Four Reasons Search Needs Social

As search engine optimization (SEO) becomes increasingly sophisticated, focusing on standard SEO tactics, such as keyword usage and links, is not enough to remain competitive. The majority of search marketers have recognized the importance of social media to their search engine optimization efforts, according to a recent study from search marketing software provider SEOmoz. The study showed that nearly 71 percent of respondents said they use social media as part of their SEO strategy.

While search dominates social media among consumers making buying decisions — nearly 60 percent of cases that end in a purchase begin with search – social media play an increasingly important role during consideration and especially after a purchase is made (comScore). A recent report found that 40 percent of consumers who use search in their path to purchase are motivated to use social media to further their decision making process.

"Engaging in an active social media campaign directly increases the probability of people linking back to your site because your brand advocates feel rewarded due to the compelling content or interaction provided for them," said LSF Interactive SEO Director Stephen Peron.

Not only can social media influence search campaign results, it is also widely used to enhance search engine optimization efforts. Social media has been adopted by those in the SEO industry because of the impact that social media has on search engine listings. Here are four reasons why implementing social and SEO together is important.

1) Generate high quality, relevant inbound links.

As always, Google was very busy this year, launching a number of new products and a significant algorithm update designed to lower the rankings of low-quality sites and return higher-quality sites near the top of the search results. [For more highlights, check out SEO Director Stephen Peron’s Year of Search 2011.] Throughout these changes, the number, type and quality of inbound links to your site remains a significant factor in search engine rankings. A successful social media marketing campaign can result in significant increases in new inbound links to your site. Creating and sharing compelling and interesting content, along with voting, commenting and linking gives popular social content exposure, traffic and can ultimately boost relevant inbound links. The best thing about this is that the majority (if not all) of the links that come from a social media marketing campaign are natural links; they’re not reciprocated, bought, or solicited.

"Link bait promotion through social media can help you to maximize the effectiveness of your link bait and help generate exposure to as many social users as possible. This helps to increase back link opportunities, which is what you are ultimately looking for. The ultimate goal is engaging social users to the point of naturally sharing content with their networks,” said LSF Interactive Social Media Director Fumi Matsubara.

2) Manage online reputation.

The goals of online reputation management are to fortify and preserve a company’s reputation in the search results and to repair any damage that may have been caused by negative results. Social media sites, especially the more popular ones, rank very well with search engines. Leveraging these sites can help you control the first page of results, even for competitive keywords, and can help you manage your company’s reputation online. Get people talking about your company or site positively on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube, and these listings may show up on the first page of search engine results for your brand along with your own site. Optimizing blog posts, tweets, Facebook pages, Linkedin profiles, etc. can help your brand dominate the critical top 10-20 search results.

3. Boost recency and relevance.

Last April Google released its latest algorithmic change, called Panda, specifically designed to weed out low quality sites and give priority to better ones on the search engine results page. Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines rank websites based partly on the currency of the information and the relevance of that information to what the searcher is looking for. Adding a blog, ratings and reviews, or even a social network to your site increases its currency and is a great way to generate original, relevant content that search engines look for. Not to mention that fresh, interactive, and easily shareable content helps improve online word-of-mouth, stimulate conversations with prospective customers, and expand your market reach.

4. Inform keyphrase strategy

Listening to customer conversations on social networks, blogs, and forums provides insight into how your customers actually talk about topics that are relevant to your company and can offer terms that your customers actually use when searching for your brand, company or products. Tracking your audience via social media monitoring software like Radian6 that identifies keywords, conversations and influencers will provide crucial insight into your target market.

While the barriers to entry are low, launching a successful social media campaign requires strategy, contacts, tools and experience, not to mention integration with other elements of marketing. Let an experienced agency help you navigate and leverage these opportunities. Questions? Contact LSF Interactive today for a free SEO analysis.