Does Social Media Affect SEO?
One of my clients' most common questions is, does my social media presence affect my SEO performance?
As with most SEO-related questions, the answer is complicated.
But long story short, your follower count and engagement metrics do not affect SEO.
That being said, social media does offer some benefits when it comes to getting clients from Google.
Brand mentions
Due to blog posts that I've written, I have come across various marketing opportunities for myself and my clients. For example, my post on therapist directories has led to many partnerships.
But I make connections way more easily on social media.
I've found most of my business besties on Instagram. Although the emotional support of a business bestie from social is amazing, these connections have led to networking, speaking events, and marketing opportunities.
In SEO, this has a benefit. I'll explain.
The more times your brand name is mentioned across the web, the more your brand presence and authority legitimize in Google's eyes.
So although it feels like our presence on social media is restricted to those platforms, indirectly, it's not.
For example, if you...
Write an article on another person's blog
Speak on a podcast
Present at a conference or summit
… these all contribute to your overall brand presence and brand recognition through brand mentions.
The more times your brand name is mentioned on legitimate sources, the more Google trusts you. The more Google trusts you, the better you will rank on Google.
Fun fact: you can set up Google Alerts for your name and your business's name to keep track of these.
Backlinks
Backlinks typically go hand-in-hand with brand mentions.
But the backlinks to your website from other websites are a form of social proof that Google understands. In fact, backlinks are a hugely significant way that Google legitimizes and therefore trusts your brand.
Most of my backlinks have come from networking opportunities.
All of my speaking opportunities have come from my connections on Instagram. And each of those opportunities came with a backlink :)
I won't lie; it can be tough to get backlinks. So if you can get them naturally through networking opportunities on social, do it!
Repurposing content
So although social media metrics have nothing to do with your performance on Google, social media has another indirect benefit for SEO: you can repurpose your social content to improve the content on your website.
One of my goals when I work with my clients is to streamline their work and minimize effort when it comes to marketing and SEO. So if you create graphics for your social media, you can use that content to enrich your existing content on your website.
Here's an example.
Suppose you're writing a blog post on different attachment styles. Although I am partial to written content, I've noticed many amazing graphics on Instagram that help explain these more theoretically complex psychology topics.
By embedding helpful graphics that you've already created for social media in your blog post, you increase the quality of your content in a few ways.
First, anytime you add an image to a blog post, you can rename the file name and alt text to include a keyword. Optimizing images is a HUGE part of ranking on Google.
Second, helpful graphics enrich your content. The more you enrich your content, the more Google will consider your content to be high quality.
Third, by helping readers understand your content better, you increase the engagement metrics of your content. Engagement metrics are things like bounce rate and the length of sessions on your website. TLDR, if people spend more time on your web page, Google will understand that your content satisfies the user's query. This increases rankings.
Sick of social?
Many of my clients come to me because they are burnt out on social media or don't want to be on social media.
I'm always happy to tell them that you do not have to be on social media to succeed on Google. As you now know, there are some indirect benefits from being active on social, but social media is not required for you to get clients from Google.
Are you ready to get clients from Google and not just social media? Get a copy of our Investment Guide to learn more about my services and how you can get started with SEO today!
