The question of social media signals impacting SEO has been the cause of a lot of debate over the last decade. Especially since Google’s stance has changed its stance in over time. In 2010, Matt Cutts confirmed Google’s algorithm does consider social signals. Then, in 2014, Cutts backtracked when responding to a question and confirmed that their algorithm does not use social signals to rank search results.
Contents
- What Do We Know About Social Signals & Their Impact On SEO?
- How Can Social Media Impact SEO?
- Conclusion
What Do We Know About Social Signals & Their Impact On SEO?
Google has publicly denied that social signals are a ranking factor since 2014. But we know that there is a correlation between social media likes and shares and the performance of a website in search engine results pages (SERPs). In fact, Hootsuite performed a test and found that pages that were shared, then boosted received a 22% boost in organic search results.
Yet, Google says that social signals are not a ranking factor.
How Can Social Media Impact SEO?
Many things aren’t ranking factors but have an indirect positive impact on your search performance. In this case, social likes and shares have an indirect impact on your SEO.
Brand Awareness
Social pages and posts improve your brand awareness (which we know is a strong ranking signal). They can get your business/website and the pages and articles you publish in front of a lot of people.
Local SEO
A Facebook page for your business itself can also be of benefit. Creating a business page with clear and consistent data to match your website and other local directory listings across the web is likely to improve your SEO.
Backlink Building
TIP: We don’t recommend creating posts purely for SEO as it’s going to have little impact on your website’s search performance.
When you create a post on social media you will also create a backlink to your page or website. Backlinks are really important for SEO. But as your post quickly falls down users’ news feeds and is likely to lack authority, posting on social media is not a sensible use of your SEO time or budget.
User Behaviour
By sharing your content with the right audience, you will find they spend longer on your pages and interact with your site more which can improve your SEO.
Conclusion
Social media and SEO are both great tools for marketing your business and complement each other very nicely.
However, don’t get hung up using Social Media for SEO.
Use Social Media to build your brand awareness and engage with your customer base. Build brand awareness, share interesting content, and you’re likely to get a nice boost to your SEO.
