So you’re ready to start marketing your brand? You’re likely stuck in a dilemma of which digital marketing strategy to focus on — SEO or social media?
But you should consider the symbiotic relationship between SEO and social media.
When used together, SEO and social media advertising are the best options for digital marketing. They complement each other to increase your brand presence on the web.
But how do you make SEO and social media work together?
Here’s what you need to know:
Why SEO and Social Media Matter
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a set of practices that help rank your website highly among search engine results pages.
As popular as social media is, a search engine remains the primary method for finding new websites.
SEO best practices include the following:
- Keyword research implements high-ranking keywords into your website’s written content
- Web design refers to creating a simple website that maintains a high standard of aesthetics
- Speed refers to improving the website’s loading speed
Social media platforms are another great way to promote your website, services, or products.
Here’s what you should aim for when marketing through social media:
- Create content to display your products and services
- Interact with your customers and potential customers
- Share links to your website, online store, other links, etc.
Now let’s look at how you can make SEO and social media work together.
Using Keywords
The first step is to make sure you use the right keywords in your written content.
For your website, these keywords should be in your copy and blog posts. Aim to have at least 3-5 keywords in each blog post. You should have at least 1 high-ranking keyword within each section of the copy.
Keywords should also get implemented in your social media copy and captions. In fact, this is often something that many digital marketers overlook.
But in your Facebook copy, LinkedIn articles, and Instagram captions you can include SEO-friendly keywords.
Backlinks
Both SEO and social media offer opportunities to gain backlinks. Backlinks are when other websites and social media profiles link back to your content.
Many digital marketers make the mistake of flooding their websites and social media profiles with their own links.
The better route is to promote other content. By doing this, you can increase your chances of gaining links to your own original content.
For example, let’s say that you run a website that promotes digital video content.
For your website, you can write blog posts that share links to your favorite YouTube videos. You can also share links to the YouTuber’s website and social media profiles.
The same rules apply to your social media profiles. Instead of ‘liking’ an Instagram post, why not repost it? Or you can also share it on your Instagram story.
Repeat this step with all your social media profiles. Your focus has to be on promoting others rather than promoting yourself.
When you show support for other creators, they’ll end up supporting you as well. Your focus on building a brand needs to start with building backlinks.
Creating a Brand Presence Through SEO
The next step is to use SEO and social media to create a digital presence for your brand.
Your first step should be to use local SEO. This refers to promoting your brand to a local market.
For example, let’s say you run an ice cream parlor in Miami. Chances are, your ice cream parlor isn’t the only one in town! So how do you make sure that local residents come to your ice cream parlor and not the others?
Through local SEO, you use a service such as Google My Business to enter your business details. These will include your website, social media profiles, and contact information.
So now when someone searches ‘Best Ice Cream Parlor in Miami,’ your parlor will show up in search results. They’ll see your ice cream parlor’s address and contact information.
They can visit your social media profiles to learn more about the ice cream parlor. Make sure you have a decent following before engaging with local SEO.
If the ice cream parlor is registered on review sites, these reviews will show up on search engine results pages.
Creating a Brand Presence Through Social Media
Your brand presence will continue to grow through social media as well as through SEO.
Make sure you first focus on building a large following on each of your social media profiles. Then you want to have a goal with each of your social media profiles.
For example, on LinkedIn, you can write content that targets your trade or industry. As the owner of an ice cream parlor, you can write articles on how to run the parlor.
On Facebook, you can interact with your customers. You can also offer discounts or deals through Facebook.
With Instagram, you can share images and videos of the different ice creams that your parlor offers.
Remember to follow the SEO best practices for your social media content. You want to make sure that your website is also SEO-friendly before your social media blows up.
You want to give your audience a great first impression. It’s imperative that both your search engine and social media presence is strong at all times.
Cross-Sharing Content
Finally, you want to make sure that you cross-share your content on your website and social media profiles.
For example, you can have a slideshow of Instagram posts on your website. You can also share excerpts of your blog posts on your social media. You can share these blog posts in their entirety on LinkedIn.
With each social media post, you want to encourage your audience to visit your website. On your website, you should have links to your social media profiles.
To grow your brand as fast as possible, you want to focus on both SEO and social media. If one grows without the other, you won’t see the ROI you’re aiming for.
Build Your Brand
Now that you know the importance of both SEO and social media, you can use this guide to build your brand.
Make sure to focus on ranking highly in search engines and building a large following on social media. Then, you want to make sure you create a brand presence on search engines and social media.
Focus on cross-sharing content so that your audience follows your brand on many platforms. With these steps, you’ll have no problem building your brand.
We’ve got more great digital marketing tips that you can read on our website!
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