SEO and Social Media – Working together for Universal Search Engine Optimization
If Search Engine Optimization and Social Media were real people on Facebook, they would be listing their status as “In a relationship”…with each other. SEO would post on Social Media’s wall about the great time they had together increasing xyz.com’s visibility. Social Media would “like” the status and comment that they should definitely hook up again when PDQ’s blog post is done so they can boost the site’s rankings. Every other day, one would “poke” the other, in a playful reminder to share, leveraging content distribution and link building. The connection they have is getting stronger everyday. As the article “You Can’t Separate Social Media Seo” by Ian Luris says, “SEO needs Social Media, Social Media needs SEO”.
In the beginning, after the earth was created and man began using Google, Seo consisted of padding your content with keywords all over the place. Evolving from this primitive keyword method we now use “Blended Search”. Blended, or Universal search goes beyond keyword density to “Digital Asset Optimization” including text links, news, videos, images, blogs and real-time results found in Social Media.
In today’s competitive search environment, incorporating social media in search is a must. Search engines thrive on relevant, updated content. Adding content to a site regularly is best achieved through the social media platform of Blogging. Blogging not only includes keywords, but also integrates with link building, and sharing across the multitude of social media platforms. Posts can be “tweeted”, “liked”, “pinned” and “plussed” all from within the blog page. You
may feel like your content is the size of a molecule compared to other content found on the web. Using social media provides an organic distribution system through your friends, fans, followers and subscribers. Social Media makes it
possible for that post on your blog to be distributed out from your website, across hundreds, if not thousands of users on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google Plus and more. In other words, your post, (website) is now leveraging the social connection. As Brian Clark says in his article, “Twitter and Facebook have become amazing content distribution networks. Sooner or later Google will factor in social media sharing in its algorithm (if they haven’t already). Remember, gaining followers and fans is not about your ego, it’s creating a dynamic network that gets new people to see your content. And the more people see and share your content, the more likely it is to attract those valuable links.” The bottom line is social media provides a way for content to be shared, resulting in the important ones to rank well in search engines.
You might say, ok, I get it. I have a blog, and I am on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms, what do I do now? I would say to that, “great!” you are more than halfway there!” Here are a few more things you can do to help yourself be found:
1) Social Media News: In addition to the standard social media platforms, you will want to submit your blog to Social Media News sites like Digg and Reddit. Making the homepage of one of these sites will increase your visibility in search.
2) Become a Writer: Develop industry or product related articles. Writing top 10 lists, or reviews can add relevant content to your blog.
3) Monitor the web: Set up a RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed in Google Reader or Feedly. This will provide you with timely content relevant to your industry that you can pull from to write about.
4) Be Active: It’s all well and good to have a Facebook page and Twitter account, but they don’t matter if you don’t participate in them. Set up your accounts in Hoot suite. This will be the one place where you log in to manage your accounts. Set aside 15-20 minutes each morning to share your post after you have blogged.
Actively participating in Social Media through blogging, Facebook, Twitter and more, create content that will increase your brand’s visibility within search results.
Now, are you ready to optimize your content for SEO and Social Media?
About the Author
Natalie Natalie is a Florida native and grew up on Merritt Island. She graduated from Merritt Island High School in 1985. Natalie has over fifteen years of web design and development and twenty years of graphic design experience, impacting several Central Florida business’ with her natural talent in art and graphic design. Natalie received her A.A. degree in Graphic Design from Brevard Community College and is currently set to graduate with Honors from Full Sail University in the Fall 2012. To date, she has been awarded 3 Course Director’s Awards in Website Advertising and Design Principles, Social Media Optimization and Mobile Advertising.
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