Google levels the playing field and it is in favor of the smaller but smarter players. You can rank as high as how Amazon ranks if you know how to leverage and maximize the influence of social media into your search engine ranking.
Curious and excited to know how you can beat the big guys? Here’s how.
Google+ is your new best friend
Curious and excited to know how you can beat the big guys? Here’s how.
Google+ is your new best friend
Add a Google+ button in every single page of your site. Don’t have a Google+ account yet? Create one!
Google’s very own social media allows you to recommend links and content to your peers, and it shows up in their Google results when they are logged into their Gmail accounts. Even if you believe Facebook has the higher traction, it does not hurt to start sharing articles into your Google+ circles today.
Increase your index time
Boost the visibility of your content when you share them through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even Pinterest. It is easier to find content via these sites (and domains) as compared to ordinary blog posts. What this means for you is that Google finds you faster and therefore, ranks you faster, compared to doing things on your own.
How can you help yourself through social media?
• Post a link of your latest update through Facebook and Twitter
• Include a Facebook recommend or Twitter tweet button at the end of every page to encourage sharing
• Create witty hashtags associated to your brand and use them with every photo and link you post
• Ride on trending hashtags like #ootd and #tbt
• Share other site’s contents on your own social media feeds, give them credit and then link it back to your own products
SEO via social media presence gives your brand more personality and brings you closer to your audience. It also strengthens (and creates) emotional connection to your products easily.
More shares = improved ranking
Resist the temptation to run promos that require people to share or re-post images from your site. This is viewed as a cheap way to get traffic. You can encourage sharing without being in your face by banking on UGC or User Generated Content.
How can you do this?
You can try running a promo where people can submit their own photos using a hashtag for your product. This will generate enough buzz for your product without being too much of a hard sell.
Shared contents within your pages rank higher in the eyes of Google. You will notice that in your typical Google search today, at least one item in the first page of hits has a social media link to it. SEO is really influenced by social media, especially when it comes to determining the relevance and credibility of a site.
Social bookmarks means more foot traffic
Liked pages of Facebook and followed Twitter feeds are disguised bookmarks to your pages. The more interesting your posts are, the more intrigued your readers will be and therefore, the more they will view their post.
Avoid being marked as spam by your audience by only posting about what is relevant and by not posting more than 4 updates within a day. Normally, just 2 per day is fine. Don’t force an update if you don’t have one.
You can still generate social media traffic by answering questions on posts, commenting on other people’s post and sharing links from other nice and yet related sites to your own.
Personalized search results
Probably one of the biggest reasons why Google thinks social media content is relevant in SEO today is that it provides a personalized search results list. Google prioritizes what your friends have recommended, what is trending in your current location and the like.
Photo By: Ted Nguyen USA
