After opening your website, you must have wondered how to optimize it to position it among the first results of Google SERPs and thus make your activity, profile or company more visible. You’ve probably come across a lot of advice on the web about how to do SEO and what factors of Google’s algorithm play a key role in getting to the top of the search results. Can SEO for social networks (Social SEO) be considered one of them? And if so,how to make the most of it? We explain it below in our Rodanet article.
Índice de contenidos
To address the topic of SEO within Social Media, it is good to make a premise: social does not directly influence SEO. In fact, in an SEO strategy, it is essential to do the following linkbuildingi.e., the credibility and relevance of a site is evaluated by search engines in depending on the quantity and quality of the incoming linksThe sites that are in the best condition are valued. linked from reliable sources and of quality. These, at least for the time being, do not include links from social networks, as they contain an HTML tag called “
nofollow
“which tells the Google algorithm not to consider them as influential for ranking purposes. This feature is essential to avoid“spamming” of links through social networks to the site itself and thus creating worthless content.
It is also good to remember that Google itself often contradicts itself on the relevance of social networks in SEO, creating confusion among experts with contradictory statements. In fact, in 2010, Matt Cutts claimed in a video that “social signs” (the ‘likes’, ‘shares’ and ‘comments’) influenced search engine ranking, only to debunk the whole thing in 2014 by claiming that they were not important to the SERP:
“Facebook and Twitter pages are treated like any other pages in our web index so if something occurs on Twitter or occurs on Facebook and we’re able to crawl it, then we can return that in our search results. But as far as doing special specific work to sort of say ‘you have this many followers on Twitter or this many likes on Facebook’, to the best of my knowledge we don’t currently have any signals like that in our web search ranking algorithms.”
Assuming the reliability of this statement, it is nevertheless undeniable that social networks indirectly influence the position of our websites in search engines. In fact, both SEO and Social Media marketing have the same goal, to achieve success and credibility on the web, so it is essential to integrate both tools for a successful strategy.
As we have seen, links from social networks andsocial signs seemingly have no value as ranking factors, however, it is worth remembering that they greatly promote “brand awareness”.
brand awareness
“brand awareness, generating traffic to the site, new contacts and engagement. The “likes“, “shares” and comments, in fact, indicate what arouses interest among users, which publications they consider relevant and of quality, and thus contribute to improving the image and opinion of a brand.
In addition, social networks have the power to “create virality“, so it is easier to get into users’ heads: the more people you impress, the more likely they are to talk about your site and link to it on their own. In addition, with a good SEO strategy for social networks, it is very likely that when users search for us outside of social platforms, they will do so by directly entering our URL in their searches, thus increasing our direct traffic, one of the most relevant ranking factors.
The presence of social networks in the SERPs must also be taken into account. When a user searches for a brand, very often they go directly to the brand’s social network. In this way, users not only learn about what a company does, but also get a sense of its personality, as networks often adopt a less formal demeanor that brings the brand closer to its customers.
Creating your profile on the networks, studying the content and maintaining a good interaction with your audience is undoubtedly the right way to go.
Taking care of SEO in your social networks is an advantageous strategy, for at least 5 good reasons:
- Extend the life of your articles.
- Improve visibility and organic traffic.
- If users follow your account, they will always see your posts and remember you.
- Social networks allow you to interact directly with users.
- Network profiles are also indexed by Google, as are the most successful publications. So, if your offer on a pair of shoes has gone viral, it is very likely that Google will move your page up in the SERP as well.
8 keys to improve your results
The first rule of SEO in social networks is to create an ad hoc calendar .
ad hoc
for each platform. This is a truly fundamental aspect, although it is often underestimated due to laziness or inexperience. Assuming that you should not forget to publish content regularly and that it should be useful and relevant to your audience, let’s now focus on the 8 best practices when it comes to SEO on social networks.
You don’t need to have all the social networks in the world. For example, if you are a manufacturer of washing machine parts, no one expects to find you on Instagram, but you might be on Facebook; while if you are a business manager it will be more useful to be on LinkedIn than on Instagram.
So be careful with social networks, because they also determine your professional credibility. And if you don’t use them only for work, you’d better create separate private accounts.
Enter all relevant data such as geolocation, phone number and schedule.
Remember that this information must be the same on all profiles, so no different addresses or phone numbers between Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, for example.
As we have already mentioned, a specific editorial plan must be created for each profile.
Organize an SEO strategy in a way not unlike a marketing strategy: draw up the plan even before opening the account and follow a precise calendar and editorial line.
Nothing should be left to chance when using social networks for work.
Be consistent in your publications
The worst thing in a social networking context is to post irregularly. The editorial plan helps you do this, so you know exactly when to publish and be on time.
For example, you can post twice a day at peak interaction times (you can identify them with analytics tools), or you can use tools to schedule posts in advance.
Optimize your images for SEO and networks
Visual material is a fundamental aspect of communication. There are endless content marketing tools that can help you develop your brand’s tone of voice. In addition, adding images to your social media and blog posts is the most effective way to convey information.
To optimize your images for SEO follow these steps:
- Choose quality images.
- Give your file an appropriate name for your image (
keywords
separated by commas). - Select the correct image format, page loading speed matters a lot.
- Make sure the images are
responsive
. - Includes
structured data
in the image.
Employs skyscraper techniques
The strategy “
skyscraper
“is based on the creation of content that transforms your articles into material with linkable value. The concept of this content technique is to make sure that your articles perform at their maximum potential and outperform your competitors.
These publications are more relevant to the reader and, in this way, the content will have the possibility of positioning for different keywords . Consequently, thanks to its relevance, it will attract more backlinks.
backlinks
quality backlinks.
To use the “skyscraper” technique you need to:
- Inspire you to a post that performs well and has a considerable amount of backlinks.
- Create similar content , but make sure yours is better than the original.
- Find marketers who have linked to the original article and contact them to link to your updated version. If they found the original article useful and linked to it, chances are they will be willing to link to your new content.
There are different reasons why people choose to use social networks, but for marketers, it is above all an effective way to reach consumers with the brand message. Indeed, reaching out to as many people as possible helps to increase brand awareness and generate leads.
leads
.
But how can we get our message everywhere if followers can’t easily share it? Make sure you put all the essential elements in place, such as sharing buttons and CTAs (Call To Action).
Call To Action
), and you will see how readers will share your content.
Add a call to action
Invite users to interact with you. Encourage them to leave a comment, a review, visit your page, subscribe to your newsletter, etc. This is a key technique to create dynamism and strengthen the Community.
After realizing the indirect importance of social networks for improving one’s own ranking, the question arises as to which ones are the most effective. Here again, the fundamental premise is to understand that each
social network
is different and, above all, that each of them targets different audiences. In an optimal social media marketing strategy, we speak of “transmedia” content.
transmedia
“This means many pieces of content published on different platforms that, together, give life to the message that the brand wants to launch. This allows us to reach a wider audience and, therefore, there is a greater chance that they will approach our activity on the network, but it is also good to choose as platforms those in which our target audience is more present.
Currently, some of the most frequented social platforms are:
- Youtube
To improve your social media SEO strategy on Facebook, there are some best practices:
- Enter correctly the geolocation information of your business: in addition to improving local seo, it is a guarantee for users that your company has authority and is reliable.
- Insert an attractive anchor text: it does not influence search engines, but it induces the user to click on your website before clicking on another one.
- Add keywords relevant to your business in profile captions and cover images.
YouTube is the second most important search engine in the world for Internet users, so positioning on YouTube means being able to intercept a really large portion of the audience. In fact, in a video, we can add CTAs so that users arrive directly to our
landing page
generating traffic to our site. In addition, having a channel on YouTube is also a way to reinforce the authority and knowledge of our activity by all active users on this network.
When opening a channel, it is therefore essential to include the keywords in all possible elements (
title
,
metatitle description
,
hashtags
), and also in the title of the files we upload.
Instagram could be considered a true search engine because of a few basic elements: username ,
hashtag
location. Some elements to improve Social SEO on this platform are:
- Improve the quality of your own hashtags, without exaggerating in quantity, only the most relevant ones should be included.
- Improve the quality of the copy: when a user searches for us on Instagram they should have, as always, a clear vision of what our brand wants to be and communicate.
- Quality visual content: as always when it comes to SEO, “Content is King” in all its forms.
- Include calls to action in your stories, such as the famous “swipe up” that links to the brand’s website.
- Include in the description the link to your website, which must be written in an original way.
Unlike other entertainment-related social networks, access to LinkedIn is usually linked to job search activities and job offeringsIt is therefore easier to reach the target audience we are interested in by inserting the appropriate filters and adding to our network users who work in the sector of interest.
As a first step for LinkedIn SEO, it is essential to change the URL: it can be customized and it is possible to insert your own name. In this way, in a search, our name will be immediately associated with a LinkedIn profile. On LinkedIn it is also essential to share articles of interest or written by oneself, taking special care in the choice of hashtags, so that users can immediately find our work.
On the other hand, in the case of corporate accounts, once again, social networks allow us to improve our brand awareness and authority onlineThe greater the number of people who follow us, the higher the quality of our work in the eyes of users.
One of the clearest examples of the use of social networks as search engines is Twitter. In fact, the Twitter social network is used by more than 2.5 million users to search for the hottest topics of the moment.
Appearing in such a transcendent search is very important not only to increase the traffic to our website and user interactions with it, but also because Google and even Bing have access to Twitter APIsThis means that for every search on the social network, Google spiders are set in motion.
Regarding Twitter and Social SEO, we cannot forget that retweets increase the value and quality of our content and, consequently, the authority of our profile: all of these are elements that search engines take into account. In fact, when someone searches for a brand, very often the first result they get is its Twitter page.
Here are some key tips to improve your Twitter profile:
- Impeccable description in our profile biography, accurate and full of relevant keywords.
- Choose the
hashtags
which should be relevant and consistent with the content. - Use Twitter cards, i.e., simple tools that exploit their multimedia nature to promote branding.
branding
branding.
Pinterest is a real search engine for quality images, so it’s good to have a company profile on this platform if our visual content is excellent. In addition, images that have a pin related to our company are indexed by Google. Some of the best practices for Pinterest are:
- Make sure your profile is public, and therefore visible in searches, you can update it in the privacy settings.
- Post high quality images, don’t forget that the social network is based on them.
- Add eye-catching and unique pins containing the keyword
keyword
of interest. - It uses the utm parameters (
Urchin Tracking Module
) to improve the web analysis of your activity. - Insert
“call in action
that refer to your website.
How to ensure success in networks?
In just a few years, social networks have conquered the web and have become a point of reference for millions of users. For this reason, in today’s digital landscape, social media and SEO work together, and we cannot think of these categories as two separate worlds. Therefore, social media promotion should feed and complement our SEO strategy.
However, we must keep in mind that SEO for social networks is not as simple as it may seem and it is a continuous and constant process that we must carry out along with traditional SEO.
If you still don’t know how to approach your strategy or you just don’t know how to you want to ensure the success and success of your businessPlease do not hesitate to contact our team of SEO specialists y experts in web positioningWe will be pleased to work closely with you to make sure that our products and services are your business to the top of search results.
Tamara es redactora #seo y la boxeadora de la oficina. 🥊
Siempre escribe textos con gancho 😉
