The arrival of social networks has dramatically changed the way brands communicate with consumers. Real showcase, social networks have even become search engines where users search for products, tips and other information.
According to a GlobalWebIndex study released last year, 54% of users have already looked for a specific brand or product on these platforms.
All marketers know that social networks now play a very important role in B2B like B2C. But many do not see the link between social networks and SEO. If you want to improve the SEO of your site, be better positioned in Google, social networks are valuable allies! Why ? How?
Here are some tips and explanations for how to improve your SEO by social networks.
The importance of social networks for SEO
Social networks have an impact on SEO, because they can give more credibility and visibility to a company, two of the most important ranking criteria used by Google. One of the most basic rules of SEO is to increase the number of internal and external links, mentions of other brands and keywords to increase your visibility.
The more active your pages are, the more important your presence on the web will be. Your pages will appear more often on search results when your brand name is entered.
Social networks can also influence the user’s intention. Search engines are constantly trying to give their users the most relevant results, especially in answering a question.
Publications on social networks, especially videos, can be used for these results. For example, when you search for “How to reset an iPhone” the number 3 results are YouTube videos – Google owning YouTube.
Although Google does not officially use social networks as a ranking factor, Bing uses it. For 25% of the requests made in 2018, this has therefore been important.
On Google, social networks will mainly influence your positioning in the results. That’s how you go about it.
In addition to this reading, we strongly recommend our former (but still current) article: The impact of social networks on SEO.
Use social networks to highlight relevant links
Social networks are not considered an external ‘dofollow’ link (used in SEO to indicate to search engine robots that they must consider a link coming out of the page to identify other documents).
But on Google, sharing content on your site through your social accounts can improve your visibility. Users often share content they find interesting or relevant to their own subscribers or friends, which can help improve the credibility of your business and its web presence while reaching a wider audience.
If social networks do not play a role in the Google ranking, a report from Moz revealed that the engagement rate on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter accounted for up to 3.47% of Google’s ranking factor . It must be taken into account and pay attention to the type of content that users do not want to see on these platforms.
A survey of Sprout Social reveals that 41% of people would be willing to stop following a brand if it does not share the information that interests them and 30% would do so if they found that the content does not necessarily correspond to the DNA of the Mark.
The strategy of publishing a lot of low-quality content can hurt your brand because it does not increase the engagement rate.
Many companies think that it is enough to post viral content found on other pages or ask questions to invite users to respond. But if this content does not happen on the page, it will have the opposite effect. You’ve understood, rather prefer content tailored to your target, a higher engagement rate.
Using social networks to share your own content is also a good strategy. This increases engagement and organic traffic, multiplied with the number of shares. By focusing on the relevance of your content, you can significantly increase your engagement, which ultimately will play in your overall SEO.
Optimise your pages with important information
It is important to complete and heal your information on social networks. They have become true search engines in their own right and it is very common for users to search for a company’s contact information on Facebook or LinkedIn. Google also uses this data to create more relevant answers.
Facebook and LinkedIn are the primary sources of contact information, such as the office or store address, hours of operation, and phone number. Many Google search results will show that Google can and will display information directly sourced from Facebook. To us this means that social definitely plays a part in rankings, albeit a small one. The opinions left by Internet users also play a significant role in the reputation and thus in the referencing of a brand.
By posting customer feedback on Facebook and other social platforms, you can increase the visibility of these reviews. This not only influences your ranking, but can also help you attract more customers. The average customer reads at least ten reviews online before having to trust a business. By making it easier to find these reviews via social media, you can simultaneously improve that trust and push for more conversion.
Note that this does not apply only to your company’s accounts. If your employees use their personal profiles to promote their work or if they are considered opinion leaders in their industry, they must also optimise their profile. Adding a link to Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook profile makes it easier for Google to make them stand out, associate them with a brand, or share information.
Use social networks to your benefit
Social networks can have a more indirect influence on SEO by strengthening the influence of the brand and thus the organic traffic. Many customers are now discovering brands and products directly through social media, either by searching them specifically – for example, by using Pinterest to find a piece of furniture – or by following accounts that share them.
It is important that you diversify your reach using multiple platforms. Each channel has a unique approach and the people who use them have different preferences and intentions. Choose the platforms according to your target. You need to leverage each platform and see how to integrate your content into your sales strategy to build brand awareness and drive traffic to your site.
There are several ways to do this:
Create viral content for each channel
Audiences differ from one channel to another, in the same way as their preferences and motivations. Platforms such as YouTube and Twitter are the best tools for discovering new things, while Instagram and Snapchat are preferred to strengthen the relationship with your audience.
Partner with influencers
It’s more to prove, influence marketing is an effective way to increase the visibility of a brand. But can this improve SEO?
Again, there will be no direct impact, but it can contribute to your company’s reach. It is possible to create traffic to your website through links added by influencers on their blog or tags in videos and publications.
Create non-advertising content
Do not always try to promote your products and services on social networks. These platforms are also an opportunity to raise awareness about topics that affect you and likely to interest your audience.
Nowadays, customers really appreciate brands that take a stand on societal issues such as human rights, the environment or even politics. Internet users are better able to share content that defends a cause rather than highlighting a product.
The Innocent brand, for example, creates hats for its fruit juice bottles and pays back 20 cents for each bottle bought from the retailers.
Conclusion
Although social networks do not play a formal role in SEO, there is no doubt that things could change as these platforms become more and more important in the sales cycle.
They can offer brands some benefits when a search is performed. Marketers need to understand how to leverage them to improve their SEO strategy.