Social data affects rankings but just having social profiles is not enough. I will talk through how social media impacts SEO ranking factors as well as what search engines deduce as authoritative profiles for each of the major platforms.
- The number of fans/likes is the most tangible way of figuring out the popularity of a brand. Your brand alone won’t earn you the fans you must also engage and create fresh material. Viral campaigns create a buzz and spike in popularity but then this needs to be maintained. Opening up your wall and replying to users earns respect.
- The number of comments is another criteria for a successful Facebook profile. This comes about through great content.
- Shares are a good indicator of quality content.
- Remember to SEO your page well so your brand appears before fan pages in the results pages. The ranking is also an indicator of authority.
- Again the number of followers is the most obvious way to judge a Twitter profile but your following/ follow ratio is very important as is the quality of followers. Earning followers from your niche and gaining retweets from them is a good sign of authority.
- Retweets help index your content as it gives search engines the clue that this content is good because people are talking about it.
YouTube
- Subscribers and views indicate popularity and relevance. In order to boost video views ensure you include keywords in the title, keyword-rich and descriptive transcript, descriptive titles, and relevant tags. The more times your video is viewed the higher it will move the results page and thus increases your brand presence. The link from your video to your profile passes on link juice to your profile.
- Comments will improve your videos authority. So always make sure you allow comments. Also the more likes you earn in comparison to dislikes the more authoritative you appear.
- Create link bait worthy videos i.e. to earn links. Independent links earn more link value just like in regular SEO.
Also, look into tools such as How Sociable to analyze your total presence across all social media platforms. Monitor the ratio of positive and negative sentiment to understand how you should shape your strategy.
Google Plus has been left out for now but could be a big hitter. So what should I do?
Social Media is a great form of market intelligence so spend time monitoring your profiles and what is being said about you.
Analyzing the patterns leads to valuable metrics showing the public’s feelings towards the brand and plays into the engagement strategy.
Google Plus has been left out for now but could be a big hitter.
So What Should I Do?
- Social Media is a great form of market intelligence so spend time monitoring your profiles and what is being said about you. Analyzing the patterns leads to valuable metrics showing the public’s feelings towards the brand and plays into the engagement strategy.
- Look at what rivals do and create a similar environment i.e. if they open up the wall, do so also.
- Connect with your customers informally and don’t try and overly push your products. Also, participate in discussions.
- Create links to your main domain and other social platforms as this shows your reach and other methods to communicate with the brand.
- Ensure content sharing is easy so your brand name spreads and traffic increases. Of course, your content has to share-worthy in the first place
- Respond quickly to news and articles related to your company. The first place for a news-related discussion is social media so being active allows you to take immediate action and participate.
- Every social platform has its use so if you have the budget/capacity make sure you have a presence on all the major platforms
- Don’t bury your head in the sand, respond to negative publicity and give the users a platform to feedback their thoughts.
- Engage with fan sites as these people can push your brand to an audience you are not able to influence.
- Don’t use a generic template to make sure your profiles are suited to your brand.
- Don’t spam your users; create regular fresh content at regular intervals. Also vary your content (photos, text, links, videos), the size of the post should always be short and snappy.
Although Google says social media doesn’t impact directly in ranking factor. when evaluating web pages in order to compile the rankings of their search results,
Specifically, whether social media really helps your SEO efforts. Google and other search Engines have merged social signals as ranking signals.
The impact of social media on search engine optimization has, and in all probability always will be.
