We all know that SEO is important it is the only way that users will get to see you online. What many people dont know is the fact that social signals also contribute to ranking. But what are they? They are the Likes, Shares, Pins, Votes, Retweets and so on that you get on social media sites. The more of them you have, the more search engines reward you with better ranking. In other words, if social media is not at the core of your SEO strategy it is high time that you put it there.
Social media is becoming more and more important every day. Facebook alone has more than 1 billion users. Twitter has hundreds of millions and so do sites like LinkedIn and others. Imagine if you can get even a fraction of a fraction of this number to notice you on social media and interact with you. Wouldnt that transform your business completely? If you can get them to Like or Retweet most of the things that you post that adds to your social signals, which in turn adds to ranking. If you are wondering how much your ranking will change, an experiment was done where an account on Facebook was given 70 shares and 50 Likes. Its ranking went up by 7%.
So how can you make social media work for you so that you can get more social signals?
Start by producing content that is interesting and relevant to your users. To do this you have to get to know them and know what they are looking for. This means taking the time to interact with them yourself.
Post your content at the right time. In the past, people would post at all times and hope that it would be effective. Today, there is evidence to show that the day and time that you post matters. If you post during the week and during working hours, for instance, you will get fewer social signals because people are not looking at social media at that time. If you post after working hours you are likely to get a better response.
Try and focus on one or two social media sites instead of all of them. If you can concentrate on building your Facebook and Twitter accounts you will find that you have better results than if you try and do many social media sites at once.
Dont over-post you run the risk of being ignored. When you are posting all the time you will become a nuisance and lose followers. Instead, focus on 2 or 3 posts a week that are engaging.
Using images and videos is a powerful way to bring attention to your social media posts. That said, avoid run of the mill photo stock images. Create images that are original and relevant to your message.
Engage users with questions they are more likely to respond.
Use these tips to get more social signals for your website so it can be better ranked.