The Relationship Between Search Engine Optimization and Social Media
Search engine optimization (SEO) is and will continue to be a permanent fixture in the digital marketing landscape. At the same time, it’s undeniable that social media marketing will also play a dominant role in all of our online marketing. While they’re both valuable and necessary in your marketing toolbox, how do you measure the impact of social media on your SEO efforts?
There is no easy answer to this question. The relationship between social media and SEO is not direct. Although the number of potential customers spending time on social media has increased rapidly, search is still what drives most traffic to websites.
This means that search engines like Google still take into account the number of searches for a specific term when determining the rankings of websites. Social media plays its part in the wider ecosystem of online marketing; but keep in mind that search engines do not directly factor your performance on social media platforms.
How do search engines rank websites?
The main criteria used by search engines for ranking websites is how well they match user queries. Among the various signals used by search engines, the two most important are page content and backlinks. If the content on your website answers search queries better than any other website, your website is likely to rank high. Because of this high ranking, your website will usually receive the most traffic for those search queries.
Backlinks are another ranking factor for your website. Backlinks are the number of other reputable websites that refer to your site.
These are just a few factors that go into the search engine ranking algorithms. These algorithms are very complex due to the artificial intelligence baked into them..
Do search engines use social media signals?
Even if you have hundreds of thousands of followers on social media platforms, these signals are not used by search engines to rank your website.
Does this mean that you should ignore social media in your online marketing? The answer is an emphatic “no.” You cannot afford to ignore the popularity of social media platforms. If you use them judiciously, you can easily promote your business among your potential customers.
Though search engines do not take into account your social media interactions when determining your ranking, you should use those platforms to promote your business as if they do. At the same time, you should continue to employ an SEO strategy in order to maintain a positive ranking in search engines. In short, focus on both for their own merits.
To learn more about search engine optimization and social media marketing, get in touch with the experts from iAM Marketing today.