• Nov 13, 2013 modified: Dec, 30 2024

Social Media Strategies for SEO

updated Dec 2024

Social media is not my strong point. As an SEO I have only really been interested in how I could leverage it for better SEO.

So this is really a what bare minimum Social Media can I do to get by article.

However - being part of Save Our Spit which won a social media award for the Facebook and YouTube accounts I actually set up makes me an expert - well not actually as I am an expert at helping to find the best person to run it.

I did create a Facebook App that simply streams Facebook posts in a way that benefits your site in Google - thus for me I was really only using social media to do better in Google - but there is far more to it than that...

Facebook API updates and constant social media landscape changes now make stratagies requiring a knowledge of a specifc API difficult - not a good investment in time.

As an SEO there are many ways to drive traffic to your website. A strategy that incorporates social media should be considered as part of a balanced approach.

If your selling machine (website) is doing well a few mentions on social media will help.

If you have a web related skill - coder, designer, video or blogger, being savvy with social media is definitely a benefit.

Setting Up your Social Media Pages

Consistency is king - getting the right names across all networks including your domain name is an art.

Hard Lessons Learned - Listen to your followers

When one of your friends politely informs you he has stopped following you on Twitter - there are two reactions you can have but eventually you need to know why.

The first rule of web design is to target specific users - however the mistake I made on my twitter account was to treat it as a non stop promotion tool for my clients.
Well that makes for incredibly dull reading and actually reading non stop advertising is never going to be interesting.

Hence my focus on using social media for SEO hit a snag - my posts were non stop spruiks and were not going to interest all but the most devoted.

Check what the experts do - Engagement

I started looking around at how pure social media marketing people operated - the idea is to share and engage. Changes to Google Analytics (GA4) now emphasise engagement. That means it is not just arriving at a page but engaging with it that really matters.

One size does not fit all

Next I started looking at companies that incorporated social media into their brands successfully. One company made their website the core of engagement and only supplied social media links at the bottom of the contacts page. If you have something to offer that is unique and engaging - this is a good strategy to follow.

Hedge Your Bets

There is not an SEO on the planet that can guarantee your site stays at the number 1 position and even stays listed.
Negative SEO is an unfortunate reality - where unscrupulous competitors engage people to put your site in bad neighbourhoods and effect your rankings. Fortunately Google realised Negative SEO was being used to the detriment of legitimate sites and adjusted their algorithm.

Hence having a strong social presence can both enhance your SEO but also provide a stream of alternative customers. Changes to Facebook algorithms on what followers see of your posts are always going to be relevant as are changes to Google search algorithms - but popular will always be popular no matter what form of marketing you use.

Social Media Share Buttons for your Blog

• Consider the button design
• Just because you can use them, does not necessarily mean you should
• Placement should not detract from your article
• Don't include share buttons in all pages of your website

Using Twitter to improve SEO of websites is a good oportunity. Using the potential of YouTube is also recommended. Any social media that generates a network effect and adds more value than time spent is beneficial.