Using SEO and Social Media in Your Digital Marketing Strategy

When it comes to building a digital marketing strategy for a brand, the relationship between SEO marketing and Social Media marketing seems perplexing. Today’s marketers face numerous questions— Do social media marketing activities help in improving SEO ratings? How can SEO and Social media marketing be used together to achieve the maximum impact? Does Google value signals created through social media activities?

Let’s first understand what these terms signify.

SEO basics: SEO, search engine optimization, is a process to attract visitors to a website or a webpage to achieve high placement on the result page of a search engine such as Google. SEO ranking of a brand can be improved through various mediums such as SEO-based content creation, content marketing, and social media marketing.

Social media marketing: Social media marketing refers to the digital marketing of a brand through social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It includes posting and sharing of information, pictures, blogs, video, graphic, links and so forth, thus exposing the brand to a wide audience.

In a report on the status of search marketing, Ecoconsultancy found that 74% of companies and 82% of agencies surveyed said that social media is either somewhat or highly integrated into their SEO strategy.

However, not too long after, replying to a query on Google help forum, Matt Cutts said that though a Facebook or a Twitter page is treated as any other webpage, the Google’s algorithm doesn’t account for the signals such as likes on Facebook or followers on Twitter.” This indicates that the authority or influence of social media platforms does not directly play a role in SEO rankings.

Thus, one of the most common beliefs about social media and SEO – that links created through social media activities directly boost the SEO rating of the page – is not true. But they should not be written off. These links when picked up by authoritative websites and influencers in their blogs and articles can catapult your SEO rankings.

Social media marketing and SEO benefit each other in a more strategic manner than in a direct impact. Below are some ways in which social media and SEO work together:

1. Engage with users – Posting or sharing SEO-based content on social media can drive users to the company’s website. Relevant content can hold the visitors to the webpage, impacting the factors like time-on-site and bounce rate. Search engines such as Google consider these data points while assessing the search rating of a website.
2. Connect with influencers – Social media also helps a brand in connecting with influences (people who have a considerable number of followers on social media platforms such as Instagram) to further their brand promotions through the influencer’s channel or website. High quality links created through such influential channels improve the credibility and the SEO rating of the brand.
3. Use of social media as an assessment tool- Social media can be used as a testing tool for your brand. You can post bits of content on numerous topics and can assess on which topics lead to maximum response or engagement. Doing so may help you understand the interest of your target group and thus create more quality and detailed content on the same lines while avoiding content that your users find irrelevant. According to a survey by Ascend2, 72% of marketers say relevant content creation was the most effective SEO tactic they have used.
4. Understand user’s intention– Social media is a great tool to understand the intent related to a specific keyword(s). The social interaction with your target group may also help you understand what they are looking for. And thus you can cater to their needs by creating content that is aligned with the expectations and needs. The relevance and the quality of the content can make your brand soar high on the search engines.

According to a report by Search Engine Watch, “high-quality content and link building are the two most important signals used by Google to rank your website for search.” Thus, it’s safe to conclude that the social media marketing doesn’t directly boost the SEO rating of your brand, but it creates wide visibility for the brand. Further, the familiarity generated through the social media activities can attract visitors to the brand, improving its authority and credibility in the marketplace.

At Results Driven Marketing, we’ve been helping our customers increase qualified traffic to their websites, essentially “Turning Clicks into Clients”. If you’re looking to be found by more people who are looking for your services give us a call at 215-393-8700 to find out how we can help.

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