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Want to improve your search ranking?
Wondering how your social activities can support your SEO?
In this article you'll discover three ways social media can improve your visibility in search results.
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#1: Dominate Your SERP
You probably see SERPs every day without giving them a second thought. Simply put, SERP stands for “search engine results page.” Every time you search for a keyword or phrase, the search engine displays a SERP.
If you claim your business name on the top social media profiles, it's more likely that you'll “own” the first page of results when people search for you. For example, the SERP from a search for the name “KlientBoost” shows the company's website followed immediately by their profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube. KlientBoost owns the search engine results page for their business.
To start owning the SERP for your business or brand name, use a service like KnowEm to check for the availability of your business name across popular social media platforms. This makes it easy to reserve your name on as many platforms as possible in a short amount of time.
As you claim your social media profiles, you'll need to populate those profiles with your business information, branded images, and links back to your blog or website. While it's true that the links in most social media profiles are “no-follow” (meaning they don't actually pass on authority to your website), these links can help you build trust and credibility in your website's backlink profile with search engines, so make sure to include them.
#2: Stand Out Visually With YouTube Video
Because most search results are full of text, results that include a video stand out on the page. This means they're likely to gain more clicks even if they place lower on the page. To take advantage of this, create high-quality YouTube videos that answer questions your customers and prospects are likely to ask.
Lawn care company LawnStarter posts videos on their YouTube channel that answer common questions people have about maintaining their lawns. The videos are entertaining and stand out in the search results like the one below for the search “how to mow wet grass.”
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#3: Reach Influencers to Support Quality Backlinks
When it comes to getting your website or blog to show up in search results for non-branded terms (such as a service you provide), the most influential metric to track is external links to your site. Backlinko analyzed 1 million search results and found that there's a significant correlation between organic search ranking and the number of quality external backlinks.
By leveraging social media, you can extend the reach of your content to a larger audience, which will also likely increase the number of clicks and shares it receives. In basic terms, More Shares = More Backlinks = Higher Search Placement.
Keep these points in mind to get more visibility and shares for your content:
- Long-form content gets more shares than short-form content.
- Having at least one image leads to a dramatic increase in social shares.
- Lists and infographics get more social shares.
To take this one step further, you can pay to promote your content to influencers to generate quality backlinks. Whether you want backlinks from journalists, industry publications, or other influencers, paid campaigns on Twitter will help you get your content in front of them.
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Why Twitter? A lot of journalists and influencers use it to find trending stories to cover. Putting your best content in front of these people increases the likelihood that they'll use your content in a story. Depending on your business, you can also apply this tactic to Facebook and LinkedIn.
Use a tool like BuzzSumo to identify the people who are best positioned to give your content a quality backlink by sharing it or covering it in a story. To get started, log into BuzzSumo and click on Twitter Influencers. In the search box on the Twitter Influencers tab, type in the keyword or phrase you want your business to rank for, and then click the Search button.
After you run the search, you'll see a list of possible influencers for that keyword or phrase. Use the filters on the left to segment the results. Review your list of influencers and categorize each segment into three buckets: low-, medium-, and high-value opportunities. You can base your evaluation on domain authority, follower count, and your own intuition.
Next, create a private Twitter list for each bucket and then create a Twitter ad campaign to promote your content to your customized group of influencers. Use the Tailored Audiences feature to select the Twitter list of people to whom you want to promote your content.
It's a good idea to use a small budget at first for testing. Once you begin seeing some success, you can invest more money into this strategy.
Conclusion
These tips will help you stand out in search results, build links to generate more traffic from social, and improve your organic search performance.
What do you think? Have you tried some of these tactics to boost your rank in search results? What techniques have worked for you? Please share your ideas and experiences in the comments below!
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