Social Media is its own universe of the digital world and there’s rarely a day goes by without us connecting  on social media on different platforms. It has become one of the most prominent activities for people around the world. And various social media platforms are just like different planets and public market places that attract people to come out and hang out.

However, most businesses regard social media as an independent entity rather than a powerful platform to add to their digital marketing efforts, including SEO. Here, we will look into the connection between social media and your SEO strategy.

It is common knowledge that social profiles do not influence its rankings on SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) directly. According to Google, social media profiles do not act as ranking signals for the largest search engine but have a relationship with organic website rankings. So, how does it work then? Why is social media important for businesses?

If you look at the top-ranked websites on Google’s SERP they all do have a strong social presence. The websites’ SEO structure and performance are top-notch coupled with the strong social media presence. Although there is no direct correlation between your social media profile and your website’s ranking on the SERPs, the social signals do feed into SEO! This happens when links are shared across social media platforms, leading to increased brand exposure. The overall influence on SEO ranking takes place in different ways such as:

• Increased lifespan of posts
• Extensive distribution of content
• Improved visibility and better organic traffic
• Better brand recognition

Thus, as more people share your content on social media platforms, new social signals are created indicating the content is USEFUL to the target audience. Remember, the likes, shares, and comments received by your social media posts are signals that Google uses to rank your website. So, if you want your business to rank higher on SERPs, you must make your social presence count.

How Do Social Media Boost SEO?

The below-mentioned segment will explain how social signals can influence SEO.

Boost content performance: It is important to share content surrounding your products or services, which can be shared further by visitors to their social media profiles. Your business’ social media profile has the potential to drive quality traffic to your website or blog.

Your followers become advocates for your business or brand by reviewing it and sharing on their profiles. If the cycle of sharing your content continues, it may get much-needed “link juice” for your website.

Create Link Juice: Here, “link juice” refers to the value passed from a webpage or website to another through hyperlinks. These hyperlinks or links are acknowledged by Google or other search engines as votes given by other websites, signifying that your webpage or website contains valuable information and should be promoted. As more people visit your website from social media, it generates positive user signals and higher rankings on SERPs. Remember, Google is continually optimizing its algorithm to take into account the user signals from websites. These signals indicate the satisfaction level of users with the content they find. Hence, if your content generates better user experiences, Google takes it as a positive signal (and a ranking factor) to improve your SEO ranking.

Boost Search Terms:  When people get to see your company using branded search terms, your social profile can rank higher as well. Potential customers trying to decide whether to do business with your brand can be encouraged by seeing your active and engaging social media profiles.

Build Trust: In today’s highly competitive business environment, earning customers’ trust is the most important thing to stay relevant. Customers seeking the best product or service from a long list of brands can be swayed by an active social media profile. Remember, poor or non-existent social media profiles can be a red flag for your target audience.

Conclusion

Social media can humanize your brand, bring traffic to your website, and build trust. However, merely having social media profiles will not help your SEO efforts in any way. You need to follow the best practices for better SEO rankings. These include publishing high-quality content, making content sharing easy, optimizing images, and building relationships with engaging conversations, among others. At Ambiance Marketing, we can help your business create and maintain great social media profiles and give a further push to your SEO rankings.