Every online marketing department, no matter how large or small, is
now implementing various strategies for SEO and social marketing. The
really smart ones, however, don’t ever forgot how integrated the two
really are. Social marketing campaigns are all about the creative
sharing of content, and great content can mean great SEO. By employing
many of the current SEO trends in every social marketing campaign you
create, you better your chances to make both efforts a smashing success.
So what aspects of SEO should be considered when executing smart and
effective social marketing strategies? There are many savvy tactics, but
at the heart of every one sits a personal strategy to connect with and
truly engage your audience. Below are some invaluable and current
methods to make your brand memorable to both your customers and search
engines.
SEO – The Numbers Don’t Lie
A recent study presented by SearchEngineWatch shows just how critical it is that your business land on the first page of results for your keywords.
The good news: if you’re smart about your tactics, you don’t have to
pay for top placement. 85% of clicks land on organic links, as opposed
to paid features, which means the majority of users gravitate to sites
that used brains, not dollars, to get their attention. The more alarming
news: 53% of those clicks hit the first organic listing. This means if
you’re not on the first page, and darn near the top, you will likely be
overlooked.
Make SEO a Multi-Pronged Approach
Most of us already incorporate SEO best practices into our website
marketing strategies. But by making SEO a top-of-mind consideration in
every marketing effort, you up your chances at a high ranking. Your
business website, local directories, blogs, and social media profiles
should all work hard to carry out your SEO goals. The more consistent
they are in word choice, tone, style and engagement, the better.
Why? For starters, it’s a numbers game. The more quality content you
have on the web that consistently and accurately reflects your brand,
the better. Social media can arguably generate a vast majority of your
content, so be consistent with your keywords in all your Facebook,
Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and LinkedIn shares, and you’re well on your
way.
Social Marketing and SEO – Create a Perfect Marriage
The first step in weaving SEO tactics into you social media is to
ensure all your profiles are complete to the last detail. Create a
vanity URL that best expresses your brand (and remember, with sites like
Facebook, you only have one chance to lock this in – choose wisely.)
Try and make all your URLs as consistent as possible too. Then, make
sure the About sections and related areas have content that is readable,
accurate, and full of your targeted keywords and style. If the social
media partner allows it, don’t forget to backlink to your business’s
site as well.
There is often a tendency for businesses to overlook these details,
placing generic sentences that indicate there’s an assumption no one
will ever read it. Here’s a tip: Even if few users ever will read this
text (which may or may not be the case), search engines will. Make every
opportunity to share information and content about your business
matter.
Likewise, never leave the geographic details on social media sites
blank either, especially if you service a physical area or group of
areas. Customers will likely be searching for you in a given area, and
these stats placed on various social sites make you that much easier to
find.
If It’s Not Engaging, It’s Not Social
You already know you need quality, shareable content on your social
media pages. The difference between something that earns a handful of
Likes, however, and content that actually engages your customers means
everything in online marketing. Your social content should not just aim
to gain a few eyeballs, but to encourage viewers to keep coming back.
Engagement, therefore, is far more valuable than just content that
people read, “Like”, and leave. One-off Likes don’t create enviable
conversion rates – engagement does. Engagement means asking questions
your customers actually want to discuss, offering discounts or deals
that they act on immediately, or supplying viral videos that incite
users to watch and share, among others. Each of these social events also
helps your SEO. The more people engage and share your content, the more
search engines view that content as valuable. Much of great SEO is
about establishing consistent authority, and social media is an obvious
opportunity if you work to authentically engage the masses.
Of course, creating regular engagement with your brand requires you
to regularly engage with your customer. It is absolutely imperative that
you not only post content on a consistent basis, ideally similar times
each day/week, but that you respond to your social fans in as close to
real-time as is conceivable for your business. If someone actually takes
the time to comment or ask something on a social page of yours, a
speedy response is integral to keeping that customer engaged. And again,
if people are reading, sharing and engaging with your content, search
engines are noticing.
Consistency is Key
One core strategy to consider regarding the integration of your SEO
and social campaigns revolves around tone and voice. If possible, it’s a
very good idea to let one person become the voice and face for your
brand, so that users can engage with an actual person, rather than a
generic logo/ideal. People trust people more than they trust companies.
It’s also easier for one person to stay mindful of keywords, content
consistency, and release schedules than it is for a disjointed team.
Look at Google – they have no shortage of employees, but it’s Matt
Cutts that often speaks front and center for the mega-business with
regards to SEO. Although he gets plenty of slack, he does an outstanding
job of maintaining a friendly and approachable image.
If you do have an online ambassador, make sure he or she not only
understands your business inside and out, and can create a friendly and
likeable persona, but that he/she can also handle the onslaught of
negative commentary that is often unavoidable in a public space. As we
all know, the internet can be a very cruel place, so your representative
should stay positive in the face of some friendly (and not so friendly)
feedback.
The Big Picture
Every piece of content and every last reply, tweet and post you
create, should all share a common goal and message from your brand. How
you engage with your audience is and always will be up to you – you know
your customers best. Good marketing strategies consider every nuance of
the customer, and now, those executions must bear in mind successful
SEO strategies as well. The good news is, they are not mutually
exclusive. People love quality, consistency and credibility, and so do
search engines. By carefully monitoring the success of all your social
campaigns in terms of traffic, audience engagement, and SEO rankings,
you can create a multi-pronged strategy that improves each critical
aspect. It’s the true definition of a win-win.
Article from http://www.sitepronews.com
Social Marketing Tactics to Improve SEO