SEO and Social Media: The Perfect Partners

November 27, 2013

SEO , Social Media ,

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Most of us have had a suspicion for a while that social media has an impact on seo rankings and the Moz.com 2013 search ranking factors confirmed this for us.

seo-metricshttp://moz.com/search-ranking-factors

So the question is…. are you still running your SEO activity in a separate silo to your social media marketing?

The answer should absolutely be NO.

Go Where Your Customers Are

Firstly search engine optimisation has sprung up around the need to place your product and services in front of people at the very moment they are searching for your products. Millions of people use Google everyday so it makes sense to promote your business where your customers are hanging out.
What sites do people use online?

Aside from Google there are other places online where your customers are spending their time, offering the perfect opportunity to engage and interact with your target audience ensuring you are at the front of their mind when they next need you.

The table below shows the current top 20 sites in the UK according to Alexa.com. Social media sites Google+, facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, twitter and Pinterest all feature in the list with millions of UK visitors each month.

These social sites also have algorithms, all be it far simpler than Google’s, for presenting the most relevant results to people. This is where an SEO’s optimisation skills can come into play giving a better chance of exposure in the social space as well as search engines.

Capture

So what do Pandas and Penguins have to do with it?

The most recent algorithm updates from Google have forced companies to revise their seo strategies to ensure content becomes the focal point of their efforts. If you haven’t done this I suspect your rankings are stagnant or falling.

Innovative, thought provoking content will earn you the online exposure you desire. A great article, stunning infographic or funny video will evoke an emotion causing people to share and bookmark the piece. This will earn you backlinks in a natural way and increase your social following.

With at least 2 million blogs, a quarter of a million photos, 22 million hours of video and over 500 million status updates every day it’s difficult to get visibility. Not only this but people are also sending emails, downloading apps and listening to podcasts. This is where content amplification through social media can help. The old adage “Build great content and they will come” sadly doesn’t cut it anymore.

How Social and SEO work together

This is why social media and SEO work together. By building an engaged community of fans and followers on social sites you have a platform to push out your content to an already engaged and receptive audience.

By promoting your content on your social channels you have the opportunity to notch up a few bonus SEO points. It’s like a virtuous circle of improvement where better content = more engagement = increased visibility = higher SEO score = better rankings.

For those of you doing SEO and Social Media how joined up is your strategy? Do you take advantage of both channels to increase your online reach?

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