Social media and SEO are two very distinct components of digital marketing.
While both of them play a critical role in digital marketing, you may wonder—which one is more important?Â
Although SEO, along with content marketing, is fundamental in digital marketing, this doesn’t mean that social media should be left in the dust.
Social media doesn’t directly impact your SERP, but it still helps in building customer relationships and raising brand awareness.Â
That said, the relationship between social media and SEO can be complicated, making the process of figuring out which one you should put more time and resources into may be confusing.
In this post, we explore the complex relationship between these two different components and how they work together to enhance the visibility of your brand.
Social media can help get better ranks on SERPs
Search engines use search algorithms, which work to provide users with results that are relevant to their queries.
When you search for a business, for example, the first result you’re most likely to see is the company website. Further down, you may see its social media pages on LinkedIn, Facebook and other platforms.
Search engines sift through social media pages looking for information, similar to other webpages. So, when you use certain keywords in your social media content and drive engagement around them, they’re more likely to rank better on search engines.
Also, it’s estimated there are about 2.5 billion people using social media, which gives you a great opportunity to improve your website’s SEO ranking by leveraging social media.Â
By keeping your social media profiles up to date with quality content, you can encourage more people to share your content, helping you rank higher on search results.
Shares are like backlinks
When your social media profile is shared or if your posts get retweets on Twitter, you earn yourself a backlink. Google uses these backlinks to assess the authority of a website and websites with high authority rank higher on search results.
Essentially, the more backlinks you have, the better your SEO ranking will be.
Of course, this does not mean that every backlink is viewed equally by search engines.Â
Search engines, like Google, also take into account the quality of the profiles that share your content and the number of shares.Â
For instance, an article on well-known content sharing platforms like Medium linking back to you may be given more value by Google than a retweet.
Since backlinks are valuable for SEO, you may want to try making your content more shareable by adding links and buttons.
Clicks on social media are important to SEO
Search engine optimisation isn’t just about using the right keywords in your content, there are other factors like clickc that play a role in your SEO ranking.Â
As search engines aim to give users the best results for their queries, they also consider the time users spend on a page and click-throughs.Â
These clicks are exactly why a good title and meta description are so important to your content.
By having quality, attention-grabbing content on your social media platforms, you can encourage visitors to engage with your content and spend more time on your website, giving your website better search rankings and making your brand more visible to your target audience.
Social media platforms can act as search engines
Social media platforms today have search functionality, which users use to find social groups, shop pages and content that they can consume and share.
When you use the appropriate hashtags and keywords in your content, you can increase the likelihood of your social media profile and posts appearing at the top of search results.
Leveraging social media and SEO is key to your digital marketing strategies
Social media and SEO go hand-in-hand when it comes to making your brand stand out, as they play an important role in getting your brand to rank higher on search results.
So, if you’re looking to get better SEO rankings, social media marketing is something you shouldn’t ignore.