Every day another company is talking about their brand and the SEO marketing strategy they are using to boost it. They are constantly asking to be followed on Twitter and liked on Facebook. However, no one ever talks about why that is so important to their brand recognition. Sure, it keeps them interactive with their customers and active online, but what is the real relationship that is occurring between the social media craze, SEO push, and the brand?
Social Media
The truth is that social media has become as much a part of the online process as having a website itself. The links alone to an active social media account boost a business’ visibility tremendously. However, there are more issues at hand than a simple boost of visibility. Because social media is such a viable part of customer interaction and daily life, it has taken on a persona of its own. Google has designed its web crawlers to now recognize business social media as their own entities, and active accounts tell Google that the business is real and should not be skipped over or taken lightly. This is not to mention the additional purpose of social media, which is to be its own search engine. Today’s people, especially the younger generation, are turning to the likes of Yelp, Facebook and Twitter to decide where to go, what to buy, and how to live. Users can now search the content of the pages and not just the people utilizing the platform. Hashtags are taking over how everything is marketed to the technological generation.
SEO
For those not in the know, SEO stands for search engine optimization. This is the phrase used to discuss how your brand gets noticed by search engines organically. This is not a pay per click service or sponsored links. This is search engine spiders picking up your brand and broadcasting it to the world when the proper keywords are entered or your business name is entered. This brings us to the answer to our question. Search engines have realized the impact social media has on our daily lives. Some have even formed partnerships with social media outlets to allow the social media listing to come before the website listing when a search is conducted. For instance, when searching in Yahoo, if a Yelp listing exists for a business, it will appear front and center. Google now shows live feeds from Twitter with the click of a mouse.
The relationship between social media and SEO is crucial. Search engines are looking for the social media links to prove a business is active and real, under the basic assumption that every real business has at least a Facebook page and LinkedIn profile. Without the activity on social media, other efforts in SEO may not be fully realized. However, with the right activity on social media, your SEO can increase and your business will be on its way to being found, closer to the first pages in major search engines.
To learn more about how social media and SEO work together, contact the experts at Skol Marketing for a free consultation or to see them in action at a free workshop – 612.787.7565 or info@SkolMarketing.com.
