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11 Social Media SEO Strategies to Implement in 2024


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As a business owner, winning on social media is a big deal. It’s no doubt that you’d love to see the traffic and engagement your social media profile attracts. Similarly, you’d be thrilled to see that your content is topping search engine result pages (SERPs) and more prospects are getting to discover your website. 

What if we told you that you could get the best of both worlds? That’s right – a powerful combination of social media and search engine optimization (SEO) tactics has the potential to catapult your brand’s visibility to new heights. Today, we’ll show you how that’s achievable. 

So, brace yourself as we explore social media SEO and unfold foolproof ways to maximize this strategy for your business. Let’s go!

What is social media SEO?

Social media SEO, also known as social SEO, is a powerful digital marketing strategy that combines the strengths of social media and search engine optimization. 

It involves optimizing your social media profiles, content, and activities to help improve your brand’s visibility on search engine result pages (SERPs). Ultimately, social SEO can help increase organic traffic to your website while enhancing your social media presence.

Why is social SEO important?

Social media is effective for connecting with your potential customers on a personal level. That’s why it can indirectly help your visibility in search engine results pages. If you know how to use social media, you’d be able to stay top of mind with users, who may link to your website content or visit your site. These, in turn, are likely to impact your SEO positively.

Search engine algorithms may also check your optimized social media profiles and decide to show it in SERPs, boosting your brand visibility.

SEO for social media, ultimately, helps ensure the following benefits:

  • Increased visibility

While social media doesn’t directly affect your SEO rankings, it plays a crucial role in increasing your overall online visibility. This is because your social media profiles can also make it to the search result pages. For example, if you search for Zara on Google, you’d find its LinkedIn profile on the first page:

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This visibility is also achievable if you have well-optimized profiles on other social networks like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, especially with branded keyword searches like the example we just saw. But, it also works with other keyword types. See how Pinterest pops up when we use the search phrase “beautiful shoe ideas”

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Optimizing your social profiles can enhance your chances of being discovered by users searching for related topics on search engines like Google. 

  • Improved website traffic

Ideally, your social media marketing efforts should aim to lead customers and prospects to your website– this is where they’ll eventually make a purchase or perform the desired action. 

You can use social media and seo to promote quality content that makes people want to access your website. Platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest allow you to add links in your post captions, making it easier for you to generate brand awareness. Here’s an example of Crocs promoting its product page on Twitter:

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For a social network like Instagram, you can also add a link to your profile bio. See an example from Smeg’s profile:

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As you consistently post content, you can get your audience to visit your website and improve your overall web traffic. It even gets more interesting because having significant website traffic gives search engine algorithms a signal that your users find your content valuable. As a result, you’d be more likely to get better rankings on SERPs.

  • Enhanced user engagement

Social SEO also helps improve the engagement your content gets. Here’s how: when you create quality content on your website and promote it on social media, it is likely to get high-quality Instagram likes, comments, or shares. A drastic increase in user engagement can even lead to the content becoming viral.

When that happens, authoritative websites may take notice and start linking to your original content on your website. Since backlinks are a ranking factor, your site is more likely to rank higher in SERPs when implementing social media SEO strategies.

11 Social Media SEO Strategies 

Now that we’ve seen how an effective social media SEO strategy can help your brand online, let’s explore 11 social SEO strategies you should follow:

1. Incorporate relevant keywords

When setting up your website, it’s ideal to buy relevant domain names and optimize the site with keywords that are specific to the type of business you operate. This helps increase your chances of appearing in SERPs given a specific query. 

As we’ve seen, since search engines may crawl social media accounts, similarly, you should be intentional about using keywords and phrases that are relevant to your industry and target audience on social content. 

Apart from post captions and hashtags, there are other places where you can include these keywords:

  • Instagram: for visual content, in image alt texts, and reel captions or subtitles.
  • Facebook: page title, about section, alt texts, video descriptions.
  • Youtube:  video file name, post title, video descriptions, and video captions.
  • Pinterest: about section, pin descriptions, and board titles.

Just beware of keyword stuffing. Make sure your final copy still reads great. You don’t want to disrupt the reading experience.

2. Use tools or Google for keyword research

Tools like Google keyword planner or Semrush can help you search for these relevant keywords.

But you can also use Google. For example, the related searches section usually features related keywords you can target. 

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There’s also the People Also Ask section. The autocomplete feature in the search bar is useful, too. Start typing your seed keyword and the feature will start to autocomplete the search query. This autocomplete feature shows you some of the most searched queries around your target keyword.

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The best part about this keyword research strategy is that it’s completely free. You can also click on each of the keywords suggested and go down the rabbit hole to uncover even more keywords.

3. Create your own high-quality social media content

Content is the backbone of any successful social media strategy. To optimize your social media SEO efforts, focus on creating content that resonates with your target audience. So, you can come up with informative posts, company behind-the-scenes, or even quizzes and polls.

This way, the audience is encouraged to interact with your posts. 

By consistently delivering high-quality content on social media, you can build a loyal following and increase the chances of people going to your site. This may result in search engines noticing you, and giving you a higher ranking.

4. Repurpose your web content into social media posts

What happens if you suddenly run out of content ideas? You can repurpose your web content and create social media posts from them. 

For instance, you can turn a blog post into engaging carousel posts on Instagram or easy-to-digest Twitter threads. When you do this, you’ll be able to build buzz around the blog post and send interested readers to it— more traffic. 

Here’s an example from Moodle’s Instagram page:

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Also, high-quality website content promoted on social media can attract the attention of authoritative sites or websites that have a Domain Authority of 50 or higher. These sites may then link to your original website content. For Google, authoritative websites that carry your backlink endorse your content as well. The result? Improved SEO rankings for you.

5. Perform competitive analysis 

Let’s assume you run out of your own social media content ideas. Then you can check out what your competitors are posting on their own platforms.

Look out for their types of content the audience responds to the most. Then you can use generative AI tools like Writer to help you create your own excellent posts based on your findings.

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Since your competitor’s content generated a lot of engagement when it was published on their social media platforms, your version of that content is more likely to generate engagement on your own platform, too. Again, this is a great way to get your audience’s attention and prompt them to go to your website. 

You might even get the attention of authority websites, who might also link to your own site content if it’s relevant to them.

6. Use social listening tools

You can also use social listening tools like Hootsuite or Buzzsumo to discover topics that your target audience is interested in.

Just like with the strategy above, with this strategy, you also increase your chances of getting a ton of engagement with your social media content. After all, your post was based on what social media users want in the first place.

These engaging posts can, in turn, again, lead to authority sites linking to your relevant website content. They can increase traffic to your website as well.

7. Like, comment, and share social media posts of industry experts

You can use social media to engage with industry experts who run authoritative websites for possible backlinking opportunities. A simple like or comment on their social media posts can go a long way. Or, if they post valuable content, just share it. 

This is a great strategy to get these industry experts to remember you. So, the next time you post something on your website, they are likely to link to it.

8. Join social media communities

You can also join social media communities—Facebook or LinkedIn groups in your niche, for instance—to gain access to industry experts who may link to your website content.

Participate in fruitful discussions. Post valuable insights. Your goal is to stay top of mind with these authority figures so, the next time around, they’ll link to your valuable content on your site.

9. Perform outreach

Why not be proactive and reach out to industry experts outside social platforms for possible backlinking opportunities? Just use an email finder to search for their contact details.

Remember to be polite in your outreach. If you’re proposing writing a post for their website as part of your backlinking strategy, clearly state the benefit they’ll get if they say yes to the collaboration. You can reassure them you’ll give them quality content their readers will love, for instance. Also, some websites already have a guide on how to reach out for guest posting. Make sure you follow the guidelines when writing your guest post.

10. Optimize social media profiles

We’ve seen how well-optimized social profiles can make it to SERPs. Besides, an optimized social media profile helps build trust. It doesn’t matter if you post quality content on social media. If your profile isn’t optimized, social media users might only think you’re not a legitimate business. So they aren’t likely to go to your website or link to your website content that can help your SEO.

So, optimize your social media profiles. Start by providing the basic information about your business. Ensure that you include your website URL and contact details. 

Another essential aspect of profile optimization is crafting a compelling bio. Your bio serves as a concise introduction to who you are and what you offer. Incorporate relevant keywords into your bio that align with your industry or niche. These keywords help search engines understand the context of your profile and can help improve its visibility in search results. 

11. Use hashtags strategically

Hashtags are powerful tools for expanding your reach and increasing content discoverability on social media platforms. Relevant hashtags will help with targeting your content to a more specific audience. When the right people see your content on social media, they are more likely to go to your site to see more of the same content. Again, this can help improve your SEO.

For instance, if you’re a food and beverage brand, hashtags like #foodlovers will give you a good opportunity to reach your ideal customer:

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Research popular and relevant hashtags in your industry or niche. Tools like Hashtagify can help you here. Additionally, you can monitor trending hashtags with social listening tools and use them in the posts that are relevant.

Start Boosting Your Visibility on Social Media with Social SEO

The combined forces of social media and search engine optimization can enhance your brand’s visibility, drive increased website traffic, and foster higher user engagement. 

Today, we saw some effective social SEO strategies. They include using relevant keywords, publishing high-quality content, engaging with industry experts, optimizing your social media profiles, and using hashtags strategically.

As you put these strategies to use, you’ll be well on your way to unlocking the full benefits of social media SEO. Good luck!

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