Do you know the number of websites created every minute?
The average is 571 sites.
And that’s just in a minute. Imagine how many websites would be created within a year.
This makes the race to the top of the search engine result pages (SERPs) more challenging, even for established businesses.
The competition to be on the first page of Google is fierce. This is why you need to integrate multiple marketing channels and tools to get the best outcome.
Two of the most common marketing tools are Social Media Marketing (SMM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
A social media presence can help your business connect with your target audience, and SEO can help increase your brand’s visibility on the search engines.
At first, these two strategies may not seem related, but they work together in several ways. Optimizing one will likely improve the results of the other.
Let’s discuss what social media marketing and SEO are and how both channels can work together to drive organic results.
What Is Social Media Marketing?
With over 5 billion users worldwide, social media is one of the fastest-growing trends in history.
Many social media platforms offer marketing opportunities for businesses of different sizes and industries. These include Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, etc.
These social media platforms are used by businesses to create personalized content for their target audiences to drive engagement and build stronger customer relationships.
Businesses can post videos, share their blogs, promote their products, answer questions related to their business, and engage with their existing and potential customers. This is called Social Media Marketing (SMM).
What Is Search Engine Optimization?
One of the most widely used search engines is Google. That’s where your customers are going to find your business. But they will only pay attention to your business if your website ranks on the first page of the search engine.
For that, you need to optimize your web pages in a way that’s attractive to the search engines.
So, when your website is crawled and indexed, it can be seen as a useful source to the users, which helps the search engines rank you higher on the result pages.
The techniques used to rank your website higher and increase your visibility are known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
How Social Media Marketing and SEO Work Together to Drive Organic Results?
Most businesses understand the importance of interacting with customers through social media marketing, but they treat social media as a standalone channel.
What they don’t know is that social media aids other areas of your digital marketing efforts as well – including SEO.
Even though the number of followers and post likes on your social media pages don’t affect your rankings, there are other aspects of social media that can drive traffic to your website and improve your business.
1. Social Media Helps Increase Visibility for Your Brand
Social media is a great source to share your content. When you publish a blog post or new content on your website, the primary goal is to get your customers to read it. Social media makes that easy.
You can share the link to that blog to various social media platforms along with attractive visuals, encouraging your audience to click the link and read your content.
If the content is helpful and relatable to your audience, they might even share it further. More people will see your content and visit your website, increasing your visibility and improving your search engine rankings.
2. Social Media Provides More Opportunities to Gain Backlinks
One of the most powerful factors of SEO is backlinks. Backlinks are the links that connect one website to another.
If a website wants to link to yours, that means they find the content on your website valuable to users. Search engines see that your content benefits users and rank you higher.
Sharing the links of your content to your social media pages doesn’t make any difference in the eyes of search engines. But eventually, when other users start sharing your content, the reach and visibility of your content will increase, encouraging more websites to link back to yours.
The search engines see this as a form of social validation that can get your content to rank quicker on search engines result pages.
3. Social Media Allows Better Understanding of Your Target Audience
In the digital marketing world, social media is known for building relationships with your audience.
You can interact with them directly, which can help you build a more accurate buyer’s persona. If you know about your customers’ likes, dislikes, behavior, and pain points, then you can create content valuable to them.
If your audience finds your content useful and relatable, they are more likely to click the links you provide and visit your website.
This will help your website improve various SEO metrics, including visibility, increased website traffic, engagement, and time on site.
4. Social Media Strengthens Brand Recognition and Interaction
One of the top goals of social media management is to increase brand awareness. Show your audience what your brand is really about.
When people view your posts over time, they get familiar with what your brand offers, contributing to better brand recognition.
But how does it help with SEO?
When your audience knows what your brand offers through social media, they may be more likely to visit your website directly by typing your brand name into search engines. This direct traffic signals to search engines that your brand is relevant and authoritative, improving your website’s search engine rankings.
Similarly, your SEO efforts can also enhance your social media marketing strategies.
For example, conducting keyword research can tell you more about your audience’s interests, helping you create more personalized posts. You can also use long-tail keywords in your social media posts to boost your brand’s engagement, conversions, and visibility.
Tips to Boost the Effectiveness of Your Social Media Marketing and SEO Strategies
1. Link Your Social Media Pages to Your Website
Ensure that your website has social media icons on every page linking back to the platform. Add your website link in the bio of each social media platform you use, making it easier for your users to find you.
2. Share Your Site Content to Your Social Media
This is a great way to put your latest blog posts in front of your audience.
Your users might not check your website regularly for new content, but when it pops up on their social media while scrolling through their feed, they are most likely to click the link or share it with others.
3. Optimize Your Social Media Pages
Ensure that your social media profiles are filled out with up-to-date information including the keywords used on your website.
Also, it’s highly recommended to use keyword-rich alt descriptions for the images you use on social media or your website.
4. Encourage Social Interactions
Add call-to-actions throughout your social media and website content to encourage shares and re-posts.
Even though the likes and shares don’t impact the SEO directly, they signal to search engines that your content is validated by the users, helping you rank higher.
5. Keyword Consistency
Keywords aren’t only to be used in the content of your website.
It would be best if you use them on your social media pages too.
Include a keyword in your bio, captions, and even in the text on your visuals because your social media pages are also indexed by search engines. Proper placement of keywords can show your social media pages on search engines along with your website.
Conclusion
Social media and SEO have the same goal – creating and enhancing solid online presence and brand visibility.
The approach to achieving this goal might be different with each technique but when you combine these two marketing channels, you can get the best organic growth possible.
By consistently posting high-quality content on social media with links back to your website, engaging with your audience, and including relevant keywords in your social media posts, you can drive organic traffic to your website and boost engagements in no time.
Do you need assistance with improving your search engine rankings? We, the experts at Design Genious, use social media platforms to optimize your online presence for the search engines, bringing the maximum organic traffic to your website.
Connect with us and take your brand to newer heights today.
