Different Ways Social Media Can Improve Your SEO Results

What Kind of Impact Does Social Media Have on SEO?

SEO ranking is not directly affected by social media. The impact comes from the increase in brand exposure brought about by the links that are shared on social media platforms. The positive effect is cumulative, and that influences SEO in six ways:

• Your content gets a wider distribution
• Your posts have a longer lifespan online
• Organic traffic and online visibility improve
• Your brand gets more exposure and is more recognized
• Your brand reputation improves
• Local SEO gets a boost

SEO ranking does not directly measure the number of shares on social media sites. However, when your content gets more shares on social media, the increase serves as a signal that translates into how useful your content is to your target audience. This indicates that your content is high in quality.

Cognitive SEO did some interesting research. They analyzed 23 million shares across select social media platforms and found a parallel between the number of shares and SEO. All of the likes, shares, and comments that your posts receive are important indicators that search engines like Google use in ranking your website.

Links can help, but Google does not treat them like links from authoritative websites. Still, everyone agrees that webpages with the highest ranks on the search engine result pages often have more social media shares than other web pages.

Life Marketing also points out that although social media does not have a direct impact on search engine optimization, it does have an indirect, positive effect on the ranking in search results.

On Rankings and Social Media Mentions

During Pubcon Pro in 2017, Gary Illyes from Google held a keynote discussion with SEO expert Eric Enge. Gary talked about how Google might utilize a brand’s mentions online.

So, Google is interested in searching for appropriate metrics beyond what is considered vanity metrics. You should consider the same.

How SEO is Supported by Social Media

Why is social media relevant to SEO? Social media has an indirect influence on factors that affect a site’s rank in search engines. It can potentially drive more high-quality web traffic to your website or blog.

When you publish high-quality content that your target readers find relevant, they become your supporters because you gave them something that is valuable to them. In turn, your audience will naturally want to share this helpful information with their followers and friends.

Likewise, their followers will share this quality content with their network, and thus the content gets widely distributed. Creating high-quality content is a powerful way to bring more attention to your website. As long as your content keeps your audience engaged, you can format it in whatever way you deem appropriate. Air Social is an award-winning full-service digital marketing agency who are working to rank your website in ethical ways.

Here are some examples of content types that can boost traffic and social shares:

• Videos
• Podcasts
• Blog posts
• Infographics

Your content provides your readers with information that is relevant and valuable to them, and it keeps them coming back for more. Leads can be generated from this. This is an example of content marketing – the sharing of information that is helpful to the audience. Just keep in mind that it can only make a meaningful impact if your content is properly distributed.

This is where social media comes into play. When you share your content, your readers expand its distribution by sharing it with their friends and followers. Your visibility grows, traffic to your website improves, and more backlinks are generated.

All of these positive trends are signals that tell Google that your website’s content has high value and is important. This is how these signals can indirectly give your search ranking a boost.

In summary, here are some tips on SEO social media marketing to think about:

• Post helpful content on social media. Content that people find useful will gain more attention, extend your reach, and generate more backlinks.
• Better content helps increase your followers and drives traffic to your site. It improves the search results ranking of your social media profile.
• Quality content helps in improving your brand’s reputation and in building brand loyalty.
• Links from social media help Google in indexing your content. Better indexation can drive more traffic and lead to a higher ranking of your site.