To Get to the Top You’ve Got to be Social

If you’re a sociable person then the likelihood is you’re going to have a lot of friends and know a lot of people, well it’s the same online, the more you use social media the more you’re going to benefit your business and generate more sales and that’s why social media and SEO go hand in hand with one another.

Of course social media isn’t the only resource you need to get your website ranking at the top end of Google but it is one of the best tools which you can use and the best part is it’s completely free!

There are plenty of organic social media practices that you can put into place in order to achieve online success through the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+.

Whatever type of company you are social media can and will work for you, we know every trick in the book when it comes to SEO for small businesses; we’re up for the challenge are you?

The Steps to Success with Social Media and SEO

When you are using the likes of Facebook and Twitter are you writing a post or tweet just for the sake of doing so or are you actually giving it some meaning?

What I mean when I say giving it some meaning is are you optimising your posts for searches? Are you using terms and phrases that people are looking for? What about the power of the #!?

This is a post that has previously been posted on our Facebook page and as you can see the keyword from the post has been used in the caption when sharing, this is one way of effectively optimising the post on Facebook not to mention the fact it links back to our website too!

Social media is something that millions of people are using world wide, could you find a better place to increase your brand awareness?

I understand that this may not seem much of an SEO benefit yet more of a branding benefit but trust me the SEO advantages from this are crucial.

By building a better reputation on social media through the likes of high quality content, interaction and engagement this is going to build up an overall greater brand appearance online, this will lead to an increased number of branded searches online which will generate more traffic to your website however the converting is down to you!

It’s all about your likes and followers!

How many followers does your Twitter account have? How many likes does your Facebook page have?

Is it enough to make a strong impression online or is it something you want to avoid talking about?

These numbers have a significant effect on you ranking and have a major influence in whether or not Google will reward or punish you with your organic ranking position in the search engine.

A Twitter account that has 100 followers isn’t really going to get recognised never mind rewarded by Google especially when there are accounts out there which have thousands, even millions of followers – these are the accounts which Google wants to see and love!

However, don’t try and be clever and buy followers to reach a certain number to get noticed.

Yes, you will get noticed but get ready to be punished. Google is clever enough to see what type of followers you have, after all quality beats quantity in most cases!

Growing your number of followers to ensure they are real and relevant followers can take time so it’s something you’ve got to be patient with.

It’s all about connecting with people, start conversations, like or retweet their posts and make sure you are posting on a daily basis; keep these posts relevant, informative and useful.

One area I strongly advise you to push is external inbound links. Social media is powerful as it can encourage other sites to link to your content and your ranking will benefit from this.

By having a variety of diverse external links you are going to gain a higher authority through the eyes of Google which is going to boost your organic ranking, however don’t think it’s so straightforward, in order to get this attention you’ve got to earn it through authoritative, high quality content.

That means some work has to be done initially, it means creating content which is relevant and worthwhile linking to and from, without this quality content where is the attraction going to come from for the link?

Another one of the great organic social media practices on my list is to influence social sharing.

Social sharing can and will work wonders for you and your online presence. A small number of people sharing your posts is good but if a large number of people are sharing them then this is great, in this case the more the better!

See, this is the type of excellence social media and SEO have together! The more people who are sharing your posts/links will give you more authority online and we all know by now Google isn’t going to blink and miss this, it’s going to welcome you on to the first page of searches!

No matter what social platform it is, likes, favourites, retweets, comments, replies and shares all goes toward an increase in authority.

If you’ve read this far then great, you’ve made it to the last step to success for social media and SEO and don’t worry it’s an easy one and super beneficial one when it comes to SEO for small businesses.

All eyes are on locally optimising your posts. You’re a small business so a national or international SEO campaign might not be something that will be of use to you so that’s why optimising your posts on a more local basis is a great advantage for SEO for small businesses.

This is one of the easiest organic social media practices there is, all you’ve got to do is interact and engage more on a local basis, let people know when you’ve been involved in a local event and connect and communicate with other local companies.

Follow these steps to success with social media and SEO and you’ll soon be climbing up Google’s ranking ladder!

The Biggest G Around… Google!  

The one and only you’ve got to impress is Google, so whether you like it or not you’ve got to abide to their rules in order to be rewarded and get your website ranking.

Like a mother loves it’s child, Google loves Google+, I mean who is Google going to trust more than Google+?

A lot of people think Google+ is well and truly dead but sorry for social media and SEO it is one of the most powerful social platforms around.

Of course Google is going to be looking at your Google+ account and identifying your presence so if you don’t have one it’s about time you get posting.

You don’t need to spend hours on end using it, just spend a couple of minutes each day sharing useful, relevant information about your business or industry but one tip I will give you is post the information you want to be found for on Google.

If you have a certain product or service you want to push then get on G+ and post, post, post!

Google and Twitter Are Closer Than You Think

Do you know exactly how much Google relies on Twitter for ranking websites?

This is why social media and SEO really do go hand in hand because Google uses Twitter in a number of ways to influence organic ranking such as the following:

• Google looks at what content has generated a lot of attention on Twitter
• Google looks at who’s retweeting certain tweets
• Google looks at the time frame from people sharing on Twitter

These 3 factors are taken into consideration before and during your content being indexed so remember to keep it social, especially on Twitter!

Georgia’s Final Thought

That’s it, we’ve made it to the end so I’ll keep it short and sweet for you.

By following the simple organic social media practices I have shared with you you’ll be nailing social media and SEO right on the head and become a great success online!

SEO for small businesses doesn’t have to be difficult, in fact it can be made even easier when you get in touch with our SEO gurus; give us a call today on 0151 329 2988.