How Social Media can Boost your SEO

SEO 101: How Google Ranks Pages

Let’s take a step back and talk about how search engines work and how they rank different websites.

Imagine you’re searching in Google for ‘best New York City dentists.’ Essentially, Google goes out and finds all the relevant pages for the phrase ‘best New York City dentists’ and then Google has to rank all of those pages for you.

How does Google decide which page is listed at the top of the search results? One of the biggest factors is the website’s authority – or, more accurately, the web page’s authority. A page that has a higher authority will be ranked higher than just some random page that has no authority.

How is authority measured? One of the biggest factors is links to your website. Generally, the more links (and better links) that you have, the higher your website’s authority is going to be. A link is a vote in your favour.

And that brings me to the first benefit that social media can have on your SEO:

1. 1. Distribution Network to Help You Get More Links
      Social media will generally create a lot more buzz for your website. It provides you with a distribution channel to promote your content and get more links.If you’re creating lots of content on social media and you have a nice following, then that kind of buzz will lead to more people knowing about your website and linking to your website.

      And as I just mentioned, the more links you get, you’ll boost your website’s authority, and that will boost you higher in the search engine rankings.

   2. Higher Content Standards, Which Helps Your SEO
      If you’re active on social media, you’re creating content. At a minimum, you’re publishing content on social media profiles. But most likely, you’re also publishing content on your website – probably on a blog. And publishing high-quality content impacts your SEO results in a very positive way.Here’s the important point: Being active in social media forces you to raise your content standards.

      If you create boring or spammy content on social media, no one’s going to Like it on Facebook, it’s not going to get tweeted, no one will +1 it, so it’s not going to spread, and you’re not going to build a following.

      The only way that you’re going to build a following on social media is with really useful or engaging content. And essentially that’s what Google and all of the search engines want to rank high in the search results: excellent content.

      So, essentially, a byproduct of social media is the fact that you’re forced to create really good content. And if you’re creating that content on your blog, that can help you generate more free traffic from Google.

   3. “Piggyback” on Top Social Media Sites to Get SEO Traffic Faster
      If you’re just starting out and your website basically has zero authority, it can be hard for you to rank high in the search results right away. But fortunately there’s a shortcut and we call it ‘Piggyback SEO.’

Basically, you create a page on a high-authority website. And because Google already trusts this website, your page can get ranked in Google much faster and easier than a page on your own website. And if you include a link back to your website with that content, you can drive free traffic to your website.

Many of the major social media sites have really strong authority, so you can “piggyback” on them to get free traffic from Google.

If you’re interested in Piggyback SEO, read the published article about it here.