Now, more than ever, entrepreneurs understand that an online presence for their company is crucial. Therefore, they use social media and Google in order to gain awareness, to generate leads or to drive sales. However, social media and Google rankings overlap, and there are several ways in which social can affect your search engine rankings.
- Social media content generates linking potential
Social media are all about sharing valuable real-time content to your community of fans or followers. It is an extremely useful instrument for brands to achieve awareness and to lead people to the company website. When you write a blog post on your business blog and share it on social platforms, chances are that some of your followers will share it also; this will link the shared post to your website. The more links, the more Google will rank you up in search queries.
- Google+ activity leads to personalized searches
Social media is not only about being on Facebook or Twitter, Google+ activity is also an important factor which influences your company’s rankings. Google measures Google+ reviews and posts to personalize searches. The more people mention your company on Google+, the more you will appear higher in Google searches.
- Social media make you popular and rank you higher on Google
Your social media presence helps you become visible to a wider and more specifically targeted audience. The more fans and followers you obtain in social media, the more your overall awareness of your brand increases. Therefore, social media can lead more people to search for your company on search engines. A brand constantly searched, is seen by Google as being popular, and therefore it ranks it higher.
- Brand signals affect your place in search queries
Being mentioned in a blog post or website without a hyperlink is called a brand signal. Several marketing theories imply that brand signals are also an important factor which affects Google rankings. Brand signals are generated as a result of the social media activity. Social media engage people in talking about a brand or a certain topic, and increases the chances of that brand to become popular “in the eyes” of Google.
- Google measures how people engage with your website
The amount of traffic on your site is another important factor which influences the search engine rankings. Social media may lead people to your website, but it is also important to have valuable content to make them stick around for a while. Search engines measure the time people spend on your site, what and how many pages they see, and what is their overall engagement with your website. All these have a significant impact on search rankings.
