Social media and SEO go together like peanut butter and jelly. It’s a sticky, powerful combination that has many cheerleaders – and for good reason. Business owners and marketing strategists across industries are always trying to find dynamic ways to get people excited about their products and services, drum up new sales, and grow their customer base. Does this sound familiar?
Unfortunately, many individuals aren’t doing themselves any favors when it comes to social media and SEO. You could be doing some of the same things across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and others — negatively affecting your rankings, clicks, and sales goals.
You need to understand what you’re doing wrong before you can do what’s right. Then, you can bring your social media and SEO together as a “delicious” combo that will keep your existing customers happy and bring new ones to your site to check out what they have been missing.
4 Ways Your Social Media is Hurting Your SEO (and how to get it right)
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You aren’t getting enough links
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Links are an essential part of elevating your search engine rankings. Have you been wondering where the links are? Just like that famous Wendy’s commercial from the 1980s where that funny old lady says, “Where’s the Beef?” — you can’t be lacking in a critical component and still expect to attract customers.
If you can manage your social media strategy the right way, it’s one of the best ways to get backlinks and increase your visibility. It’s about the impact and getting your posts in front of the right, hard-to-reach people. If you can get in the sights of major players that generate millions of visitors like industry and thought leaders, as well as top industry sites, your links can escalate like crazy. One of the best things you can do is mention your outreach targets in your post. Yes, it’s that simple. It can also be very effective!
Be smart and don’t inundate them all the time. You can turn people against you that way. Share their content too, and they will often be reciprocal. If you do your research and gather a village of your best influencers, you can create a solid strategy to keep those links coming.
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Your content isn’t being optimized for social shares.
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This all comes down to quality. People are much more likely to share if the content on your site is optimized for social shares. What this means in regards to social media and SEO is that you want people to stay on your site — called the “long click.” Is your bounce rate through the roof? Are people only staying on your pages for 20 seconds and then fleeing to other pages to find what they need or want?
Optimizing your pages with relevant, quality content makes them much more likely to share and therefore raises your visibility and ultimately your rankings. Throwing a blog online that is not optimized for social shares just for the sake of having something, won’t do you any favors. Google’s goal is to get answers to searchers’ problems as fast as it possibly can. If someone clicks away immediately, Google sees that and drops you down in the SERP (Search Engine Results Pages).
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Your profiles aren’t optimized.
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If you are not branding and optimizing your profiles appropriately, this is another way that social media is hurting your SEO. The good news here is that it is something that is easy to correct.
Does your company have a brand style guide? It is essential to always keep on point with your brand with your images and graphics. The first step to correct this is to synchronize your profile pics across your social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Then, include relevant and streamlined (it doesn’t have to be exact) keywords and phrases in your bio. These descriptors are important.
After that, make sure to provide the link to your website on all of your social media bios. Your aim is to get branded searches online so viewers know they have found the right place. This consistency can go a long way in utilizing the full power of social media and SEO.
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You’re spending too much time and effort to increase your number of followers.
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Yes, the number of your followers is important, but it is definitely not the ultimate solution to an effective social media strategy. Did you know that Google can’t scan for Facebook and Twitter followers? Yep. It’s much more important to find the right followers. These are the ones that are actually looking for, wanting, and needing the products and services you provide.
Are you solving the searchers’ problems with your website and social media content? Are you being creative, relevant, and on-brand with images, gifs, and videos? Many silly things can go viral and ramp up your followers quickly — but do they come back? Do those clicks convert to sales?
There are all sorts of social media tools you can use to identify topics that are creating a lot of shares on social media. Instead of focusing on the number of followers you can accumulate, concentrate on the content you can generate that will impact your SEO.
Social Media & SEO – Together…Forever
Just like that good old peanut butter and jelly sandwich, social media and SEO are bound to stay together…forever. That sticky power is here to stay…or until the web disappears (hopefully not anytime soon!).
If you think your social media has been hurting your SEO, perform an audit of your content and current social media strategy. Do you see room for improvement? Whether you need to synchronize your social media profiles or really “up your game” on your content, there are plenty of things you can do to remedy your past mistakes. Getting it right takes knowing your audience (and your brand) well.
Take control of your social media and SEO today. Need help? Oyova has your back. If you want to grow your business and build a platform for your voice to be amplified and heard across online channels —a custom digital marketing approach is just what you need.
