How Social Media Optimization Can Help Your Website Rank on Google

The majority of the world’s population now uses social media, brought together over great distances to engage in conversation. This immense popularity has made social media one of the primary drivers of marketing efforts for businesses. In fact, hundreds of brands have seen major engagement growth by deploying an effective social media strategy. We’ll explore how social media optimization can boost SEO and what businesses can do to improve their website ranking on Google through social media.

How can social media optimization boost SEO?

The best way to improve content visibility is to boost your SEO efforts so Google algorithms can recognize your content and rank it. For social media, this means that social media messaging has the potential to drive quality web traffic to your site through other channels.

No matter what marketing channel you use, it is vital to create content that offers real value to the audience. This way, chances are they will share these posts with their networks and expand your reach for you.

Types of content that can drive traffic and improve your visibility include:

• Videos
• Infographics
• Podcasts
• Interactive quizzes
• Blog posts

These rich types of content offer valuable information, drive sales, increase Google rankings, and significantly enhance the shareability of your social media posts. There are several practical ways to optimize your social media presence:

Use keywords and hashtags

You probably already know the importance of keywords in blog posts. Google algorithms are quick to identify keywords for blog posts to rank them and make them more discoverable. But while keywords might be helpful when it comes to content creation, hashtags are even more beneficial on social media.

Keywords help you anticipate what your audience wants to see and address their needs through your content. This increases the chances of your content appearing on the top of SERPs, so it’s more likely to get you noticed.

Similarly, hashtags can drive a lot of traffic, as they are based on trending topics. They work well on platforms like Twitter and Instagram and play a role in driving traffic towards your content. Often, people use trending hashtags to see many posts relating to the topic, so this will help them discover your content while also giving Google clues about how to rank it. Together, keywords and hashtags make your post stand out in fast-moving feeds.

Revamp your social media strategy from the bottom up

A social media strategy is vital for any business, as it ensures that all your posts are aligned towards a singular goal, regardless of the social media channel you post on. Consider it a plan to consistently highlight your brand voice and identity. Any piece of content that you post outside of your strategy won’t yield the results you want.

To create a solid social media strategy, you need to do the following:

• Research. Find out how your main competitors create their content and follow their most popular and least popular posts to see how it’s working out for them. Gain as much inspiration as you can from your competitor’s social media activity (while still being unique), as it can help you learn new techniques.
• SWOT analysis. This is your key to understanding your brand, as it shows the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that it faces. Use this data to optimize your social media to take advantage of what you do best and adapt to improve.
• Prioritize. While there is no harm in utilizing all social media platforms, this can be ineffective if you spread yourself too thin. Instead, research and identify which social media channels your audience uses the most and consider prioritizing two or three big players.
• Focus on tone: It is crucial to maintain a consistent theme for your brand, including posts from internal and external contributors. Social media is an informal channel, so it’s best to use a friendly, conversational tone to engage your audiences. Make sure that your language and style are consistent across all channels and content.

Optimize content for different channels

Multiple-form content can make your social media strategy more unique and appealing because your audiences can be engaged by new and diverse messaging. Since social media users scroll through feeds quickly, you need to keep content fresh to hook them at first glance. Additionally, if you keep posting the same kind of content on your feed, your audience will likely get bored and look at your competitors instead.

The best way to break the monotony of your posts is to create different types of content. For example, you can switch between GIFs, personal content like interactive stories, interactive options like polls and quizzes, and creative data-driven content like infographics. For example, consider making how-to videos on YouTube while creating an accompanying blog post and promoting it through a carousel post on Instagram.

Share quality content

Google algorithms and trends can change without warning, and sometimes the only constant is the quality of content. To improve your content’s visibility and website ranking, you need to create valuable content. When it comes to social media, the rules are no different.

You should audit your social media accounts to ensure everything is working as expected and looks neat and readable. For example, if you post images, make sure they are high quality so your audiences can enjoy them on both their desktops and phones.

Make your posts educational and informative, and you will notice your content getting traction. This will also help you build authority in a specific niche, which will make your audience more likely to share your posts, helping you earn backlinks and mentions.

Make content easily shareable

The best way to build business awareness is to make your content more shareable. Readers are likely to share your content when it is engaging, unique, and uses compelling CTA’s. It’s also important to integrate all channels into your main website.

According to web developer Nathan Finch of Best Web Hosting Australia, the easiest way to incorporate social media channels into your website is to use web builders that come with drag and drop tools for convenience.

“You can use the drag-and-drop interface to make a unique eCommerce website and integrate social media channels with just a couple of clicks,” says Finch.

Wrapping up

Social media optimization is great for increasing brand visibility, monitoring and increasing engagement, and generating traffic to your website. However, if not done properly, you will waste time and money creating posts without significant impact. Use the tips above to steer your social media strategy in the right direction, and you will soon notice a spike in your website traffic.

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