Do social media influence a website's ranking? Let's find out together!
Albeit indirectly, it is undeniable that social media have a certain influence on a website's ranking. Let's look at the social factors that help a website climb the SERP:
- Social media drive traffic
Traffic to a website is one of the major ranking factors on search engines, and social media influence it through users' sharing. When many people share content on their profiles, they are doing nothing other than increasing traffic to a given website and, as a result, improving its ranking.
- Social profiles rank very well on search engines
Social profiles are not locked inside their respective platforms; they too are ranked on search engines and are therefore visible in searches, often on the first page for the search term. This means that companies can increase traffic to their website (and consequently improve their ranking) by optimising their social profiles as well as possible, using the rules of SEO (the ones that also apply to websites).
- Social media increase the reach of shared content
Social media are an excellent channel for making sure content reaches as many people as possible. On search engines people only discover content they are deliberately looking for, whereas on social media content will also be visible to everyone who doesn't yet know it could be of help to them (so-called latent demand).
This effect is amplified when you work with influencers, who by definition influence the behaviour of their followers.
- Social media are, to all intents and purposes, search engines
People don't limit themselves to searching on Google and the best-known search engines. Thanks to their built-in search features, social media work as genuine search engines. Think of all the times you look for a profile, a page or a particular piece of content.
- Local SEO
If you keep your contact details (company name, address and phone number) consistent across all communication channels, Google considers a company/brand more credible, consequently improving its ranking for local searches.
In addition, some social media allow you to geo-tag posts and stories, so as to gain even more visibility and the chance to reach the ideal audience. On Instagram, for example, users can search for content by geolocation (e.g. photos taken in a particular place).
No less important are reviews on social pages, which are able like few other things to attract new customers.
- YouTube SEO
It is nothing new that YouTube videos rank well on search engines. Not by chance, the most popular and relevant videos even take the first position for some searches.
By optimising video descriptions and titles on YouTube with the right keywords, you can gain more visibility not only within the platform, but also on the search results page.
As you can easily guess, social media play a fundamental role in SEO strategy, even though they do not directly influence the factors that make it up. It all comes down to the visibility of the brand and its content, translating into more traffic to the website.
Optimising and coordinating social profiles and your website takes a well-planned strategy: get in touch with our communication agency to find out together how to do it!
