A social media presence is vital to the vast majority of businesses in the UK. But does social media have an impact on SEO? The short answer is yes but not in the way you may think. In this article, I’ll describe how social media can impact your website’s ranking on search engines.
Social Media’s Effect on SEO
The first thing to state is that links to your website that are shared to social profiles do not impact your off-page SEO or domain authority. This is because search engines (SEs) like Google do not crawl social platforms in the same way they do your website. Search engines understand that social platforms are set up to share information about millions of users and businesses, not one specific one. As such the off-page impact is non-existent, but that doesn’t mean social can’t impact your SEO in other ways.
Brand Awareness
Content that gets shared a lot will be seen by more people. This boosts your brand awareness which is good for your marketing overall. The more people that know about your company the more likely they are to search for your name in search engines. Increased searches in your specific company name indicate to SEs that your brand is growing and is becoming more relevant to consumers. Growth of impressions on SEs usually goes hand in hand with click-throughs.
Drives Traffic
Another benefit of gaining lots of links on social media is an increase in traffic. If your content is particularly viral, you could see a huge influx of clicks. More traffic to your site can also highlight to SEs that this is a site that should be promoted and featured. However, this could also work against you if your readers do not stay on a page for long or leave immediately after reading the page linked. Driving traffic is all well and good but you need to ensure your content pushes users further into your site.
Additional Links
Social media platforms may not directly impact your off-page SEO, but they can still boost your domain authority. Any quality content shared on social media has the potential to be picked up and shared by someone else on their own website. If they link to your website in a blog or page, you will earn some off-page gains.
Social Profiles & Search Engines
While social profiles cannot directly impact your website’s SEO strategy they can help your presence on SEs. This is because social media profiles are indexed faster than other sites and their posts and pages can appear in search engines. This is good news for your business as it leads to more exposure. Users may click on your post/page, like what they see and click to your site directly from the social platform. Furthermore, social media profiles that are kept up to date provide your company with a professional look. People often check out social profiles first before engaging with businesses.
Popular Content Ranks Quicker & Higher
Popular content is more likely to rank on SEs quicker and at a higher position but the correlation to social media is not direct. The improved ranking could be because the content has been shared greatly on social media, improving awareness and traffic. On the other hand, it could be that the content is viral because it is a good piece of content that is already optimised well for SEO. In this case, it already had the potential to rank well and its popularity on social media is because of the content. It’s a bit of a chicken and the egg scenario but either way virality on social media has a strong link with improved SEs rankings.
Ethical Social & SEO Strategy
If you are looking for an ethical, freelance marketing consultant to help with your social and SEO strategy, I can help. My focus is always on producing amazing content that is educational, entertaining and inspiring. With this approach, my content is both optimised for SEs and perfect for social sharing. Get in touch today to find out more.