Social Media: Off-Page SEO Tactic

 


By Chamarya Roberts


The topic that I will be discussing today is the influential power social media has on off-page SEO. Social media excites me as a topic because there are so many different ways marketers and public relations specialists can incorporate it into a marketing strategy. To be honest social media is one of the main reasons why I chose digital and social media as my focus, which is what brought me to this course, which is why I started this blog in the first place.

 

What is Off-Page SEO?

Before diving into the main topic, let's break down off-page SEO. Off-page SEO helps optimize a website from the outside to improve its ranking on the search engines. Many think that the only off-page SEO tactic is link building, but there are more tactics than that one being social media. Some of the other tactics are domain authority, social promotion, local SEO, brand building, content marketing, and so much more.

 

Social Media

Many companies nowadays have active social media accounts because they know how influential social media platforms are. Social media has impacted how we use search engines to find what we are searching for. If you think about it, social media platforms have become a type of search engine of their own; therefore, social media platforms can be treated as such.

Social media is mainly used as a strategy of its own, but as I stated earlier, it can be used in many ways. "Social media provides many great benefits on its own but also aids other areas of your digital marketing efforts – including SEO" (Jones, 2021). 

 

The History between Social Media and SEO

Like anything else in marketing, the relationship between social media and SEO (as a whole) is a bit complex. 

Through my research, I have found that there is no direct link between a company's social media accounts influences the ranking of the company's website. With that being said, there is a bit more to the story.

 In 2010, it was "reported that Google had social signals that helped it rank organic results" (Jones, 2021). These claims were backed up by Matt Cutts, the former leader of Google's webspam team. But later on, in 2014, Cutts changed his statement, saying Google did not, in fact, treat social media accounts as ranking signals. Instead, there are used as their own organic search results. This claim was verified two years later by Gary Illyes, a Google Webmaster Trends analyst. 

 In so many words, that back story explained that social media signals do not influence organic rankings directly, but they do have a relationship. Although there is no direct link between the two, a company's social media efforts can impact its SEO strategy. 

 

Influence Of Social Media On Off-Page SEO

Google is the major search engine used daily. Personally, I can't count how many times I use Google to look up something. Google's main priority is to provide users with quality content that matches the user's search criteria. The quality of a company's content can affect the number of shares it will receive. This is one of the features of social media that influence SEO because search engines such as Google will use social signals as a vital metric when ranking websites.

The shares from quality content can influence search engine optimization in six directions (Clement, 2021):

  • Extensive content distribution
  • Longer lifespan of your posts
  • Improve online visibility and organic traffic
  • Increase brand recognition.
  • Enhance brand reputation
  • Boosts local search engine optimization (SEO)

The purpose of social media is to engage, influence, and create content for your consumers. Therefore, starting a business account on social media platforms will help companies stay connected with their consumers, current and potential ones. "When you grow a strong social community making your content go viral becomes a lot easier. You just have to share your web page's link with your followers, and the rest is done by them" (Shengale, 2013). A company's social community (aka followers) plays a significant role in sharing your content with at least a small group of friends or even helping it go viral, so engaging with your social community is essential. A company's followers contribute to the number of shares and likes of the content they will receive.  

 

Pitfalls

There are a few mistakes that marketers should be aware of when adding social media to their SEO strategy. I have mentioned a few below.

 1. Not Optimizing Content For SEO and Social Media

Some may not think to optimize the social media content and will only optimize SEO content. But the truth is marketers should be optimizing both types of content. By only optimizing SEO content, marketers are missing out on the opportunity to expand their reach to new targets with better content, which can ultimately increase ranking.

2. Not Having a Proper Promotional Plan

 In the competitive world that we live in, it is hard to stand out in the crowd. Therefore, marketers need to ensure that every social media action taken has a promotion plan behind it. According to Akash Srivastava is, an SEO Consultant, "if you take time to create a proper promotional plan, your SEO and social media efforts will naturally flow. 

3. Not Having Social Sharing Buttons

"How do you get traffic for blog posts?" This question is presented to Srivastava all the time. He states that the best method that most marketers don't include are social sharing buttons. Social share buttons can be found at the bottom of a website or blog. The tiny icons represent a social media platform and, when clicked on, will take users to the company's or blogger's social media page. 

4. Not Responding to Comments

When adding social media as a tactic in an SEO strategy, marketers must not put all their attention on SEO. Marketers sometimes focus on what is happening with SEO that they forget about all the other factors that play into the social media aspect. As I mentioned earlier, it is important to engage with your followers by responding to comments. 


In closing, I hope this was as fun for you to read as it was for me to write. What are your thoughts on Social Media and SEO?

Please feel free to leave a comment. Until next time friends!

 

 

 References

 

 Jones , K. V. I. P. C. O. N. T. R. I. B. U. T. O. R. K. J. F. / C. E. O. at L. S. E. O. (2021, June 30). How social media helps seo [final answer]. Search Engine Journal. Retrieved February 21, 2022, from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/social-media-seo/196185/#close

Barnard, J. (2020). What is off-page Seo? A comprehensive guide . Semrush Blog. Retrieved February 21, 2022, from https://www.semrush.com/blog/off-page-seo/#header17

Greene, J. (2022, January 11). Social media and seo: How they work together to boost your visibility: Databox blog. Databox. Retrieved February 21, 2022, from https://databox.com/social-media-and-seo#reasons

Illyes, G. (2020). Social Media Seo: 7 ways social media can improve your SEO results. Semrush Blog. Retrieved February 21, 2022, from https://www.semrush.com/blog/social-media-seo/#header13

Shengale, R. (2013, February 4). Off-page SEO for Beginners. Social Media Today. Retrieved February 21, 2022, from https://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/page-seo-beginners#:~:text=Influence%20Of%20Social%20Media%20On%20Off%2DPage%20SEO&text=Make%20profiles%20for%20your%20blog,viral%20becomes%20a%20lot%20easier

Srivastava, A. (2020, February 13). 7 mistakes marketers make when integrating social media and Seo – DBI. Digital Branding Institute. Retrieved February 21, 2022, from https://digitalbrandinginstitute.com/7-mistakes-marketers-make-when-integrating-social-media-and-seo/

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