There is simply no way around it. If you want your business to stand out online, you are going to have to dive into social media. Obtaining success requires brands to be strategic in their efforts. Google is the captain of the ship for steering online traffic to your site, and their recent updates truly reward active, content-rich social pages with higher SERP (Search Engine Results Page) rankings.
So how do you get your brand to the top? It’s an extremely important question to ask. Not all social media channels are equal. Different ones are going to deliver different results. You must be clear on your business goals and needs in order to explore which social media platform is going to work best for your brand.
Our 4 Part Series, “4 for All and All for Social Media,” breaks down the strongest and weakest channels for your company, especially as they relate to SEO, customer interaction, brand awareness, and increasing website traffic.
Part 1 of 4: Social Media Channels and Their SEO Benefits.
It’s no longer all about SEO through a highly optimized website; now more than ever, brands need to be maximizing several social media platforms to really gain awareness online.
Having just a company Facebook account or Twitter account is no longer enough.
Even if you are using all four of the major platforms, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Youtube, your company must still have a game plan for how those channels will best serve your brand.
And even though the big four get the lion’s share of popularity and clout, there are still a host of other platforms that are just as robust, depending on your niche and audience.
Let’s take a closer look at the best social channels for your SEO efforts.
SEO Blunders:
- Instagram is growing in popularity but it will not be an SEO winner for your brand. The platform doesn’t allow direct embedded links in posts by account holders. This presents a drawback from building links back to your company website, blog or store.
Valuable, but Not at the Top of the List:
- LinkedIn may not be a top influencer on Google’s social media checklist, but it does provide strong content that is both searchable and valuable.
- Slideshare has also seen significant growth as a platform in recent years. Its premise is ideal for brand building. By being able to share professional business presentations with a wider audience, makes the site appealing. However, the SEO links that can be embedded into presentations do not produce as strong results in searches as other networks like Facebook and Twitter.
- Youtube is simply a juggernaut where video rules. Brands can optimize their content fairly well on Youtube with tagging options. The biggest drawback, however, is that it is brimming with content from so many sources. The competition is stiff, making it difficult for brands to stand out or even be discovered.
SEO Winners:
- Google+ is the most important social media site to Google, with the most SEO value of all social media platforms. Content with a significant amount of 1+’s is seen as more important and will be displayed higher on results pages than Facebook likes or Retweets.
- Facebook is a content-rich platform as well. It allows users to share, leave comments, and like information. Those qualities alone make it one of the top SEO valuable social media sites. The only issue with this outlet is its limited organic reach in search engines.
- Pinterest has been a real surprise in the social media world. Pinterest activity associated with a web page is one of the top 10 SEO influential boosters. Google values the fact that content supplied to Pinterest gives it a longer shelf life. A well-optimized pin can essentially be pinned hundreds and even thousands of times, with each time leading back to an outside website or source, therefore signaling to Google that its content must hold significant value.
- Twitter has grown in its SEO value from previous years. Web page specific tweets are increasingly influencing Google rankings. One estimate also names Twitter on of the top 10 most important Google ranking networks.
When choosing your company’s social media networks, don’t just settle for the obvious one or two platforms. Always do your research and look for the SEO rose among the weeds. Having a plan and knowing your social media goals is just as important as creating world-class content for your fans, clients, and customers.
Check back for part 2 of our 4-part series, “4 for All and All for Social Media.”
Expert SEO & Digital Marketing services for businesses in Orlando, Wichita, Atlanta & Throughout the US.
