What Role Do Social Media Play in an SEO Strategy
Posted on October 22, 2010 - Filed Under Search Engine Optimization, Social media | Leave a Comment
Social media can be described as the websites that allow internet users to share media and content. They are designed to broadcast in different social sites. This strategy is mainly applied by social networking sites that are visited by many people with the access to create their own content or pages. This form of networking has been made possible by creating programs that allow people to interact using the internet. It has also made it possible for search engines to communicate to many people at the same time using advertisements and posting messages or forums. This strategy can also be used in sites that enable sharing of pictures and videos such as YouTube. Websites that feature news and informative content as well as research websites also feature in the category of social media. All these sites allow users to leave comments or publish their views, thoughts or videos.
Due to the level of search engine marketing techniques that are integrated into social media, it has become very closely linked to SEO. Just like online PR agencies use keywords to optimize their titles and headings before releasing any press releases, a campaign based on social media also requires to make use of keyword tools to ensure that they are getting their message out to the right audience and will therefore achieve their desired results. This should be done when considering features such as headings and titles, discussion topics, forum questions as well as usernames. The correct forum question will lead many users to that site if it is keyword optimized.
Social media has an effect on SEO in more ways than most people realize and can be used to change the shape of digital media. When using social media for e-commerce, techniques in PPC and SEO will ensure that traffic is generated to an account based on how a keyword has been used. This traffic will generate into sales leads, which might generate into a certain number of sales conversions. A correctly done social medium can be used as technique to drive more visits to a site without using any external or internal links in a page. Using social media as SEO strategies has worked not only because users of the social networking site visit pages but also because they refer other internet users and therefore form a broader market base. These referrals generate to more sales leads and conversions as compared to the number of leads generated from search results or an advertisement.
Although other search engines do not agree that social media should be linked to SEO, there is a general consensus that social networking sites increase awareness of products even when they do not translate into sales. Most people log on to their social networking profiles not to look for products but to catch up with their friends. Therefore, the audience provided in such a case is less likely to increase the number of sales that are directed from social media even when they increase the traffic generation.