Social Media SEO: More Than Friends, Likes, Links?

June 25, 2012

Now Facebook has 901 million active users and Twitter has 140 million users as of the end of March 2012, more and more businesses are using social media to brand themselves and to gain new customers. Although social media are all the rage at the moment, certain stereotypes are still very much alive today.

Internet marketing expert Dennis Miedema explains: “Most business owners and marketing departments still assume that the SEO (search engine optimization) side of social media is all about friends, likes, and links...Meanwhile a lot of money is left on the table without them actually knowing about it.”

He elaborates: “There are multiple ways for any company to get much more out of social media SEO and rank much higher in the Google search results than it’s currently doing. Let’s look at each of these ways individually for a second.”

Dennis then looks at the first way of getting more out of social SEO: “One of the first things anyone who starts doing search engine optimization learns is the concept of link value. Here’s a quick example: if page A on a website links to page B which is on another website, then page A gives some of its value to page B. This same rule applies to a social media profile: when a company links from it to its site, then the profile gives some of its value to the company site.”

He pauses for a couple of seconds and then continues: “That’s where things get interesting with social SEO, because what happens if a social media profile becomes more valuable? Then of course it has more value to give away to the pages or sites it links to! That’s why business owners and marketing companies should make a conscious effort to make their social media profile(s) more valuable by linking to it from a press release, for example. There are tons of ways to do it, though.”

He continues: “Another way to make a social media profile more valuable in terms of social media SEO is by using the opportunities that can be found on a social network itself.”

Dennis then shares examples to clarify his statement: “For example, what tells a search engine like Google or Bing a lot about how valuable a company is in terms of SEO? How many other people in the same market are referencing that company. So, if a company is in the automotive industry, for example, then of course any like, share or comment from someone in the automotive industry on Facebook is much more valuable than one from someone who isn’t. Google can easily see what kind of market a person is associated with by looking at things like the work history section of a profile, the pages or sites a social media profile is linking to, etc.”

Finally, Dennis Miedema reveals a third way to get more out of social media SEO: “Although people tend to share videos and images a lot more via their social media profile, business owners and marketing departments must not forget that most search engines still have major difficulties with understanding what videos and images are about. In other words, it’s much easier for search engines to analyze and understand text, so companies must spend more time on stimulating people to comment on their social shares if they want to get more out of Google.”

He clarifies: “When it comes to social SEO, comments (when replying to a social share or when sharing it) are the on-page optimization of a social media profile and thus very, very important.”

He concludes: “Business owners and marketing departments can rank much higher in the Google search results by looking at ways to improve the SEO value and on-page optimization of their social media profile and the relevancy of the people liking, sharing, and commenting on their social shares.