What is the Relationship Between Social Media and SEO?

As marketers, we are all too familiar with both social media and SEO. To take advantage of them both, it’s important to understand fully what is the relationship between social media and SEO.

What is SEO?

SEO or search engine optimisation is the process of improving the visibility of your website on search engines for organic traffic. This can be done in a variety of ways including conducting keyword research, creating written content, link building, website performance and monitoring analytics to name a few.

The aim of SEO is to boost the appearance of your website on SERPs also known as search engine results pages. This is so users can find your website first in order to drive more traffic and potentially generate conversions.

What’s the Difference Between Social Media and SEO?

Social media and SEO are forms of two different digital strategies that ultimately solve the same problem for users; discovering information.

Social media channels allow users to find and browse new brands and content they want to learn more about.

SEO uses relevant keywords for your brand and content to drives traffic from people who are searching for those questions or related terms.

Using both of these can assist in gaining traffic from multiple different areas and sources and creating a more rounded online visibility for your business.

The difference between social media and search engines is constantly blurring, now more than ever as the digital landscape continues to shift and evolve. TikTok has become a key example of this as Business Insider stated “Nearly 40% of Gen Z prefers using TikTok and Instagram for search over Google“. Showing that apps once entirely associated with social are now creeping into the search engine space.

As marketers, our job is to understand how the channels exist separately and how we can combine them across the different platforms. Using various social platforms and SEO strategy techniques to help us create a more rounded online presence.

You can perform a variety of search steps on social media platforms and likely discover some answers to questions. However, search engines are where you’re pointed to web pages that can supply you with the answer and more. But will social platforms start creating more into the search space as time goes on?

What is the Relationship Between Social Media and SEO?

When leveraged together, social media and search engine optimisation can give you more opportunities to be discovered by audiences and contribute to your search engine ranking.

Let’s discover more about how this actually works.

Both social media and SEO are dictated by algorithms.

For social media this often means that interactions including likes, comments and shares create social signals telling the algorithm that your content is engaging for users. Prompting the algorithm to push your content to more potential customers.

SEO ranking factors, on the other hand, are a big secret and while we have a good understanding search engines like Google keep their cards pretty close to their chest. But what we do know is that selecting relevant keywords to match your site and content and pairing them with high-quality content can make all the difference.

Now let’s pair these together

Posting interesting, well-thought-out, user-focused and click-worthy content on your social media profiles linked and connected to you website may result in increase traffic to your site.

When your website receives a lot of traffic, search engines use this as a credibility factor when crawling your site. This can then impact your website’s position on the search engine rankings as Google will prioritise more credible websites and content.

Additionally, other credible brands and accounts can repost your content on their own social profiles. For social media this generates more social signals to highlight your account as credible and shareable. If your content is shared whilst linking to your site, this can create valuable backlinks that assist in boosting your page authority. This is another factor which may see you rise up the SERPs.

Don’t be disheartened if this doesn’t immediately increase your rankings or your page authority score, especially in the beginning. If there’s one thing we do know it’s that SEO is a long process, stick it out and hopefully see the return on your efforts. Nevertheless pushing your social media marketing strategy or sharing the content you make definitely won’t hurt your brand regardless.

How to Use Social Media and SEO Together

To fully understand the relationship between social media and SEO, it’s vital to understand how you can combine them together.

• Sharing your content

We touched on this earlier but sharing your content is one of the best ways to combine SEO and social media. This is because when you share your blog posts or other content on social media platforms

When sharing your content across social media, you are opening the door to broadcasting your content to a wider audience. This can generate more website and social media engagement and lead to more website traffic, which in turn can lead to more sales. Sharing content on social media is a great way of having your work found without having to pay to advertise it.

• Try your hand at influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is the use of social media profiles with established followings to promote your business, content or products. If done right, it can give off the right social signals to drive traffic and create a buzz around your business and website.

One crucial factor to remember is using an influencer that is relevant to your business and target audience. You want someone who is genuinely passionate about what you offer. Influencers can talk about your brand on their social platforms and encourage their followers to check you out.

Top Tip: You don’t need to use massive influencers! Micro-influencers with a following between 1,000 and 100,000 often have highly engaged audiences. If they create relevant and valuable content that features your brand it can often be more effective.

• Use the same keywords you’ve researched

Prior to creating blog content you will have performed keyword research (we hope) within your market. Keyword research plays a crucial role in combining your social media presence and SEO efforts. You must make sure you are using the same keywords that your blog content is optimised for within your social content. This will not only support your Google ranking but it will also reinforce the points you are making within your content.

• Develop and remain consistent with your brand

As a brand, to connect with your potential customers you should be telling them a story. It’s important for them to feel connected to you especially when it comes to making a purchase. When your SEO and social media connect and communicate the same messaging, it will help your audience fully understand the business.

Here at ROAR, we offer Digital Strategy Consultancy to run a fresh pair of eyes over your business. Book a call with one of our specialists today