Hey Siri, How are Social Media and SEO Related?
Social media is an ever-changing landscape, growing closer and closer to SEO with every passing moment. While social media often goes overlooked, especially with B2B businesses, it is important to make sure you keep posting valuable content there – if nothing else, for SEO purposes. They are two totally different platforms – yet, everything is somehow tied together – which makes you ask yourself: how are social media and SEO related?
How are Social Media and SEO Related? Understand Voice Search
The number one way you can understand how social media and SEO are related is by understanding the fundamentals of voice search. Think of it this way: when you ask Siri a question, you are doing just that – asking a question. You’re not using short keywords anymore; our search habits have changed.
You’re asking, “What temperature do I bake a turkey?”, not “turkey baking temperature”. This simple difference is what has completely changed social media and SEO’s relationship so that search engines can grab relevant content from social media pages to answer questions. Search engines use “social signals” to help grab this content, along with social media’s algorithms. Many factors go into your place on the algorithm, such as response time, engagement and reviews. The better your algorithm placement, the more it helps your search ranking.
Hey Siri, How are Social Media and SEO Related?
Improve Your Search Rankings with Social Media
Now that you know that search engines grab content from social media pages to give their users the most relevant possible answer to their questions, how can you leverage this to your benefit? There are three easy ways: give more valuable content, get away from engagement traps and be timely in an effective way.
Give More Valuable Content
Make sure the content you are putting onto social media is valuable. This includes tips and tricks, information and s much value as you can possibly offer. Don’t post just for posting’s sake, this means staying away from meaningless things such as, “Happy Friday!” with a photo that has nothing to do with your business. This will weigh down your page, and make search engines think that you don’t post valuable content. Instead, just skip the day and post something more meaningful and relevant to your business tomorrow.
Get Away From Engagement Traps
In the same vein as giving more valuable content on your social media pages, get away from posting engagement traps. This includes posting things like, “Like this post if you love coffee!” or “Comment below if you agree!” Social media has caught on to these engagement traps, and you can actually be penalized in the algorithm if you keep using them. This will weigh down your clout with search engines, affecting your overall ranking.
Use Timely Hashtags Often, But Not Timely Content Often
Since search engines are constantly searching for relevant information, try your best to stay away from timely content. This includes including too many references to what is happening currently – such as the holidays – even if the content you’re writing about is valuable content. This is because if you wrote something and related it to Christmas, the chances of it being served as relevant content throughout the rest of the year are extremely low – essentially harming yourself. However, timely hashtags are a great way to boost your engagement which helps your search ranking, so keep those up!
