How Does Social Media Affect SEO?

Are there any connections between SEO and social media? How likes and shares improve the ranking of your web page? Do they actually have any impact? You might have noticed the opposite – when any content is ranked by Google, chances are that it’s going to be viewed by more people. As a result, it will get more shares and likes. In turn, most SEO experts claim that social media reactions don’t influence ranking. Still, there is some kind of correlation here. Let’s find out, how does it work.

Interdependence instead of cause-and-effect link

There is an interdependence between social media reactions and better rankings, still there is no direct casual connections here. Social media popularity might have zero results when it comes to your SEO. However, if you notice that social media causes better Google results, these are the possible reasons for this to happen:

• Sharable content might get linked to other resources
• Popular posts get viewed by more people
• Backlinks improve rankings

The better rankings, the more people see your content. So social media activity itself is not so important, while the results of that activity may have beneficial impact. It means that when you know the trick, you can use your social media presence not only to increase your brand awareness, but to improve SEO as well. Let’s see, how you can do that.

Post content that will get links

Nobody will ever link to your content when it is boring, unoriginal, useless and poorly-written. The same happens to self-advertising and promotional posts. They do tell your readers and potential customers about the services, which is useful for your own resource. However, you will get links only when you post something that is useful and valuable not only for you, but for a potential person, who will link to your post.

Try creating informational content in addition to promotional. This might be related to your service somehow. For example, if you own an online shop of Chinese products, you can post some interesting recipes on your page. Compose tutorials, infographics, instructions, tips, and something that your audience may find interesting.

Great content can do miracles. If you make useful and insightful posts with eye-catching photos, images or videos, they can replace a full-fledged content marketing campaign. Great content is appreciated by Google as well as by social media users, so it might increase your chances to get shares and links to reputable sources.

Follow and get followers

When it comes to following, you should focus on the quality rather than on quantity. If you have 100 followers including 5 popular influencers of your industry, it might be better than having 1000 regular users. But how can you make influencers notice you and subscribe to your page? Let’s see.

• Repost their content

Not only you have to share it on your page, but also take some time to write a small comment or overview about it. Recommend your readers to have a look at these posts and share your positive impression about them. Show that you really are interested in what they do.

• Don’t just send links to them

Sending a link to an influencer with a request to follow you or anything like that is not very effective. What is more, this won’t help you build long-term partnership with them. Instead, build your cooperation gradually and wisely.

• Help them with link building

Link to their posts from your own ones. If you create a really great article and place a link to an influencer’s content there, chances are that he/she will get more visitors. Believe us, when you increase someone’s traffic, you attract their attention for sure.

Don’t make links to social media sites

You shouldn’t try to build links on social media platforms. All these resources are perceived by Google as reliable, however, if you link from your page, this won’t bring your website any benefits. In most cases, links from personal pages don’t pass Google’s verification. Even when they do, they would rather improve social media’s SEO (only if the user, who builds a link, is influential). What is more, such links don’t stay visible for a long time – they usually get displaced by other posts in the news feed.

Direct link building is not a very good option for social media. Instead, you should focus on creating high-quality content, share others’ posts, and build following with popular users. You don’t have to get thousands of followers, because this won’t bring you too much result. Instead, try to focus on influencers and find a way to make them interested in your resource. This is how it works on social media – when others are really interested in what you do, they will naturally make your page more successful. You will get backlinks and more visits, as a result, Google will perceive your resource as reputable and useful. When Google is assured that your resource brings value to users, it will reward you with high rankings.

So focus on making your content shareable, attracting influencers’ attention, and helping them make their posts even more popular (but don’t expect that they will return it to you immediately). Arm yourself with these simple recommendations and get the most out of your social media! Good luck!

 

About Author:-

Jennifer Pauli graduated from Corvinus School of Management and finished the faculty of Journalism at Corvinus University of Budapest. Currently, she is an editor, business writer, and copywriter, working with 1ws.com and other well-known companies, blogs, and personalities. Follow her on Twitter and LInkedin