SEO and Social Media Team Up
Why you have a website? Why blog? Why put out a press release? The answer is simple: to provide others with information. The Web is a massive place, so regardless of how great your information is, people need to be able to find it. How do people find information on the Web? They use a search engine (SE)to query their interest. This is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes into play. SEO is the art of scripting a website or its relate outlets so it shows up on page 1 of Search Engine Result Page (SERP).
SEO can be achieved with the help of a company such as Advertise STL. They will strategically help your website or blog appear towards the top of the search results instead of page 50. With all of the competition out there these days, SEO is absolutely necessary. SEO strategies are based around how search engines are constructed to rank a web page in its search results. So, needless to say, search engines are in control of the game. Wait though, it’s not quite that simple anymore, there’s a new player in the game: social media.
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. have completely changed the way people are searching and receiving information. Information gathering has become more based around networks these days—it’s just easier. Who wants to search through pages and pages of search results to find a needle in the haystack? Why not just use a social media outlet to find a network that can help you find the information you are seeking? Not only will you find the information you are after, but also, you will Google is the king when it comes to search engines, so it only makes sense to invest in what they are looking for when ranking pages. Since the social media boom, Google has changed what they are looking for when ranking pages, which can be seen in their efforts to abandon traditional SEO factors and become a player in the social media game.
Traditional SEO strategies are not as important as they once were. For instance, Meta keywords and Meta descriptions carry little to no weight at all anymore according to Google. Generic backlinks are no longer regarded as they once were either. It is important to have unique content that is rich in naturally-flowing links and keywords, as opposed to just dropping in links and keywords randomly in hopes of earning a higher page ranking. Not only will the latter fail to earn a high page ranking, but also, it will lower your ranking because that practice is frowned upon by search engines.
Google has tried to break into the social media game with Google Buzz and Google Wave, but with little to no success. However, that doesn’t diminish the fact that Google still highly values social media sites because of their popularity and social networks (groups). Search engines have always valued link groups (anchor text and backlinks), but now the same amount of emphasis is being placed on social networks.
So, with SEO and their group links teaming up with social media and their social networks, search engine optimization has a new focus when it comes to ranking pages: social media optimization (SMO). The evidence of this is clear by the rankings that sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are receiving.
Don’t for one second think that the strategies aren’t going the other way as well. “It’s amazing how much SEO is integrated into social media and vice versa,” said Jared O’Neil, President of Marketing Melting Pot. Social media sites still have to play by the rules that the search engines are setting when it comes to search engine optimization. Content, structure, and links, still play an important role in how a page will rank. Since social media sites are so popular, there is now competition within them as well. For instance, if all of the social media sites pull top search rankings, your page could still end up on page 20 because of the sheer volume of social media pages that pop up as a result of the search.
All of this and more is the reason to contact Marketing Melting Pot to help you write and format content on your social media pages and website to improve page rankings. This will drive more traffic to your page, plus it will make you more valuable in your social network.