Search engine optimization (SEO) has changed a lot over the years, and the days of keyword stuffing are long past. Today, search engines work to serve only the most reliable, authoritative, and useful content to their users. While this has not ended the technical aspects of SEO, it has expanded optimisation into areas of quality content creation and social media engagement.
Online, there is a phenomenon called social proof. Essentially, it is the influence of social media engagement on people’s perception of trust, authority, and reliability. Users will not take your claims about your brand, products, or services at face value. Hootsuite contributor Kristina Cisnero writes, “social proof can make or break your business.”
Search engine algorithms have started to mimic this phenomenon and use social signals to help determine placement on results pages. According to Moz, “Given how the reach of social networks have grown, how well social shares correlate positively to higher search rankings, and how those correlations have risen over time, there’s a lot of value in making sure your pages have an opportunity to perform socially.” So, how can social media boost your SEO?
First is discoverability. The amount of content created on a daily basis is phenomenal. It makes logging and indexing everything very time-consuming, even at Google’s lightning fast speeds. Social media sites exist as a natural link treasury. Search engines can easily collect data on the newest and most popular content.
Also, social sharing is quickly becoming the new link building. While traditional links to your content still have a lot of value, most sites linking to you have little to no benefit. It is only those with sufficient authority and popularity that create an impact. However, search engines recognize that social proof has as much or more meaning in determining content value.
Ultimately, good content is shareable. If people are not sharing or engaging on social media, you are unlikely to rank well. If your content does not supply a demand, it diminishes or erases other positive SEO factors.
If you would like to talk more about using social media to boost SEO, or have any questions, please contact us.