SEO encompasses various disciplines, so enhancing other aspects of our digital marketing strategy can positively impact our web page’s performance in search engine results pages (SERPs).
This extends to our social media strategy and endeavors to boost social signals for our web pages.
While social signals don’t directly influence ranking positions, the correlation between improved social media visibility and SEO efforts underscores their significance for digital marketers to exploit.
A. Which Social Signals are Trending?
Social signals encompass interactions with a social media profile or its content.
From a social media marketing perspective, these interactions denote engagement, while from an SEO viewpoint, they serve as indicators aiding search engines like Google in assessing user identity, popularity, and credibility.
Across diverse social media platforms, various metrics qualify as social signals. Here are some common ones by platform:
- Facebook: Follows, likes, dislikes, comments, shares, views
- Instagram: Follows, likes, shares, favorites, save
- Twitter: Follows, tweets, retweets, quote tweets, replies
- Pinterest: Follows, pins, views
- LinkedIn: Connections, likes, comments, shares
- Reddit: Upvotes, comments
B. Google Says that Social Signals are an Important Quality Indicator
Google software engineer Matt Cutts confirms that they incorporate Facebook and Twitter links in ranking, as before.
However, they’re also delving into understanding the reputation of authors or creators on these platforms.
He further clarifies that, at the time, such signals are particularly significant for real-time searches, emphasizing that the quality of engagements holds greater weight than sheer quantity. Check out the video below:
In 2022, Google emphasized that social media presence served as a quality indicator. It strives to gauge the authority of authors or creators through social platforms.
The reputation of a web page creator now significantly influences organic SEO, prompting Google to examine social media profiles for authorship insights.
Despite the complexity, it’s evident that Google closely monitors the social media pages of our websites and the profiles of content creators—underscoring the importance for anyone aiming to improve organic search rankings to take note.
C. 10 Strategies to Enhance Your Social Signals for SEO
Given the interplay between social signals and SEO, investing effort in boosting your social signals can yield favorable outcomes not only for SEO but also for various facets of your digital marketing strategy.
Here are some tips to elevate your social signals and augment the overall online visibility of your web pages:
1. Integrate your Website with Social Media Profiles
As affirmed, Google seeks to establish connections between websites and social media accounts. Simplify this process by ensuring reciprocal linking between your website and social media profile pages.
While this is a fundamental step, it holds significant importance. Although Google no longer utilizes social media schema for this purpose, facilitating automatic identification of the connection through reciprocal linking is advisable.
However, to prevent social profile links on your homepage from diverting clicks away from crucial call-to-action buttons or lead generation forms, consider placing them in the footer of your website.
These links can also enhance user experience. Regardless of whether users encounter your website or social media page first, facilitating easy access to other pertinent URLs associated with your brand is essential.
2. Consistently Promote Your Content on Social Media Platforms
If you regularly publish content such as blogs, articles, or ebooks on your website, it’s essential to consistently promote these assets across your social media accounts.
The more frequently you share posts and content on social platforms, the greater the opportunities to garner likes, comments, shares, and engagements.
Take benefit of social media management tools like Sprout Social to schedule and automate postings across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram accounts. If you haven’t yet enlisted a social media manager, consider doing so or outsourcing to an agency.
Here are some strategies for sharing your website content daily:
- Share links to your most recent content soon after publication.
- Promote and link to updated content that offers new or enhanced information to users.
- Share and link to relevant website content when the topic arises in news, conversations, or trending industry topics.
- Respond to user queries about specific topics, services, or products with links to relevant website content that addresses their questions.
These are just a few examples of how to craft social media posts containing links to your website. While posts without links can still be valuable, they won’t directly contribute to SEO.
To derive indirect SEO benefits, ensure your posts include links back to your web pages.
3. Optimize your Social Profiles
Enhance your social media profile pages by optimizing them just like you would a webpage or blog post. Incorporating relevant keywords in editable sections such as “About Us,” “Services,” or “Products” can improve Google’s understanding of your website’s relevance to those keywords.
Completing all sections of your profile is crucial as Google analyzes this content to grasp the essence of your business, offering more chances to include key terms related to your industry.
4. Make Your Posts Clickable and Likable with Social Plugins
Incorporate social plugins to facilitate seamless sharing of your content. By integrating these plugins into your content management system, visitors can effortlessly share your valuable content across their social media platforms.
When users click to share, the post is instantly generated, eliminating the need for them to create engaging, clickable, and likable social media posts manually.
5. Acquire a Position on Google Knowledge Panel
Secure ownership of your Knowledge Panel, a prominent SERP feature by Google that compiles essential information about your brand, including social media profiles.
Knowledge Panels typically surface for branded searches or when users look up your business name.
While Google automatically generates these panels, there’s no direct submission process if your brand doesn’t have one yet.
However, if your business already has a Knowledge Panel, ensure to claim it. This enables direct communication with Google, allowing you to manage and update the information displayed.
6. Reshare and Collaborate
Encourage collaboration by sharing content from fellow industry members. Just as you wish to grow your Facebook following and boost Instagram interaction, others in your field are doing the same.
By sharing their valuable content, you not only foster partnerships but also demonstrate your active involvement in the industry community.
Whether it’s retweeting insightful posts or reposting appreciated content on Instagram, such actions can pave the way for increased shares and likes from those same accounts down the line.
7. Avoid Fakeness
Avoid investing in fake followers or artificial engagement. While genuine social media interaction holds value, fake follows and engagements generated by bots or automated software do not contribute positively.
Social media platforms continuously enhance their ability to detect and eliminate bots. Thus, any temporary boost these fake interactions provide is outweighed by the risk and cost involved. Instead, focus on our tips for organically assessing and enhancing social media engagement.
D. Summarizing How Social Signals Can Up Your SEO Game?
Although social signals are not directly a ranking factor for SEO, the potential that they have to change and influence website performance is undeniable.
You will find that traffic boosts, increased visibility, and credibility will be on your way when you tap into the potential of social signals.
Integrate social media in your SEO strategy, and treat engagement as one of the valuable metrics toward online success.
Investing in both avenues is not only strategic but also cost-effective for growth. Ensure that your team members are equipped to handle the daily tasks necessary to boost social signals.
Through dedication and consistency, measurable results are likely to follow over time!
Suggested read: Thought Leadership Content: Building Influence and Trust in the Digital Age
E. Common FAQs on How Social Signals Can Up Your SEO Game?
Is it necessary to have a large following on social media to benefit from social signals?
While having a large following on social media can certainly amplify the impact of your social signals, it’s not the only factor that matters. Quality engagement, such as meaningful interactions, shares, and mentions from a smaller but highly engaged audience, can also contribute majorly to your SEO efforts.
How can I track the impact of social signals on my SEO performance?
Utilize tools like Google Analytics, social media analytics platforms, and SEO monitoring tools to track metrics such as website traffic from all social media platforms, social shares, referral traffic, and keyword rankings. By analyzing these metrics over time, you can assess the impact of social signals on your overall SEO performance and make adjustments to your strategies accordingly.
