Social metrics and search engine optimization (SEO) are the dream team when you want to drive traffic and an authentic customer base to your website. Google has stated they do not factor social media following and interactions in their rankings; however, visitors from posts promoted on social media are factored into rankings. With both SEO and social metrics, the goal is always to help your target customers find your content and ideally show loyalty through purchases and return visits.
How are Social Metrics Helpful?
Social metrics are the data collected from social media sites used to determine how social media affects a company’s revenue. Social media data tracking software monitors how a brand or company is perceived. The information gathered allows a brand to determine how well it is meeting its specific goals and which areas in the social media campaign need improvement or reevaluation.
In the same way, social metrics study social media performance, SEO keyword planning involves observing and studying your brand’s target audience. With social media sites, companies can gather their ideal audience in one location and tailor specific content they want to push at any given time. Thus, social metrics and SEO keyword strategies can work hand-in-hand when it comes to creating valuable content for customers.
Does Social Media Affect SEO?
Social media provides an environment for your content to live outside of your company’s website and have a longer lifespan on the internet. This enables it to work along with SEO to increase your rankings in the Google algorithm.
Ways Social Media and SEO Can Increase Rankings:
- Increase traffic to your website
- Develop trust in your brand
- Provide opportunities to research your target audience
- Widen content distribution
Social Media Drives Traffic
When a social media user comes across information they relate to or find fascinating, they are more likely to share that information with others in their circle. This link sharing, either to their personal social accounts or directly to their friends and family, increases website clicks and can therefore increase the credibility and popularity of the content. As a result, an increase in website clicks will positively affect Google rankings.
Social Media Can Build Trust in Your Brand
Websites with a solid social media presence will typically rank higher. However, it is not because they have a solid social media presence, which is where there is a lot of confusion. Instead, their high ranking is based on the benefits of having a large and reliable social media base that trusts their content. The trust translates into website clicks and sharing of content.
Social Media Provides Data for Keyword Research
SEO keywords are developed based on customer research, and their impact on Google rankings is due to creating trust, reliability, and authenticity within the content. A large social media base provides this as well; customers are familiar with the brand and therefore are more likely to select their content.
Social Media Means More Opportunities to be Seen
Social media profiles appear in Google searches, everything from youtube videos to links to a company’s Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter accounts. So, having an updated and curated social media presence is incredibly beneficial. Having content reflective of your brand is essential for gaining and retaining customers on your website; this philosophy is just as true for improving social metrics.
SEO and Social Metrics Strategies
Social metrics and SEO have the same strategy and end game: studying and monitoring content and customers to then create genuine content for the target audience. They are similar concepts working on different playing fields. Use your social metrics information to guide your SEO strategy for your online content. And take the information you have gathered from SEO research to create a successful social media campaign. While they may not directly affect one another, they absolutely reinforce each other.