Does social media affect SEO?

There has been a debate about the impact of social media on SEO, few believe it does not affect much whereas few believe it does help a lot in ranking better. We all know that social media helps attract customers to your business, this article will help you understand how it can help in ranking better too.

What does Google say?

Google has earlier stated that few posts on social media won’t impact the rankings, but some SEO Experts say otherwise. There was research conducted by HubSpot which clearly shown a correlation between the two. So, does that mean any simple posts all over social media will boost the rankings? The answer is – No. The answer lies in posting some quality content that is liked and shared all over on a wider scale. Sharing is ultimately going to help in backlinking and referencing on several websites or blogs which does suggest a huge advantage of better ranking for your brand.

Let us dive in deep and understand the impact in detail

1) Getting audience :

All businesses work very hard to create a stellar website, but would it be worth it if none of the quality customers are visiting it? Of course not. Although SEO will help rank better, it is the social media that will do all the publicity for your website.

Social Media has billions of users, you can use this audience to showcase your brand and gain more traffic to your business.

2) Social media drives traffic :

High-value content always catches a lot of attention. When you put content that all wish to consume, the shares, comments, and likes increases manifold.

Let us assume that you posted a good infographic that went viral, there will be many people who would like to talk about it or add it in their blogs, they will link your website for giving credit, hence increasing the backlinking. We all know how much Google values quality backlink. It will help boost the ranking and credibility of your website.

Google easily crawls into Facebook and Twitter, posting good content on these platforms can improve your site index rate.

3) Better reach via Social media :

Many times, the social media profile of the business ranks better than the website. This indeed is positive, as people would love to connect to a business in a more personal way.

Ensure that your business has profiles on all major social media platforms and make sure to add a link to your website. It would of course pay well to have updated information on all the profiles and have engaging content on each of them.

Driving organic leads will help business and will also help in ranking better

4) Social media also works as a search engine :

People no longer rely only on Google, Yahoo or Bing to look for information. If someone wants to know about your business, they can surely search for it on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

With so many businesses having a presence on social media, it would be a loss if yours isn’t on it.

5) Local SEO :

Social media affects your local SEO efforts too. If you consistently add Name, address, and phone number across all your listings and websites then Google considers such business to be more credible.

On some Social media platforms, you can also do some geotagging on your posts, this can help gain visibility among local audiences and hence expanding your reach.

6) Multi-platform sharing helps in a higher ranking :

One can find clients from any of the social platforms, but our aim is not only to make a fancy and engaging Facebook page but to drive the customer to the website who would make purchases and help boost the business.

To any content that you share make sure to add a social media button, make it easier for people to share. A compelling call-to-action will get you the desired results.

More the share = more possibility of leads.

7) Value of Video Content :

With so much interesting content on the internet, it is hard to capture the user’s attention. It’s a wide known fact that Video content captures more attention rather than plain text. Moreover, Google has amped up the value of video content in their algorithms.

YouTube is a social media platform with billions of users. One can use this platform well to promote the website and gain visitors who will be interested to make a purchase.

Promotional or informational video content can help create positive engagement and influence your SEO performance.

8) Making your Brand Trustworthy :

If you have ample followers on social media, it builds trust among the customers. Although this cannot happen overnight, frequently posting good content and engaging well with customers can help build trust.

Ranking alone won’t help if you do not have the trust of the customers. For example – if you have to search for instructions on ‘cleaning your stove’. If you see 2 websites ranking above wiki-how, you would still prefer to click on wiki-how. As you know it is a piece of credible information.

The more popular you are among people with genuine information, the more trust you gain.

Social media is a great way to build a larger audience, make your brand bigger, and target the people who would not have otherwise been able to find you

Conclusion

It is evident from the above points that social media impacts SEO in very important ways. No business should ignore to promote their business on social media irrespective of the way it will affect the ranking.

Always remember that spending time and money on good content will always pay off.

As days pass, users will continue to rise on social media and it will eventually become more powerful in terms of ranking. Quality content on Social media will lead to greater visibility for your brand and content and will help your business in the long run.

It is about time to introduce social media in your digital marketing strategy and reap its benefits.

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