Why do most businesses join social media? Traffic. With so many users, it has huge potential. Yet most of these businesses won’t benefit from social media unless they quickly learn the power of social media SEO.
You may have used SEO before for your websites and landing pages. SEO, or search engine optimization, improves a website’s visibility and ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs) to attract more organic traffic. When combined with social media, SEO narrows to optimizing your social media profiles and posts to increase their visibility and discoverability in search results.
What Is Social Media SEO?
You set up social media profiles to reach out to new audiences. Why not maximize your potential? That’s the goal of social media SEO. When you use SEO best practices, you can better attract potential customers through search.
That may change slightly across platforms, but the goal remains the same: communicating with the right audience for your brand. While management of the two digital tools is different, social media management and SEO can complement each other as you build. And you can’t ignore the statistics:
- 90 percent of people shop from brands they follow on social media.
- 87 percent of buyers believe social media helps them make shopping decisions.
- 59 percent of businesses say that their company is making more sales through social media marketing than other forms of marketing.
Social media isn’t just about connecting friends; more than ever, it’s connecting businesses and customers.
But that doesn’t mean social media will replace search engines. Instead, the two work together to satisfy the way people move online. It also means you’ll need a deeper strategy to ensure people find you where they look.
Social Media Strategies That Work
Social media platforms won’t take over the need for websites either. Instead, they serve as powerful amplifiers for your content. It helps you reach beyond your website’s audience to attract an entirely new follower base. Social media allows you to tap into vast networks of potential customers waiting to engage and spread your message to an even larger audience.
How do you do that? You can start with these strategies:
Keyword Strategy
How do you use SEO to rank higher in search engines? Through keyword diversification. It’s no different with your social media strategy.
Start with the keywords you currently use for your website and apply them to your social media platforms. Then, expand to find the most popular keywords on each social media account you use. Every social media site is different and will have tools to help you find better keywords.
Take Instagram, for example. If you use the search function for a broad term, the algorithm will auto-fill, providing you with other potential keywords. A search for wellness introduces you to potential keywords of:
- Wellness journey
- Wellness bodybuilding
- Wellness retreat
- Wellness coach
You now have more ideas for creating content centered around these topics, knowing these words are heavily searched on Instagram. It alerts you to even more topics to add to your content marketing strategy.
Links in Social Profiles
Social media messages traditionally use no-follow links. This means they block any of the link-building benefits associated with SEO.
Don’t negate the benefits of using links in your social media strategy. Let’s start with your profile link. Social media platforms allow you to build profiles and include a link back to your site. These are follow links, and search engines will reward you for these connections.
While links you include in posts or comments will be no-follow, they can still drive traffic and potential customers. Consumers use social media to find new products and services, and they spend, on average, about 143 minutes on social media every day.
Optimize Social Profiles
Your social media profile is an extension of your website. That means branding should carry across every page and profile you create. Optimization should occur throughout your social media accounts, mirroring your website’s SEO strategy.
The first rule of thumb is to be thorough. Social media profiles often give you different pages to describe what you do. About Us, Services, Products, and other editable sections should all be optimized based on your social media SEO strategy. This allows search engines to understand your brand and ensure you’re best ranked for what you do.
Don’t forget to update your information regularly. New photos, changes to your data, adding new SEO-friendly keywords, and updating links in your bio sections all help with SEO. Verify your accounts, as it helps distinguish them from fake or fan accounts.
Establish Relationships
Your sales team knows the key to success is building relationships. It’s no different when online. Relationships are the cornerstone for driving inbound links and attracting social media attention. It’s what helps you build trust with both your peers and customer base.
This is where social media excels. Make connections through your profile pages, then nurture those relationships in different ways. Prospects may start by seeing a sponsored ad on Facebook, but what hooks them is the private group that allows them to go deeper into learning.
It’s not just about prospects. Many brands are finding success with influencers. Influencers wield significant power when it comes to nudging customers toward purchasing. There’s no better place to build relationships with influencers than through your social media accounts. Then, collaborate with them by:
- Paying them for featuring your brand
- Using them in advertisements
- Giving them products to review
- Run giveaways together
- Having them promote your brand’s events
- Building an ambassador program for long-term growth
There isn’t a shortage of ways to build relationships online. The more time you put into it, the more results you’ll see.
Do You Have a Social Media SEO Plan?
Whether you’ve built SEO into your current social media strategy or not, use this guide to build on your understanding of how the two are interlinked. It’s the perfect way of creating a more robust digital marketing plan.
Your business is already built and ready for growth. Let digital marketing help you achieve your goals.
And if you’re ready to be a part of a team to collaborate with and help with your growth, reach out to us. It’s time to see where social media can take you this year.
