Google, Bing, Facebook and Twitter are going head-to-head in today’s market and driving significant changes to the search and social media space. Although search engine optimization (SEO) providers have become increasingly skilled at identifying and optimizing for factors that are most relevant to search engines, social media’s explosive entrance has turned search upside down.?
In the last year, marketers have watched and speculated as Google and Bing ramped up their social offerings and delivered dozens of new features. Google made major upgrades to its Realtime Search and Bing introduced Facebook “like” results. Both search giants have confirmed they’re now looking at social signals as relevancy indicators. Google and Bing also now annotate results directly on the search engine results page (SERP) for URLs shared by friends across a variety of social networks. ?
Here are three tips on how you can leverage social media to help boost page rankings.?
n Align SEO strategy with your brand’s social strategy. Treat social media optimization the same as your keyword strategy. Make sure messaging across Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn isn’t misaligned with content to which you’re linking. Search engines, and customers, are on the lookout for relevant, quality content — make sure social media messaging aligns with on-page SEO.?
n Leverage social networks for content syndication. After publishing a piece of content on your website, increase its impact and reach by syndicating it on the brand’s social networks. Post content such as a blog post or white paper on your Facebook page and tweet about it to your Twitter followers to encourage sharing by your followers to their own social networks. ?
Having multiple sources “like” and share your content is becoming a strong indication to search engines of relevancy and value. Make sure your content is visible, engaging and getting these approvals, “yes votes” and recommendations.?
n Pay close attention to multiple social networks. Google and Bing are examining a variety of social networks for social ranking signals, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Quora, Flickr and YouTube. With search engines placing an increasing amount of significance on social networks, businesses should make sure they’re not solely focused on Twitter or Facebook. Instead, make sure your company has a solid voice and presence on numerous social sites that the search engines are pointing to as significant.?
Erez Barak is cofounder and VP of products at Optify. Reach him at [email protected].
