Have you ever wondered if social media has any influence on your search engine optimization (SEO) or how traffic, likes and shares affect your ranking? SEO experts like www.smartstreetmedia.com/las-vegas-seo have found that search engines do pay attention to social media activity, but that it doesn’t exactly have the greatest effect on your ranking. That’s about to change as SEO predictions for 2020 include a connection between social media platforms and search engine ranking factors.
Social Media Activity
Social Media ActivityGoogle is all about their users’ experiences, so they look for the content that is popular online, whether it is on a webpage or a social media platform. It doesn’t mean that social media is causing the content’s popularity. It means that a high number of followers are commenting and sharing it online. Its accessibility is causing your content to be noticed by the search engines.
Factors That Influence Social Media Ranking
- Your content is shared across a broad medium of online channels
- Your content is being linked to, which is creating credibility
- The backlinks created your ranking
- A higher ranking is creating a buzz about your content
Social Media and SEO Strategy
What is interesting about Google is that it is always changing. In 2010, Google used social media metrics to boost rankings. In 2014, Matt Cutts posted a video on behalf of Google verifying that social media metrics, in fact, did not affect search engine ranking. Here’s how it does affect your social media SEO strategy and changes you need to make to your channels.
Link Building
Many leading social media sites rank on Google’s first page because online marketers use the material as an authoritative voice in an industry. Matt Cutts also verified in the video link above that Google does, in fact, crawl social media platforms in the same fashion as websites. It validates that link building adds credibility to social media sites.
SEO Helps Rank Social Media Profiles
Social media profiles are currently ranking, so shift your focus from metrics to search engine positioning as it will help validate your content and boost your branding initiative. Look for short and long-tail keywords that fit your brand, niche and marketing industry.
Social Media Platforms Are Valuable Assets
Some SEO experts disagree and have continuously urged digital marketers to pay close attention to social media management. They have also cautioned marketers not to disregard it in an SEO strategy. These experts are proving to be right as Google will be ranking social media sites with factors like high traffic, likes, shares and comments.
There Are Other Search Engines to Consider
Keep in mind that Google is not the only search engine. Bing and Yahoo currently use social media metrics to rank digital content, so you will still appeal to the marketplace.
2020 Is Going to Change Everything
Now in 2019, digital marketers believe Google is getting ready to change their search engine algorithm again by including the popularity of social media sites as a ranking factor. It’s a reminder to focus on search engine optimization and algorithm updates.
Do you think Google is gearing up to include social media in their algorithm? Is your business revamping its social media management and SEO strategies to get ready for potential changes?
