Social Media SEO: The SEO Base You’re Not Covering

You have a social media strategy, and you have an SEO strategy. But do you know how to make the two work together?

A lot of digital marketers ignore the fact that SEO and social media can work together to boost your brand awareness and move you closer to that coveted number one SERP space.

Keep reading to learn about how social media helps SEO and what you can do to benefit from it!

How Social Media Helps SEO

If there’s one thing we know about SEO, it’s constantly evolving. People assumed ‌social media did not affect your business’s SEO game, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

It’s somewhat common knowledge that you must perform specific website tasks to optimize your content. So, doesn’t it make sense that you should also optimize the content you’re posting on social media?

Some of the biggest ways that social media helps SEO include:

• Building your brand awareness
• Establishing your brand identity
• Increasing your brand authority
• Creating a higher likelihood that your business will gain backlinks organically
• Improve brand visibility
• Extends the lifespan of your posts

Google may not directly index all your social media content but plays a huge role in your internet presence.

Social Media SEO for All Platforms

The first step of SEO for social media is easy. Ensure that all the information on your NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) is consistent across all platforms. This includes your Google My Business profile. Wherever your contact information is located, it must be accurate and up-to-date.

It also helps to use the same branding across platforms; your audience will recognize your content quickly. Consistent branding helps them trust that it’s your brand posting the content.

Consistency also helps Google. If all of your profiles have similar branding and identical information, it sounds like you are a legitimate business. Google can trust that your business is safe to recommend to its users.

As with any SEO strategy, you want to avoid Black Hat SEO tactics. Valuable and quality content will get you further than anything else, even on social media. When you flood your platforms with spam, your audience and the search engines will write you off as spam.

On the flip side, if you create valuable, engaging, and educational content, your audience will enjoy it and want to share it with their friends. Quality content makes your audience and the search engines happy.

How to Optimize Your Profile: Instagram

When Instagram first came on the scene, it was a cute photo-sharing app. Now, Instagram is a real entertainment hub and a pivotal place to increase your SEO for social media.

Take advantage of this by using social media SEO on your Instagram profile. The first step? Make sure your profile is a “business profile.” This feature gives you access to more analytics tools and tells the algorithm that you’re on the platform to make money, not just to connect with friends. In addition, it pushes business profiles differently than personal ones.

Quality content is key here, too. Use hashtags to relate accounts to topics you want to gain attention. They will also help your preferred audience find you.

If you want to increase your chances of ending up on the Search page, dive into the world of Reels. Instagram’s algorithm has jumped onto the short-form video content train and is holding on tight. If you do the same, your content will get more exposure.

Another great way to optimize your Instagram content is to always use a location tag. This will help with local SEO. Instagram will expose your content to those users who are physically close to you and your business.

Optimizing Your Facebook Profile

My biggest piece of advice for optimizing your Facebook page? Don’t leave any fields empty! You’d be surprised at how many people skip this step of social media SEO.

Facebook is a great place to get local traffic, but you have to ensure you fill out every field, so people know where to find you. This includes your address and a link to your website. Don’t forget to fill in the Category field, too!

This platform is about connecting with others, so make your content as easily shareable as possible. You can also add links to your blog content within your posts.

Some pages of the Facebook platform are crawlable by Google bots, so don’t be surprised if you see your page on a SERP or in Google knowledge boxes.

If you want to increase the likelihood of your page ending up on Google, add keywords to all of your posts, including any reviews you might leave or respond to.

How to Optimize Your Twitter Profile

Twitter often feels like a forgotten social media platform. But that couldn’t be further from the truth!

Twitter is a great place for your content to get noticed and shared. It’s almost as if they made it to boost your SEO for social media! The more shares you get on Twitter, the more likely your content will end up on other sites and platforms. 

Adding keywords in your Twitter bio will also help with social media SEO. It will help other users who are interested in your type of content find you.

The biggest thing to remember about social media SEO on Twitter is to use hashtags! Hashtags will help your content get noticed by the correct audiences.

Even though the content is much shorter on Twitter than on other platforms, quality is still key. Post interesting, true, and engaging content to boost your chances of a retweet or a mention. Both ‌things will help boost your content.

Focus on the likes, shares, and comments you receive on Twitter. Be sure to interact with your audience who is engaging with your content. These actions are important to Google’s search bots and will help improve your ranking.

Optimizing Your LinkedIn Profile

Thinking of LinkedIn as a resume site? Think again!

LinkedIn has grown to be a great place for lead generation and quality business connections. According to SEMRush, 94% of marketers are using the platform as their main content marketing tool.

Although it’s matured, LinkedIn’s primary function is still to connect people through searches for professional opportunities. Its algorithm relies on its users’ search history.

Regarding your social media SEO, be sure to use keywords naturally on your profile, including in your introduction and within your work history.

You can also add search terms within your actual content, such as your profile headings and your posts. LinkedIn also offers a pretty cool blog feature. You can also take advantage of search terms and keywords within your blog content.

Optimizing Your Pinterest Profile

Organic link-building is one of the best things about social media SEO. The best place to do it? Pinterest.

Start your optimization by ensuring that your Pinterest profile is a business account. This feature is the best way to increase the visibility of your content. 

As you’re setting up your boards, be sure to add keywords within the board titles. You can also add them to the board’s description to increase the likelihood of Google finding them.

Don’t forget about the descriptions of each of your Pins, either! This is prime real estate to add value for your audience and work your social media SEO magic. You can write up to 500 characters, so make them count!

As you’re uploading your Pins, remember that you can customize the attached links to point them back to your website. Use this space to add in a keyword or two.

How to Optimize Your YouTube Profile 

Did you know YouTube is one of the most visited websites on the internet?

Take advantage of this by thinking of your YouTube platform as the valuable social media SEO tool it is. Add keywords to your channel name and video titles. 

You can also add keywords to your About Us page. The more information you include on your About Us page, the better.

Check under Advanced Settings for how to add channel keyword tags to your videos. These tags give search engine robots more content to crawl and index. You only have 100 available characters, so make it work!

Using keywords within your video content also helps because bots crawl videos and their transcripts. Dropping relevant keywords naturally throughout your video content helps the algorithm to know that your video is really about what your title says it is.

Like the other platforms, likes, shares, and comments are gold on YouTube. So, the best thing you can do for your social media SEO on this platform is to create quality content that your audience will definitely enjoy and share with their network.

Don’t Overthink SEO & Social Media

There’s no mistaking that pairing your SEO and social media strategies will boost your business significantly. But the most important part is to not get overwhelmed by the work you need to do to see results.

Most of the SEO tasks you need to accomplish to boost your traction are things you should do within your SEO and social media strategies, anyway. Things like keyword research, engaging with your audience, and producing quality content should all be second nature to any successful digital marketer.

The algorithms and platforms might change, but one thing that remains the same? People love quality content.

Even if you’ve never given much thought to how social media helps SEO, I hope it’s clear now that social media has an enormous impact on your SEO work.

Do you still need some help with your SEO for social media or other valuable business strategies? Read through the rest of my blog or check out my YouTube channel for quality content that you can use to scale your business to new heights.