Picture this: You’ve had more coffee than you can count trying to think of ways to generate more backlinks. Then suddenly someone suggests Facebook and you start experimenting. Post an article with a little more social media sharing and voila! You see that page moving up through the SERP rankings.
Say oh! I wish the relationship between SEO and social media was so easy to understand.
These two are the most critical elements of any digital marketing strategy, and yet many businesses struggle to understand how they work together.
So are these two in a relationship or what?
In response, consider this. Searchmetrics’ Rebooting Ranking Factors study produced a chart a while ago. This graph shows that a blog post that ranks well in search engine results also gets more shares on Facebook.
Similar studies were then carried out for Twitter and Google+ with the same results.
But according to Searchmetrics, these results were only due to the connecting relationship between social media and SEO.
So yes, there is an important aspect that unites them.
Social networks have the authority to drive traffic to your content. If your content is good, it will attract real links from many other websites and blogs because people love to share useful links within their own networks on social networking sites.
An active social media account = increased brand awareness
The traffic generated from social networks creates excellent indicators of SEO on the site. Again, if your content is great, it will drive high time on site metrics, clicks to other parts of your website, and much more.
And how many times have you seen an ad on a social network and then searched for it on Google? An active social media account is your one-way ticket to increased brand awareness.
2 Next-Level Strategies to Integrate Your SEO and Social Media Marketing Strategy
You can modify your social media promotion tactics to take full advantage of these SEO benefits.
First, of course, you need to create exceptional and useful content. You don’t want your SEO strategies to ride the wave of bad content.
The smart next step would be to make good use of these two master approaches.
1. Aim for maximum social media clicks while creating content
Marketing experts know very well what engages readers the most. Maybe it’s a list (list article) that includes internal links that direct readers to more useful content. Maybe it’s an entertaining call to action that seems irresistible to prospects.
Create content that grabs attention and compels prospects to click. It doesn’t mean you should focus on ‘clickbait’ articles that are misleading and useless. But ask yourself, “what would the reader love to read next?”
Use images, gifs and videos that attract more attention. Make people laugh or cry!
Emotional advertising is still the biggest hit.
2. Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a good bet
Integrating your social media content with your ABM strategy will virtually guarantee success in the effective targeting process.
Maybe your business already depends on ABM or maybe you’re just starting out; it is a sure way to climb high on the target ladder. For example, you will create custom content for your ABM campaign – post it on your website! It doesn’t have to live in the navigation of the site (specifically if it’s highly personalized), but it should still be there.
Then share that content with your target audience through paid ads or your current social media relationships.
This ensures that your highly relevant content garners an audience (even if shared one-on-one!), which almost always leads to significant site engagement.