What is this so-called revolution?
To start, social media is metamorphosing into something different than originally intended. It is now encroaching on the role of search engines.
This shift to information discovery through social media has been occurring gradually but is now speeding up. And, as such, social SEO is becoming increasingly important to your brand.
While SEO and social media marketing have been treated as separate strategies, the rise in reliance on social media as a source of information means that you need to reexamine how the two can complement each other.
In other words, as the border between social media and search engines blurs, it’s time to change how you look at them and the ways viewers discover your content.
Cracking the Code: How Social SEO Impacts Your Google Rankings
Social SEO focuses in on how you manage your social media accounts, and it requires more planning on your part.
But, how will social SEO affect your Google rankings?
First, it is important to note that your social media performance is not a direct ranking factor on Google. Instead, it can become an indirect tool that aids other factors that the search engine does consider.
To crack the code and use social SEO to benefit your Google rankings, it helps to know what the search engine considers to be ranking factors and understand how social SEO helps.
For example, it all starts with traffic to your website.
Google notices when traffic increases and uses it as a signal that your site is high quality, relevant, credible, and even authoritative. As a result, it may boost your rankings in search engine listings.
Social SEO can help increase this traffic flow and get you noticed faster.
In order for this to occur, however, you’ll need to ensure that users find you on social media platforms.
Users who find you will also share and link to your content, further increasing exposure.
From there, ongoing interactions will help build community as you gain likes, shares, and followers on your social media accounts and lead users to your site.
As such, search engines begin to recognize your website’s increasing traffic and index it at a higher position in the results. People searching on the search engine itself become more likely to see your brand in the organic SERP results.
Commanding Attention: Crafting SEO-Optimized Content for Social Platforms
Today, consumers are actively searching social platforms for information. This content includes solutions, recommendations, answers to questions, reviews, and more. You need to meet them where they are with SEO-optimized content for various social platforms.
Essentially, social SEO involves the addition of text-based features to all content, including videos and images. These features will help consumers find your content more quickly when they browse the different social media platforms for information.
Consequently, crafting SEO-optimized content for social platforms needs to become a priority in your marketing strategy.
As with research for blog posts, white papers, and other marketing content, you’ll need to identify what it is that your target audience wants and needs. From there, work with trusted freelancers or professional writers within your organization to create the highest-quality content possible. You may even want to try the latest AI-generated content tools, which are an essential trend in 2024.
To make sure your audience can find the content when searching on social media platforms, apply social SEO tactics, such as the following:
- Identify and use relevant keywords (and hashtags) in your titles, descriptions, and captions.
- Include alt text for all visual content to help the platform understand what it is and when to use it as a response to a relevant search.
- Utilize subtitles in all video content.
- Use keywords and phrases in the names of your video files.
- Only use high-quality video and photo assets (for visual search).
- Ensure closed captions contain keywords and your location.
Always keep in mind that while the content must provide valuable information to the reader, it also needs to serve as a social SEO tool.
Navigating the Landscape: Social SEO Techniques for Every Marketer
Navigating the social SEO landscape begins with using familiar techniques and applying them specifically to your social media platforms.
Here are some techniques that every marketer can use:
- Optimize your content using captions, alt text, subtitles, and closed captions.
- Incorporate the most relevant keywords into your social media posts and shared content.
- Add social sharing buttons to your blogs and websites.
- Include links to your website in your social profiles.
- Share links throughout presentation and video content.
- Optimize each social media platform profile. The amount of information you can include will vary depending on the platform, so make the best use of the real estate you have. For example, you can put more details on your Facebook page than your Instagram profile.
Specific platform examples of SEO social media practices include:
- Incorporate relevant keywords in the About section and the page’s tagline.
- Create long-form content with relevant keywords and phrases that are well-placed and sound natural.
- Use your main keywords in the URL, page title, About section, and description.
- For local search purposes, add your street address to the profile. Create separate location pages if this is relevant to your business.
- Use search keywords in each post and in photo captions.
- Include keywords in your handle, name, and bio.
- Use relevant keywords and hashtags in captions.
- Add alt text to the visual content you share.
- Tag your location to appear on Instagram Maps.
YouTube
- Pay close attention to your video file names; include a primary keyword or phrase.
- Make your title match a search query (e.g., “How to make baklava”)
- For the video description, include a primary keyword or phrase within the first two lines. They are visible without the need to click.
- Say keywords in your video, and turn on captions.
TikTok
- Add the most relevant keywords to your profile.
- In video clips, say the main keyword aloud and include an in-text overlay. The keyword will also appear in the closed captions that TikTok automatically generates.
Mastering the Game: Social SEO Tactics for Digital Dominance
Tactics to increase your digital dominance, like those listed below, are not new in terms of SEO strategies. However, these techniques are more focused on how social media can boost your visibility and potentially your Google rankings.
- Focus on keywords and phrases, and use them in the places with the most value (titles, subtitles, alt text, captions). Add them to your social media profiles as well.
- Create and publish relevant, high-quality content to share on social media, and be sure to optimize it in all the right ways.
- Devise a link-building strategy: Start by putting links to your webpages on your social profiles. Next, create material that viewers will want to share and others will want to link to in their own content. Place links to high-quality sites in your content as well. Google will use this information to help evaluate the authoritativeness of your website. When you post links to your own site, you drive traffic which can positively affect your Google rankings.
- Consider the user experience: Balancing user experience and SEO strategies can be a challenge today. When optimizing your social media, always keep user preferences in mind. Improve readability, avoid keyword stuffing, and craft content that will appeal to your viewers.
Changes continue to rock the organic search world, and it’s always a worthwhile endeavor to do whatever you can to capture the attention of more people. While social SEO is essential today, tomorrow may bring additional changes, so you’ll need to stay alert.
Take AI, for example. Rumors are spreading that claim SEO is becoming an antiquated tactic and AI search capabilities are rising in importance.
While you may have concerns over how SEO will fare in the new age of generative AI search capabilities, this is no reason to give up on it now. AI search is still a futuristic possibility that will require you to rethink your marketing approach, and SEO for organic traffic is currently powerful enough to get results now.
Meet the Social SEO Revolution Head-on, Starting with the Right Content
High-quality content still provides an effective way to find, attract, and retain customers. Optimize that material for social media, and you gain a new way to boost traffic to your website and potentially rise higher in Google search rankings. WriterAccess is here to help you scale your content production and meet your marketing goals sooner. Try a free 14-day WriterAccess trial to see for yourself what can happen.
