Picture this: You’ve had more coffee than you can count trying to think of ways to generate more backlinks. Then suddenly someone suggests Facebook and you start experimenting. Post an article with a little more social sharing and voila! You see that page moving up through the SERP rankings.
Say oh! I wish the relationship between SEO and social networks were as easy to understand.
These two are the most critical elements of any digital marketing strategy, and yet many businesses struggle to understand how they work together.
So are these two in a relationship or what?
In response, consider this. Searchmetrics’ Rebooting Ranking Factors study produced a graph a while back. This chart shows that a blog post that ranks well in search engine results also gets more shares on Facebook.
Similar studies were then carried out for Twitter and Google+ with the same results.
But according to Searchmetrics, these results were only due to the connected relationship between social media and SEO.
So yes, there is an important aspect that unites them.
Social networks have the authority to drive traffic to your content. If your content is good, it will attract real links from many other websites and blogs because people love to share useful links within their own networks on social networking sites.
An active social media account = more brand awareness
Traffic generated from social networks creates excellent SEO indicators on the site. Again, if your content is great, it will drive high time-on-site metrics, click-throughs to other parts of your website, and much more.
And how many times have you seen an ad on a social network and then searched for it on Google? An active social media account is your one-way ticket to increased brand awareness.
2 Next Level Strategies to Integrate Your SEO and Social Media Marketing Strategy
You can tweak your social media promotion tactics to take full advantage of these SEO benefits.
First, of course, you must create exceptional and useful content. You don’t want your SEO strategies to ride the wave of bad content.
The next smart step would be to make good use of these two master approaches.
1. Aim for maximum clicks on social media while creating content
Marketing experts know very well what engages readers the most. Maybe it’s a list (list article) that includes internal links that direct readers to more useful content. Maybe it’s an entertaining call to action that seems irresistible to prospects.
Create content that grabs attention and compels prospects to click. It doesn’t mean you should focus on ‘clickbait’ articles that are misleading and useless. But ask yourself, “what would the reader love to read next?”
Use images, gifs and videos that attract more attention. Make people laugh or cry!
Emotional advertising continues to be the biggest hit.
2. Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a good bet
Integrating your social media content with your ABM strategy will virtually guarantee success in the effective targeting process.
Maybe your business already depends on ABM or maybe you’re just getting started; it’s a surefire way to climb high on the goal ladder. For example, you’ll create custom content for your ABM campaign – post it on your website! It doesn’t have to live in the site’s navigation (especially if it’s highly customized), but it should still be there.
Then share that content with your target audience using paid ads or your existing social media relationships.
This ensures that your highly relevant content gets an audience (even if it’s shared one-on-one!), which almost always leads to meaningful site engagement.