Why Today’s SEO Strategy Must Include Social Media

The old days of finding keywords and then performing organic SEO techniques on your website’s pages and finding links are gone. It’s just not enough anymore to try to carry out a successful SEO strategy without social media included in the mix.

What do I mean when I say Social Media?

When most people think of “social media” they think of Facebook and Twitter. True, these are social media outlets and chances are, depending on the nature of your business and your target prospects, these social media outlets should be included in your SEO strategy.

But many people overlook the fact that blogs are also considered part of social media, and they can play a big role in the success of your SEO campaign, especially if they are integrated with other social media outlets, including Facebook, Twitter and for many – especially B2B businesses – LinkedIn.

Regularly posting blog content generates leads. Plain and simple. Proven. A recent Hubspot study confirms it. See Bigger Business Blogs Generate More Leads.

Why Blogs work for SEO

Regular blog posts, especially, but not limited to, those posts that are targeting your ideal keywords, also attract the attention of search engines. And, because blogging platforms like WordPress generate a separate page for each blog post, you pick up that many more entry points for people to find your site in search. Plus, blog posts, because they are not generally selling anything (a good word here and there doesn’t hurt with a link to a product or service page), are more likely to attract incoming links.

Additionally, you can cross-link to other pages in your site you want to rank for using the target keywords for the destination page in the anchor text. Doing so also helps the page in which those links are placed. All good things for SEO.

Now reconsider your SEO strategy with no blog, or a blog with no recent posts. Doesn’t make much sense for most businesses, does it?

Integrating your Blog Posts with Other Forms of Social Media

Once you get on a regular schedule providing read- and link-worthy posts on your blog, you’ll want to get those posts found. That’s where other social media outlets come into the picture.

Twitter

Tweeting about your new blog post works, especially if you have a strong Twitter following. But you don’t want to Tweet only your blog posts and nothing else. You need to participate – to be social by posting thoughts and re-Tweeting the thoughts and interesting posts from others.

Facebook

You can also promote your new blog posts on your Facebook fan page. Your Facebook fans (and your Twitter followers, for that matter) may not have subscribed to your blog and they may not otherwise know about your new post and the insight it provides.

Again, your Facebook fan page updates cannot only be about promoting your blog posts. You’ll need to sprinkle in other updates and insights or people will think you’re merely blowing your own horn. They’ll learn to ignore you.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn now allows you to post your Tweets on your LinkedIn profile. If you use a tool like TweetDeck, you can automatically update your LinkedIn (and Facebook) status with your Tweets. However, keep in mind that those updates will go to your personal profile page and not your company page. At least in the case of Facebook, you’ll want to provide information about your new posts manually – right on your fan page. The purpose wasn’t to promote your blog post to your family and friends, was it? It only takes a minute.

Just the Tip of the Social Media Iceberg

I’ve given you some basic ideas on how to integrate social media with your SEO strategy. Today, that’s essential as search engines look for “real time” results – what’s hot right now. Your Tweet may end up at the top of the search results page, whereas your website may not. Plus, you are adding links to your blog post. Always a good thing.

SEO can no longer be performed effectively in a vacuum. You need to take the blinders off and look at the bigger picture. And while it may take some time to see results, (doesn’t everything worthwhile seem to take time?) be patient. You’ll improve your rankings and build your traffic.

Wasn’t that the goal of your SEO strategy in the first place?

How have you integrated social media marketing with your SEO efforts, and what results have you seen? Leave a comment: I’d love to hear from you.

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