Understanding the Relationship Between SEO and Social Media Marketing |

If you were to ask a group of digital marketers how social media affects SEO, you are likely to receive a different answer from each person. Many will claim that the more social media interactions your content receives, the higher your page rank will be. They will likely cite SearchMetric’s SEO Ranking Factors report, which tells us that what all highly ranked websites have in common is an abundance of social signals. Others, however, will claim that this kind of data demonstrates correlation and not causation, and that social media has no direct effect on organic rank.

So, does social media impact SEO? The answer is yes, but not in the obvious way we think it does.

If we look at the evidence from SearchMetric’s report, we can see that the study shows a positive correlation between social signals and higher rank.

The keyword here is correlation, not causation. Many things correlate with one another without causing the other. Here’s a great example: the correlation between the cost of bananas and suicides by hanging, strangulation, and suffocation. Are the rising prices of bananas causing Americans to hang themselves? Probably not.

But that doesn’t mean that social media has no relationship with SEO. There are actual connections between social and search, but they indirectly affect each other. In fact, content marketing, social media marketing, and SEO are often grouped together because all three strive to do the same thing: growing your audience. When the three are working in sync, you can increase your website traffic and convert readers into buyers.

Social Sharing Can Lead to Link-Building and Higher Rankings

It’s not impossible, but a lot of things have to go right in order for social sharing to lead to effective link-building. But it comes down to your SEO and content marketing. If your content is fresh, engaging, and relevant to your audience, readers will share your content. This increases your page’s visibility, which means it may get noticed by a content creator who may subsequently link to your website. This can definitely increase your rankings. Remember, it’s not the actual social activity that matters, but what happens as a result. It’s no longer about squeezing out as much SEO juice as possible – it’s about how your content marketing, social media strategy, and SEO can work together to boost your authority.

Google+ Matters More Than You Think

Not much of a shocker that Google will factor your Google+ presence in page rank. But what many people are largely unaware of is that Google+ activity directly affects rankings. If you are signed into your Google+ account and search something that someone in your circle has posted about or “+1’d,” that content will come up first. Google search results are personalized for those logged into Google, directly affecting rankings.

To improve your organic marketing, spend some time everyday updating your Google+ page with engaging content for others in your Google+ communities to share. Create posts with bolded headlines to make it easier for both users and search engines to read.

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Understanding the Relationship Between SEO and Social Media Marketing