In 2014, a Google official clarified that social media metrics do not affect search result rankings. Yet a quick look at business websites that have the top positions on search engines reveals that most of them also have a strong social media presence.
Indeed, in 2018 researchers at Hootsuite found that website articles with social promotion could result in a boost in the visibility of up to 22%. The truth is, in today’s increasingly digital world, businesses can’t afford to forget about the importance of social media marketing.
At Duelling Pixels, our goal is to help small business owners improve their online presence and maximise their growth. In this article, we will discuss critical small business can utilise social media to improve your business’s website ranking.
1. Turn on local search
Today, Google takes geography into account to give users a more personalised and relevant experience. Hence local search can help potential customers in your area find your business quicker.
It is, therefore, imperative that your social media profiles are consistent with each other, and are up to date with correct NAP information (the name, address, and phone number of your business) along with local listings and your website.
Having consistent and correct NAP information across social media accounts will give your business more credibility, which intern will help boost your presence in local search results.
Social media platforms also allow you to geo-tag posts, stories and images, which will enable you to target local users with success stories that your business was involved with.
Search engines will also use your business, product and service reviews on social media platforms along with your Google My Business reviews to judge your business’s credibility. These reviews significantly contribute to businesses being listed in the Local three-pack listing at the top of most search result pages.
2. Social profile pages can rank in search results too
Optimising your social media profiles can have a significant effect on your website traffic and visibility. By having a complete, informative and engaging profile on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, your profile pages are more likely to be listed in Google’s search results.
This will give your brand more visibility and creating multiple channels with search results for people to learn about your business and reach your website. Incidentally, this will also help push out the competition from these search results, which intern will give you a stronger presence in the search results.
3. Encourage engagement, maximise content reach and lifespan
The purpose of social media marketing for business is to get your content seen by more people and convince them to visit your website.
One of the key ways to improve your search ranking through social media is to spread awareness of your product or service throughout your target audience. By encouraging your followers to share what you post, you can increase the reach of your message, improve brand visibility and lead people to your business website.
The trickiest part of all this is getting your followers to share your posts amongst relevant online communities. With an increasingly competitive environment, you have to go above and beyond adding social media buttons and enabling sharing.
Businesses must create helpful content that encourages user engagement or starting a conversation is a great way to get people talking.
Another component of encouraging engagement is starting conversations with your followers and answering their messages and comments. As a brand, talking with your audience will allow you to get a better idea of their demands. By building a relationship with your customers, you will also grow your following through word of mouth. As more and more people see you, more people will click on your website and recommend you to their followers, slowly but surely improving your search engine rankings.
4. Social media will help the SEO machine turn faster.
Once engagement and increased social media reach have started to do its work, more traffic is sent back from social platforms to your website, and your content is further shared across social networks. Search engines will start to take more notice of these signals that are generated around your brand and content on these platforms.
This intern will attract search engine crawlers more regularly to your website, ensuring your content is indexed appropriately. While the number of social interaction signals like Facebook’s likes/follows/shares will give search engines an indication of the quality of your content.
Keeping these two engagement factors working positively will indirectly help push your website rankings up Google’s search results.
Conclusion
Even if social media results don’t directly affect your search engine ranking, you can leverage the power of social platforms to improve your page’s visibility. Part of providing SEO services for Melbourne businesses is knowing how to make use of all aspects of social media channels. If you’re considering hiring an SEO company in Melbourne, contact us today for affordable SEO services in Melbourne.
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