Jan 7, 2013
No Comments
How Does Social Media Tie Into SEO?
Here at the office, we’ve talked a lot about SEO lingo and which terms are becoming more and more improper to use on a daily basis. “Link building” is one of those terms. Many of us in the SEO industry, including myself, have written articles on subjects like “Link Building in 2012” or “The New Link Building,” especially when Google had it’s big growth spurt last year.
Social networking is now the best way to influence people to link to your website. That word “networking” is a great substitute for “link building.” It’s not about shoving crap in front of people and telling them link to you. It’s about networking, engaging, interacting, and along with activities, providing an outlet for the audience to follow (i.e. a link).
Don’t Forget a Link
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. One of our clients owns this awesome lodge down in Southern Utah around Zion National Park. Their industry makes it really easy for us to market. Everyone loves pictures of the outdoors. We use that to our advantage when it comes to social media engagement.
We’ll create a Facebook post that says something like, “Bet you wish you were here today,” and then upload a photo of the sun rising over a popular trail in the park or something. We know that people will like, share, and comment, because they do every time. If you’re in the same boat, DON’T FORGET A LINK.
Below your text, add a back link to a page on your website that in some way relates to your post. This will not only give your audience somewhere to click through, but the more people that engage with that post, the more weight that link is going to carry. We all know what that does for search engine rankings.
This concept has been a driving force in this client’s boost in search engine rankings. They went from ranking #5 in Google for a particular keyword a few months ago to now ranking #1. Performing the same activities on social networks like Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest have provided us with the results we set out to accomplish.
The moral of the story is that if you’re not adding links to your social media posts, start now.