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The PT Barnum’s adage says, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity”. The same could be true when it comes to climbing the rankings on your favourite search engine. While good SEO work will be the primary driver that allows a business to reach that coveted number one spot, there are a number of surprising strategies that can support your end goal.
The overlooked companion to SEO
There’s no need to introduce social media, it’s been around longer than some digital marketing professionals at this point. But it’s seldom seen as a useful tool for SEO purposes. In fact, it’s often viewed completely separately from any SEO endeavours, particularly because of the rise of PPC.
Yet, for those not wanting to pay for clicks, social media still can (and does) contribute to your SERP rankings.
Now let’s be clear
Let’s be honest right up front: social media does not impact your search engine rankings.
But that doesn’t mean it can’t support your SEO strategy in a number of ways.
As any influencer will tell you, social media is all about visibility. Coincidentally, so is SEO. While Google has irrevocably noted that the algorithm does not factor in social media likes for ranking pages, there are certain ripple effects that social media can have for content, which can drive your rankings higher.
In short: there is a correlation, not a causation, between good social media practices supporting your SEO agenda.
The potential of social media
While search engines might not consider your social media presence as important, Google does love a good backlink. To simplify, the more backlinks your content has, the more you appear to be an authority on a subject, and the higher you are likely to rank, according to Google’s E-A-T principle.
Going viral for your content on social media (or even just getting some good engagement) ultimately brings more eyeballs to your website. The more people read, like and share your content, the more likely they are to use your content as a backlink on their own site. Thus, increasing your chances of ranking higher in search engines.
In short: The virality potential of social media presents the opportunity to attract backlinks to your website.
Users and social media behaviour
There are very few people who don’t engage in some form of social media, whatever their drug of choice may be. The fact is that increasingly, users are using social media platforms as if they are search engines themselves, particularly when looking for goods and services.
Even users who don’t operate in this way are likely to check a business’s social media pages for legitimacy before engaging with them. One marketing principal states that a potential customer needs to interact with a business at least 7 times before making a purchase from it, and often these kinds of interactions now happen on social media.
Social media can also help to act as the personality behind a brand. Where a bland Shopify website might serve its purpose, it might not explain why someone would want to buy from you. On social media, a brand can grow a following based on ideas, beliefs, and the purpose behind the business. This is a critical part of reaching new consumers, who are increasingly aligning themselves with brands that they believe match their own ideals. By consistently creating quality content on social media, a brand can also consistently create meaningful connections with its user base.
In short: This is an area where SEO and social media can neatly overlap, with the SEO team creating and optimising useful content, and social media acting as the mouthpiece to draw users into that content loop, which could ultimately end in a purchase, or a new loyal customer.
To social or not to social?
With the recent purchase of Twitter and the disillusionment with the Metaverse, many people are predicting the end of the social era. That may indeed be the case, but it will take several years before we see a real decline in the number of users across platforms, especially with new types of social media constantly popping up (ala TikTok). So, is it worth investing in a social media strategy? If you’re using it to support your SEO goals, and want an easy win with short, sharp content, then yes, social media may be worth it yet.
