What is SEO? 11) Social Media Marketing

Similar to the way they treat links, search engines also look at social media likes and shares as “votes” for a web page. Therefore, social media marketing is also a part of search engine marketing.

In this post we continue our What is SEO? blog series in which we’re explaining all the aspects of SEO, so that when you’re comparing SEO services (or doing your own SEO) you can make an informed decision about what you want your SEO service to include.

Like we said above, search engines social media see social likes and shares as votes for the pages liked and shared, but there are several other ways social media improves search engines…

5 Ways Social Media Improves Search Engine Rankings

1. Every like, share, tweet, etc a page on your website gets counts as a vote for that page, so sharing and liking pages on your website will improve their search rankings. (Yes, I’ve said it 3 times now. 🙂
2. When you share a link to a page on social media, other people see that and can also like and share the page, which provides more “votes” for those pages.
3. When other people share links to your web pages, it brings their friends and followers to your Facebook page, Twitter profile, etc. There they can like/follow you, receive future posts, and like and share them as well.
4. Google search results are personalized for each user. When people who are connected with you on Google Plus search Google, your web pages ranking higher for them because of that connection.
5. The bigger and more engaged your social media connections are, the more potential there is for people to add links on their website to your site, write news articles, or blog about your organization, which results in more links to your website and higher rankings.

How to Integrate Social and SEO

Because social media can have a big impact on search rankings, its important that your social media and SEO work together. That means your social and SEO strategies should be integrated. It also means that the person or people doing social media and SEO should coordinate their efforts.

This usually doesn’t happen because most SEO services (or people if done in house) don’t do social, and most social media services (or people if done in house) don’t do SEO. It takes intentionality to bring both people/groups together, integrate their strategies, and coordinate their efforts.

A couple of quick tips…

First, if you’re doing little to no social media now, at the very least create social media profiles for your organization on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus and share the content you’re already creating on those profiles (newsletters, announcements, sermons, etc). Even if it doesn’t get a lot of likes, shares and comments, it helps. Every little bit helps search rankings.

Second, in our last post in this series, we talked about content marketing as a part of an SEO strategy. One of the best ways to improve search rankings is using content marketing combined with a social media strategy designed to engage people who will spread that content. This is what our Progressive SEO Management services do.

Discuss

• Do you consider your social media a part of your search engine marketing strategy? Why or why not?
• What if anything are you doing to coordinate your social media with your SEO and content marketing?

10) Content Marketing <– What is SEO? –> 12) Monitoring Website Changes

Paul Steinbrueck

Co-founder & CEO, OurChurch.Com

Paul has been the CEO of OurChurch.Com since its founding in 1996, combining his passion for faith and technology to lead the organization.

An accomplished writer, Paul has authored over 2,000 articles on faith and technology, featured on platforms like ChurchLeaders.com, The JoyFM, and his personal blog, LiveIntentionally.org.

Beyond his professional achievements, Paul serves as an elder at Journey Community Church and is deeply engaged in his community through his involvement with the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranch and the Safety Harbor Chamber of Commerce. He is a contributing author of the book Outspoken! Conversations on Church Communication.