Harp Interactive

Optimize Your Social Media and Make Your SEO More Social

Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Optimization work best when synergized. Businesses that employ an integrated search  and social media strategy achieve greater web-success at lower cost because they amplify  their message manifold simply by combining the power of organic search and viral media. When you search-optimize and add  relevant social media platforms  like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and  LinkedIn (etc)  to your media mix the result is far greater than if you had used  them as  un-optimized channels, independently at different times!   Similarly using SEO without social media  substantially  limits the potential of organic search.   Synergy is the essential ingredient in  achieving high ROI  and maximizing the impact of your online media plan. Here are some tips on optimizing one with the other.

SEO for Social Media

  1. URL:  Include keywords in the URL you pick for your social media page.  If you have an established brand then  the brand name  should  be in the URL  . When creating a URL based on a brand, use the brand name  as one word without dashes and periods if available
  2. Profile: Make sure you have identified effective keywords (3 word phrases) and use them in your profile and information page. Also include website address/URL where allowed. Make sure your profile is public and available to search engines
  3. Description: Pay special attention to sites like Facebook that allow you to include a URL in  this section
  4. Localize: Include location for improved local visibility
  5. Anchor Text: Some social media networks like LinkedIn provide a specific section for adding related websites. Make sure that you use keywords for anchor text (the text that is hyper-liked) instead of “My website”,   “My Twitter”   or   “My Company” etc
  6. Updates:   Continually monitor  trending topics in your industry and include the hot keywords in related status updates and posts
  7. Tags and Custom Meta: When publishing blog posts you must include keywords within the post and ideally in the title. Before publishing add custom meta tags that include title and keywords. Optimize your post for sharing on social networks by including a meta description
  8. Links: Include relevant links from your website for status updates and also within posts.

Social Media for SEO:

We all know that backlinks are the backbone of your webpage. Google and other search engines consider your page authoritative if other websites cite your website and point to it with a link. The link is even more valuable if the anchor text is a relevant keyword! A great way to create backlinks is by creating social media accounts for your business.

  1. Create social media accounts on popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, FourSquare etc, grow your accounts with engaging content. These profiles are all great for SEO  by providing  backlinks and for visibility in organic search
  2. Each time you add content on your website you should submit the link to Twitter; this is almost like submitting your URL to search engines for indexing. Google crawls and indexes Twitter ferociously and will discover your new content quickly
  3. Facebook “Likes”, Twitter RTs and YouTube “shares” are all votes of confidence as far as search engines are concerned. Not only will these bring more traffic but will also add authority to your website
  4. The keywords and anchor texts  in your social media profiles  will increase your visibility in organic search and improve your authority (page rank)
  5. Bookmarking sites are another great tool for adding backlinks and building theme-based digital footprints. Submit your link to Delicoius, Stumble, Digg and Reddit etc
  6. Create content spin-offs on tertiary social media networks like SlideShare and Yelp to add to the valuable in- coming links
  7. Crowd-source content and create an ongoing source of providing valuable, fresh content for your website which is a key factor by which search engines rate website authority

Social Media  Marketing and Search Engine Optimization are a  power-house  for website promotion when used in conjunction. They   provide  such   great value and return on your investment  that it is often said that  social media and SEO together can level the playing field for businesses of   all sizes!