The SEO Value of Social Media
Conventional wisdom says that the very first step in successful Internet marketing is website optimization to increase the chances of being found in organic search results, a process known as search engine optimization, or SEO. Higher search engine rankings have been driven primarily by a combination of judicious use of key words in page content, titles and tags, plus generating as many inbound links from respected third party sites as possible.
Meantime, over at Google, the engineers who develop the algorithms that deliver search results have long sought to foil SEO marketing efforts. They continuously tweaked their models to account for such marketing tricks as peppering pages with invisible repetitions of key words, or using “link farms” set up with meaningless content intended to point to websites. In some cases, like that of retailer J.C. Penney, Google managers punished egregious SEO manipulators by eliminating their domains from organic results altogether.
When social media arrived on the scene, these new channels were viewed as a neat way to motivate more links from outside sources, and to increase rankings with fresh content, like blog posts. Marketers included key words in their tweets, for example, hoping re-tweeters would generate more referring buzz and thus pull higher search engine rankings. The social media/SEO party continued for a few heady years.
But in January 2012, Google announced a new approach called “Search plus Your World” that is likely to reduce the power of conventional methods. The stated purpose of Search plus Your World is to provide search results that are more personalized to the interests of individual searchers by sharing results specific to data posted by their friends on social networks, beginning with Google’s own network, Google Plus. Apparently, Google is looking to add Twitter and eventually Facebook, which has been linked up exclusively so far with Microsoft’s Bing.
What this means for marketers is a new mandate to become more active than ever in building up strong social followings and networks, and to optimize content for sharing. Social media is becoming not just a communications medium on its own, but also a growing influence on the Big Kahuna of all Internet marketing tools, Google search. Website owners and publishers who do not pursue social media will face an increasing risk of falling into obscurity.
Social media and search engine optimization are quickly becoming a winning combination for marketers—you’re better off with both working together.
Five ways to use social media to improve your website’s search rankings
To gain more search value from your social networks:
1. Create links between your profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Each is important in its own right, but by combining efforts they can work together to create a larger impact. You reach a larger audience by sending a single message through multiple networks, and you can invite members of one network to follow or like you through other networks.
2. Rewrite your profile statements to include important key words and position your brand for that network’s audience. Add keywords to your biography pages and the Facebook “About” box.
3. Submit your content to social sharing sites like Digg, StumbleUpon and Reddit. Their users will vote on your content quality with a thumb up or down. A thumbs up gets you content a link on that user’s page—another inbound link to your site—and the chance to appear more prominently.
4. Promote your content through social media outreach. This creates an important inbound link and also encourages sharing by others. On Facebook, post an introductory teaser instead of an entire article, encouraging interested friends to click through for the rest of the content.
5. Make your website more social. Search engine optimization experts say that adding user experiences to your website—contests, games and polls, not to mention the opportunity to post blog comments—all these help improve rankings.
Social media ARE search engines
Another interesting angle on the subject of SEO value of social media lies in the search engine value of these new media themselves. Searches on YouTube and Twitter are growing in number and quality, as these platforms expand their content and user base. So if you’re brand is not there, you miss out on showing up in searches there.