SEO management is all about assessing website authority, and website authority is all about what others think of your business and its place in the industry you serve. After all, if no one actually relies on your knowledge and experience, how can anyone else validate it. It’s like the old adage: if a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a noise? The fact is, it doesn’t really matter, because no one is there to hear it.
So amplifying that noise so someone is able to hear it and validate your business’ expertise, knowledge and thought leadership is key to modern SEO strategy.
A key component to off-page SEO, social media validation serves as a great way to get the word out about the noise your brand makes and track traffic back to your website in the process. Several years ago, Google, Yahoo and Bing began assessing link sharing via social platforms and what they may mean for website authority. Clearly, when a website’s content is being shared frequently online, there is some level of authority that can be attributed to the domain. Whether it’s a salacious story on a gossip news blog about some celebrity misstep or a helpful how-to from a home builder on DYI renovations, there is something there when the audience you serve independently shares your content.
Rightly so, the search engines began to acknowledge that social sharing should be a part of the process that evaluates authority. But the effect of that sharing has its limits. One reason for this is that social trends are often just that, trends. If, in fact, a website’s content is being shared online because of a brand’s authority in an industry or space, that sharing should likely be consistent. As short spate of sharing reflects more trend than sustained value-add, which is a true measure of authority. So the impact of sharing is limited. A small boost in sharing on one of the popular social media sites will only net a website a small boost in their SEO rankings. When the sharing stops, the boost disappears.
That’s why a consistent content strategy and social sharing routine should be a prime component of any social media campaign. Developing useful and supportive content and promoting it on your own social media channels can get the ball rolling. By way of an effective social media engagement campaign (increasing your following and engaging with your audience), you can achieve the kind of sharing that will come back to benefit your website considerably in the form of SEO authority.
The good will you create by way of the content you produce offers the added benefit of tracking targeted traffic back to your website, a second authority factor search engines have begun to evaluate when related to social media. The more traffic that visits your website via social media links, the better your SEO ranking. But, as with the number of links shared, the boost you receive from social media traffic is limited. It’s got to be consistent over time to provide consistent benefit for your domain.
So develop a plan for consistent content marketing of your business online (whether through page content, post content or other media), post often on all of your social media channels and watch your rankings improve (for at least as long as you consistently engage in this strategy). It represents a well-rounded SEO management strategy and one that will see your business grow if you stick with it long enough.
If you would like to work with Proctor Digital strategists to help develop a powerful SEO strategy to build targeted website traffic for your site and grow your brand, call us at 773.664.5819. We’d love to help!