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Social media is the genie that shows no signs of getting back into the bottle and everyone and their mum has an opinion on it, but the debate about the impact it has on your SEO is about to be put to bed.

Social media does not directly affect your SEO. There, sorted!

If only it were that simple…

More traffic than rush hour

While SEO isn’t directly affected by social media it does give the chance to put your brand front and centre on result pages, so indirectly social media is a big influence on your SEO. Social media brings more visibility and as people share your content, they drive traffic your way, and thus your rankings get a boost!

Similarly, social media profiles themselves rank in search engine results. Your brand can easily utilize your search engine visibility by making social media profiles and optimizing them to send more traffic to your site. Engaging your audience on social media encourages users to look at your official website and drives organic search ranking up.

Did you know: Last year Hootsuite conducted an experiment into social media and rankings and found that there is a positive correlation between social engagements and change in ranks. Read more here.

We need to talk about content

Unlike on search engines where people only find your content when they search for a relevant keyword, social media puts your content in front of people who didn’t even realise they needed it. Better content reach means higher-quality traffic, which in turn affects your rankings. When someone shares something on social media it can be shared over and over again until the first post has been multiplied hundreds (or thousands) of times. Content that gets shared a lot, gets seen a lot which makes it more likely it’ll be shared by other websites which can drive traffic to your site, which affects your rankings, which means more people see your content, so more people share it… you get the picture.

Remember though, making shareable content is almost as important as making sure the social media sites you’re using are right for your audience. The best content in the world won’t get shared if the wrong people see it!

Social media platforms themselves also function as search engines. If you optimize your social media bios and captions with relevant keywords than you’re helping people discover you through a quick search. You just need to dose your content and profiles with relevant keywords, your profiles are then more visible which sends clicks your way. The Hootsuite study also reveals that when it comes to social media, quality content beats quantity. The balance between regular content and spamming is a hard one to walk, so tread carefully.

Location, location, location

Geo-tagging your stories and posts can help you gain attention from local audiences. There’s a huge potential audience to capture if you can entice them to your social media profiles. Snippets of your reviews are shown on search engine results this is a great way to invite curious consumers to your page.

Did you know 86% of consumers read reviews on local businesses according to a BrightLocal survey conducted in 2018.

Social media can be very powerful in affecting your SEO, and shows no signs of slowing down. The more people join social media, the more powerful social signals become. Producing shareable content and using social media platforms to engage your audience can really help give your SEO a healthy boost.

If you want to give your ranking a back to school boost, or you just want to talk to a specialist about your social media, SEO or online marketing, contact us today for a chat.

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