Social Media Marketing Changing SEO Strategies – Bad Or Good?

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Social Media Marketing Changing SEO Strategies - Bad Or Good?

Right now you cannot really have a successful SEO campaign without social media. What once have been two quite different things have now come to depend more and more on each other.

So much so that not that long ago Google revealed it takes social cues such as Facebook likes, Twitter shares, and social bookmarking into account when ranking websites. This means that now that Google - and other search engines - draw on social cues, your SEO strategies should include a social component.

Simply put, your business website needs a presence on all the major Social Media Networks. And you also need social media users to share your content and links and to talk about you as much as possible, so that your name becomes an authority in your niche.

What SEO Was Before Social Media Networks

SEO before the rise of social media has been more or less about:
1) Original, high-quality, informative content that appeals to visitors and that encourages them to share it.
2) On Page SEO optimization or making sure that your web pages include primary and secondary keywords in the title and content.
3) Backlining or having as much content all over the web that links back to your web pages. Most of this content has been traditionally represented by guest blog posts, press releases, and articles for article directories.
4) Having good PageRank for your website and backlinks.

All these things still need to be done today, but while a few years back they were enough to secure a good search engine ranking, they are now only part of the the work. This has shocked many SEO companies, since their old SEO techiqnues don't work anymore.

Since the start if Social Media Marketing, you need to do more than just SEO. Only a smart SEO Company will combing SEO with Social Media marketing techniques.

What's The Social Media Marketing Impact on SEO? Bad or Good?

The key term is reputation.

The key term is reputation. Besides all the things listed above, now it has become necessary to have word about your company spread all over the web, and especially on social media websites. Simply put, your company must be spoken of (well) by as many social media users as possible.

What you need is buzz on hugely popular social media like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and StumbleUpon, to name a few. Although some if not all of these social media websites use nofollow links, meaning that you cannot effectively do backlinking through them.

Google now does care how much buzz your company gets on them, and raises or lowers your search engine ranking according to it.

So, now, after you're done with on page SEO Optimization, you need to build a social media presence and to get social media users share your content. The following three social media marketing SEO strategies help you do this.

Does Sharing and Voting on Social Media Sites Affect Your SEO Rankings?

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Strategy #1: Establish and Dominate a Social Media Presence

Don't Let Your Competitors Steal Your Social Media Profiles

Before you can generate buzz with Social Media Marketing you need to create a company profile for each website you want to appear on. You can start with Facebook, then Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Myspace, and even Flickr.

The social media websites you choose to establish yourself on ultimately depend on your goals. Each offers something unique. You have to understand how they work and then to choose the ones which will benefit you the most.

Twitter, for example, is ideal for sending updates to your followers (i.e. customers), while Facebook lets you share photos and videos, or start discussions.

Three tips:

By creating social media company profiles you get in touch with current and prospective buyers. If you provide these buyers with useful content they will share it with others, creating buzz about your company. Google will take note of that buzz and boost your Search Engine Ranking.
  • 1It's important to create a company profile, not a user profile. The former has a number of advantages, including more features for managing your account. Most social media make a distinction between a user profile and a company profile.
  • 2Use the same company name across all social networks.
  • 3Managing social media company profiles is harder than it seems, so it may be unwise to try to cover all social media from the start. Focus on Twitter and Facebook and YouTube, and maybe LinkedIn, and make sure you provide frequent updates to your followers and fans. Expand your social media presence gradually.

Strategy #2: Encourage Visitors to Share Your Content

Social Media Marketing Is All About Sharing and Caring

SEO Submission

Adding the now-famous Twitter Tweet and Facebook Like buttons on your website enables visitors to quickly and easily share your content, creating more buzz for you in social circles. There is a plethora of such buttons available, and they are easy to implement.

Social icons will help your website tremendously from the SEO point of view, provided that users actually like and tweet and share your content with their friends. As long as your content is informative sharing will go smoothly.

Tip: Social media icons need to be clearly visible and to blend well with the theme of your website. Because of this, minor website changes may be needed.

Social media icons help you create buzz about your company. And Google will convert this buzz into a better search engine position.

Strategy #3: Share Links Often

How Social Media Marketing Changed Link Building Rules

SEO Submission

Twitter as a link-sharing tool can be one of the most effective Social Media Marketing strategies. You may have already noticed that sometimes Google displays in the results page tweets which are usually sent by frequent Tweeters. What this means is that Twitter is being indexed. So you have an opportunity.

Use Twitter often and visitors who check your Twitter page are bound to end up on your company website. Twitter can be used for updates and news, but also for discussions. Ideally, you should have your employees use Twitter actively in the name of your company.

How Do You Know Social Media Marketing Is Working?

Track Your Marketing Efforts and Focus

To check whether your social media marketing and SEO strategies are fruitful, you need data that you can interpret and analyze. Use Web Analytics to track where your visitors are coming from. You can create a free Google Analytics account.

To get this data set up advanced segments in Google Analytics to track your social media efforts. You will want to create an advanced segment that helps you get data about the traffic you receive from social media sites.

To do this, click on All Visits and then on Advanced Segments while in Analytics. Create a new segment by adding to the Source dimension a value such as 'twitter|facebook|linkedin'. Include all the social media websites where you've established a presence. Name the segment and press create.

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  • mennella Dec 28, 2011 @ 6:24 am | delete
    good job! in "panda time" we have to rewrite our seo rules
  • JRLSolutions Dec 25, 2011 @ 9:06 pm | delete
    Great lens thanks for the information!
  • baby-strollers Dec 22, 2011 @ 8:52 am | delete
    Quite interesting thoughts over the topic like you lens . The new google algorithm panda will also rely on google plus it will be interesting to see how this will work out.!
  • seomarketing30days Dec 12, 2011 @ 1:44 pm | delete
    interesting topic. Yes, social media will affect the SEO ranking, but how much? Google algorithm is a puzzle

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Hello everybody! This is Meredith Warner. Welcome to my lenses.

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