In the world of digital marketing, it seems as though everyone is obsessed with two things: social media and SEO. Granted, both can be amazing tools to gaining traction, especially if you’re a master of acquiring new users at a low cost. However, a lot of marketers struggle with not just how they work, but how they can work hand-in-hand to produce the maximum results.
After all, when you break it down, both SEO and social media have similar structures that can bounce off each other’s strengths. And with a little bit of education on how those parallels work, you too can be gaining a tremendous amount more traffic in no time. Here’s how:
How Social Media Can Benefit
The primary driver between social media and SEO is utilizing it as a tool to get more traffic to the pages that will help boost your keyword metrics. As noted by Hubspot, 61% of marketers say that improving SEO and their organic presence is a top priority, and there’s no better place than social media to do this. Especially when you consider that according to Pew, 87% of internet users are on some form of social media, this is the biggest audience you can reach besides organic search.
To get started, start pulling blog posts and pages that you want to link more for the content they hold. Next, set up a schedule of when you’re trying to post on your social platforms, and which ones are most efficient. Your industry will largely dictate the social media channels that are most popular. For example, while the primary channel for the fashion community is Instagram, LinkedIn would be a better bet for b2b/content marketing. Additionally, make sure to vary up the content that you’re trying to promote, running A/B tests to see which one is most successful. Who knows? Perhaps you’ll be able to discover some unique search terms specific to your brand or company.
Keeping It Consistent
After you’ve established a plan, it’s time to start looking at how to keep this strategy consistent. Honestly, this is the biggest point that most marketers fall off, not knowing how to increase their traffic or search terms due to trying the same things over and over again or even growing stagnant. However, this doesn’t have to be difficult, as long as you know how to keep your approach creative.
As you’ve started to paint a picture of the types of search terms that are most efficient to your success, it’s time to start testing out things like Facebook advertising or promoted posts on Instagram. These can be excellent tools to have in your arsenal, especially when you consider the metrics that each platform keeps track of how a campaign is doing. Additionally, make sure you keep your call-to-action consistent, which is the bread and butter of gauging success. For example, if you look at the work of the PAC Progress for Maine, their call-to-action on their posts would most likely be “learn more,” “act now,” or “donate today.” While visiting the page is the actual CTA, the metric they’d most likely track is how many signups or donations they have, as well as the cost of each post versus how much the donation/action was. Overall, these are going to be the cornerstones to how your SEO can be boosted via social media, but that’s only half the battle. The other half is getting innovative into the future.
Moving Forward
One of the most crucial elements to social media is how you can expand your audience or customer base by spending little to no money. This can include synthesizing lifestyle posts with your brands, such as trips abroad or even just visiting a restaurant you really like. The overarching goal here though is to keep linking to posts that are within your content marketing/keyword metrics. For example, if I’m a fashion brand, then showcasing my lines in different parts of the world makes sense, especially if it matches the aesthetic of what I’m trying to go for. Additionally, becoming an authority under certain hashtags that are industry-specific is also another excellent way to draw in new folks to your accounts, especially in learning more about your community.
The relationship between your SEO and social media will not only help lend a hand to one another, but additionally, give you a solid digital marketing platform to grow from. And while it’s going to take a fair amount of legwork, the payoff will set you up to expand your audience in no time.
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What are some strategies you’ve used to boost your SEO via social media? Answer with your insights below.