think.
Conclusion
The idea of social media impacting SEO is not new, but it is no less effective. Whether you’re an established brand or a startup, you should remember one thing – people trust other people. So, no matter how exquisite your marketing strategy is, you need to get that real, true social proof. Even if it isn’t entirely positive, it can be much more effective than your paid ads. Why? Because genuineness rules the world today.
