The relationship between search engine optimization (SEO) and social media is very real. As you develop your local SEO strategy, keep in mind it should work with your social media marketing efforts to achieve a similar goal of attracting new visitors and leads.
Here are four unexpected ways SEO and social media work together to supercharge digital marketing:
1. Smarter Engagement
While it’s certainly possible to track site traffic in real time, it’s not quite the same as the immediate feedback you get from social.
The instant interaction and engagement of social media provide you with the ability to pinpoint the effectiveness of specific keywords and phrases quickly. You can even use your social platforms to test out geo-based keywords designed to attract nearby prospects that may be searching for you already.
2. Increased Interactions
Search engine bots that gather ranking data scan through sites and look at many factors. One factor they include is how much interaction is going on from all your online platforms, meaning your social networks.
For this reason, it’s crucial to ensure that you’re delivering a consistent message and, more importantly, putting out plenty of content across all platforms to drive up interactions. The more interactions, the better you will do on search result pages.
3. Powerful Presence
Timeliness is one of the greatest strengths social media can offer its users.
For example, taking time to warn Marietta customers that an accident has I-75 backed up (while offering alternate routes to your location) will not only build trust, but also improve your local SEO. Similarly, some website visitors are more likely to follow a localized social media account than a national one, depending on your industry.
4. Integrated Metrics
Everything in marketing needs to be tracked and proven. With analytics, the real power occurs when you can combine data to make more informed decisions. As a general rule of thumb, you shouldn’t review Website Visits without also tracking social performance across all platforms.
By tying everything together, you can get a much better idea of how eventual customers are finding your business and what actions they take before reaching out. Reviewing your SEO and social metrics at the same time will give you a better idea of where you need to focus your efforts.
For SEO and social media to truly work together, you must:
- Set measurable goals,
- Produce great content,
- Distribute and promote your content, and
- Analyze performance metrics.
If done correctly, you will start seeing more traffic on your website. Better yet, you’ll increase your chances of converting that traffic into qualified leads down the line. If you’re not sure where to start, reach out to the HUM team today!
Editor’s Note: This article was written in March 2016 and has been updated for clarity and accuracy.