The SEO Value of Social Media: 4 SEO Benefits of Social Channels
Having a strong social media strategy is an integral component to any successful digital marketing approach. Often, businesses know it is important to embrace social media but begin to doubt its potential after dedicating time and money to its cause over a long period of time. Aside from being an excellent way to communicate directly with your fans, broadcast your messages and make your business become more transparent, there is SEO value in maintaining and keeping up with your social channels.
1. Social Channels Drive Referral Traffic
Social media channels serve as not only as an interactive billboard for your business, but they also serve as a megaphone for your brand and your brand message. Businesses can easily broadcast their brand message on a consistent basis to the people who actually (usually) want to hear it… their fans! Whenever a business creates a post they are essentially using that social channel to stay top of mind with their fans, as well as present them with an opportunity to visit their website and eventually convert. Social media can lead to a direct increase in traffic to a business’s website. The more active you are, the more likely you will generate traffic from each of your social channels to your website. This increase in referral traffic will provide support to enhance your ranking in Google and in Bing’s search results.
2. Social Engagement Supports Social Authority & Can Boost Ranking
Engagement should be what businesses strive for on social media. Engagement and interaction is what leads to higher social authority as well as direct traffic to your website. Social signals and having a strong reputation do contribute to a website’s ranking in the eyes of Google and Bing. The best way to build a strong social reputation is to be active, interesting and to openly communicate with your fans. This will help grow your follower count and continue to increase your social authority. Another important component of any social strategy is to provide unique shareable content. Search engines want to see popular social pages with large extended networks. If your fans are sharing your content, it will help show search engines you have social authority and it will also help drive more traffic to your website and possibly generate conversions. If you are going to invest the time in improving your social strategy, remember to remain active and facilitate engagement with your fans.
3. Social Media Pages Appear In Search Engine Results Pages
Alright – so this benefit isn’t directly a way to increase your website’s ranking but it is a way to improve your position in the search engine results page (SERP). If someone is looking for your business and they search your business name, your website will likely show up first, but your competition might be listed below you. You can combat that by having active, high ranking social media pages. Each optimized social media channel you have means another spot in the SERP that your brand can own – and that means knocking your competitor down the page. You don’t need a ton of social channels but I would recommend having 2-3 active ones. This will usually be enough to knock your competitor below the fold if someone is searching your brand name. More space on the SERP means more opportunity to increase traffic and ultimately generate conversions.
4. Google favors its own social platforms
Two social media pages you absolutely must have for your business are a YouTube channel and a Google+ page. It’s no secret that Google favors the social channels that it owns. If you have an active YouTube channel with a good following, the chances of it appearing in the SERP are very strong. Also – don’t forget that YouTube is the second largest search engine….and it’s not even a search engine! If you want to increase your digital presence you should definitely have an active YouTube channel. Google+ is a must have for any business as well. Aside from taking up more real estate on the SERP, if you link your Google+ account to your Google Webmaster tools when someone searches for your business, they will see the most recent Google+ post in the knowledge graph. In the end, you have to remember that this is Google’s realm and you have to play by their rules. Use their social networks if you want to dominate the SERP.
Social media is a powerful communication channel for businesses to open up a dialogue with their customers and brand advocates. There is more value in social media, however, then serving as a brand megaphone. In order to have a successful social strategy, businesses need to have an active social component. This will not only help to maintain and improve their brand reputation, but it will also improve their website’s SEO as well as their amount of real estate on the SERP. With the ever evolving state of social media, it is important for businesses to stay active and up to date. The SEO value of social media shouldn’t be overlooked. Businesses should be utilizing social channels now – especially because their competition is already doing it. For more information about how Elite SEM can improve your SEO strategy contact us today.
You Might Be Interested In
