How To Use Social Media & SEO in your 2021 Marketing Strategy:
Social Media Marketing and SEO Go Hand in Hand
A lot of business owners who are just stepping their feet into the waters of digital marketing assume that social media marketing and search engine optimisation (SEO) are two separate things. While they understand that each one is important for developing their online presence, they assume that they two have very different goals. However, if done correctly, social media marketing and SEO can actually work in unison, creating value and offering more significance for your target audience. If you really want your digital marketing strategy to shine, implementing both social media and SEO so that they both work with each other is crucial. What benefits can you reap when the two are working in together in harmony?
Social Sharing is an Effective Way to Promote Your Content
“Content is king” is a saying that’s been around since the dawn of digital marketing. Basically, it means that content is the staple that draws your audience – and the search engines – to your site. In terms of SEO, it’s how you plug your keywords; those terms that your target audience are searching when they’re looking for the products and services that you offer. It’s also how you show the search engines that you’re offering valuable information that meets the needs of their users. The more optimised content you feature on your website, the greater the chances are that you’re going to rank higher for your keywords; at least that’s the goal.
The problem is there’s lots of competition out there. No matter what industry you’re in, there’s probably at least a dozen (likely way more) businesses that are trying to rank for the same keywords you are. As a result, no matter how much optimised content you share on your site, you may not be getting as many visitors as you’d like. That’s where social media comes in. You can share links to that compelling, useful, engaging, Keyword-optimised content you’ve generated and posted on your website on multiple social channels. The result? The number of eyes and ears that are digesting that content will increase, and ultimately, you’ll attract more visitors to your site. If your content is well-crafted and your viewers engage with it, you can effectively reduce your bounce rate and increase the amount of time visitors interact with your site, which will tell the search engines that your content – and your site – is valuable, and your ranking will increase.
Social Media Marketing Ups the Engagement Factor
When search engines are determining the value of a website, engagement is one of the factors that they take into consideration. If a reader likes your content and shares it on a social media channel, Google, Yahoo, and Bing will see that your site offers value, which can help to increase your site ranking. Why? Because social sharing helps to establish your reputation. The more your content is shared, the better your reputation is going to be. The more reputable your site is, the more value it’s going to offer search engine users; hence the reason why social sharing can effectively boost your ranking.
Social Sharing Builds Better Brand Awareness
In the world of online advertising, brand awareness is crucial. Since social media can be used to promote content, increase engagement, and establish your reputation, it can also enhance awareness of your brand. The more people are aware of your brand, the more brand-specific searches they are going to make. The more brand-specific searches your brand gets, the higher it’s going to rank on the search engines.
Social Media Offers Link Building Potential
Social media marketing can help effectively build high-quality, authentic links from reputable, high-ranking sites to your site. The key is to get influencers in your industry to share and promote your content, because they’re the people who use social media the most. When your content is visible on the same channels that influencers are using, there’s a chance they will see your blog posts, articles, videos, etc, and there’s a chance that they’ll share links to your content from their own high-ranking, highly valuable sites. The effects of this type of link building can be massive, and something that you just can’t achieve without social media marketing. Furthermore, social media can also prompt external websites to link to your articles, blog posts, videos, and any other content you share. Google, Bing, and other search engines are going to see you as an authority when you have a collection of links shared on a variety of external sites. The more authoritative, useful, and engaging your content is, the more link building you’re going to experience through social media.
