Does Social Media impact SEO? It may not be the rasion d’etre of SEO, but there is little doubt that social media impacts A LOT on search engine optimisation.

Firstly, let’s state facts – Google does not allow signals from social media sites to directly affect a ranking, BUT social media does gives marketing professionals a variety of ways in which to publicise their business – and position it high up on those ever-desirable search engine results pages.

So, if you’re still undecided about whether you need to invest in your social media strategy, or simply just start using a few platforms, take a look at these six ways in which social media really does impact your brands SEO.

1. Share and share alike

Not always a good thing, depending on what your preferences are for sharing, but in terms of most things digital, sharing is the holy grail.

Sharing of social posts helps drive traffic to your website. So, by including links to useful content via your socials you can increase shares, likes, comments – and ultimately, visibility of your business. Being cosistent with your posting on social platforms also makes you look professional, trustworthy and like you really do give a proverbial about engaging with your customers.

By engaging with prospective clients via social media, you are not only keeping your company at the forefront of their minds, but you are also driving social traffic back to your website – thus increasing your organic search engine ranking (see what I did there). Growing website traffic organically lends greater authenticity and authority to your website in the all-seeing eye of the search engine over-lords, proving to be a cost-effective way of boosting your SEO rankings.

2. Profiles get ranked

It’s not quite the swipe-right phenomenon of fast-date food chain, but social media profiles do get rank ed in search engine listings. This means that when someone types the name of your business into Google (*other search engines are available) any affiliated social media accounts will likely pop up alongside the official website too.

Therefore, if you’re feeling particularly savvy then not only are you able to rank your website, but also your social media profiles as well, this can help to beat out potential competitors in terms of visibility on the SEO top-spots and give you uncrushable power in the SEO stakes mwhahahaha (I jest, the interest is far too volatile for anything to be uncrushable, unfortunately).

Top tip: This will ONLY be effective if you are active and consistent across your social media platforms – make sure that you are using the right platforms to engage with your target audience, and work hard to keep them engaged. If you get all of this right, you should be sitting pretty, SEO wise, in no time.

3. The link collector

It is a truth universally acknowledged that external links are the key booster in determining the authority, and therefore ensuring the higher rankings, of your website in the eyes of Google.

Well, then isn’t it pretty darn cool that you can use your social media platforms to share valuable links like blogs and case studies in posts? This then increases the probability of other websites seeing and recognising you as someone who knows what you’re talking about, and thus uses your link as a reference.

Top tip: Make sure the quality of the content is high. People will only share things that they want to read themselves – so please don’t share drivel, the market is far too saturated.

4. Social Media is a stage…

…and you’re a STAR baby. Social media boosts your brand awareness. Facebook alone has over 1.71 billion monthly active users and Twitter has over 400 million monthly active users.* These figures demonstrate exactly how big a platform social media has become in providing a space for generating brand visibility.

Top tip: Social media management takes time and dedication, you need to be consistently engaging with your audiences on each platform by asking questions, joining in discussions and commenting on the latest trends and news – it also helps if you’re kinda funny (sorry).

5. Location, location, location…

Recent reports from Google indicate that 80% of smartphone users perform mobile searches to locate businesses that are close to them. This means that if Google has noticed this trend, then search engines are definitely paying attention to how users are searching for their content.

Most social media platforms make it easy for brands to leverage locality, allowing businesses to show geographic placement alongside a space for customers to discuss and review a business. The more people who ‘check-in’ or review your business online, the more likely it is that search engines will take note and bump you up the rankings.

Top tip: You must must must make sure that all address and contact information is consistent across all of your social media platforms and website (or else you just look a mess, quite frankly).

6. Favouritism is a thing…

Much like every parent would never dream of saying they have a favourite child – despite all evidence to the contrary – different search engines are unofficially partial to specific social media activity.

No one is trying to get sued here, but if you want to know who favours whom, you can, ironically, just Google it. However, it is important to remember that a certain search engine that starts with G and rhymes with boogle is not the only piggy who went to the market. So, take into account other search engines such as Bing and Yahoo who also take up large portion of the search engine share – and then plan your activity around it.

Top tip: Be sure to account for other search engines besides Google when creating SEO strategies, cast the net as wide as possible to make sure you’re covering all bases.

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While social media may not be the direct route to SEO heaven, there certainly is a strong correlation between the two, and social media activity definitely influences online marketing success. Not only this, but as the number of social media users continues to rise, it’s likely that this correlation will only  get stronger, making your socials more powerful in terms of SEO rankings.

So remember, always produce content worth sharing and take advantage of the platforms available to you and your business, you might be amazed at the results it can bring. And if you need some help? We’re always here to chat to you about developing your brand online, don’t be shy…

*figures supplied by Statista