How to Make Social Media Work for SEO

Written by Nick Stamoulis

When someone tells you that social media doesn’t impact SEO, they’re only half right. It’s true that there aren’t any direct ties to your follower count, number of likes and shares, and links that you share in the search engine algorithms. Yet, that doesn’t mean that social media doesn’t have any impact on SEO at all. It most certainly does, in an indirect way. That’s because one of the most important ranking signals is inbound links pointing to a website. And how do you think websites generate these inbound links? Well, from having a strong brand. And how do you think a company builds up its brand? Well…from social media (in part, of course)!

If you want to generate brand awareness and make social media work for your SEO campaign, simply setting up social profiles and checking in on them infrequently isn’t going to cut it. Social media will only help to impact an SEO campaign if you’re doing the following:

Creating a strategy

Since most of us use social media nearly every day in our personal lives and it’s so familiar, it doesn’t seem to get the planning time it deserves for business purposes. Social media reps think that they can just “wing it” since they already know so much. The thing is, social media for personal use and business use are two very different things. Just like you wouldn’t just throw together some advertisements or press releases, the same should go for business social media posts.

Using the right channels

Maybe your favorite social channel for personal use is Instagram. But if you run a lead based B2B company, Instagram probably isn’t a priority. The key is to dedicate your time where your target audience is actually doing their research.

Keeping branding consistent

For the social channels you are using, make sure to keep the look and feel consistent in order to avoid brand confusion.

Sharing great content

We know how important great content is for SEO purposes. Social media is a great place to get eyes on this content.

Promoting content


Unfortunately, the organic reach of your social posts isn’t very high. It’s common on Facebook, for example, for only a handful of your thousands of followers to see a post. This is where it makes sense to “pay to play,” to ensure that more followers see your content and therefore are more likely to share and link to it.

Being responsive

Social media isn’t a billboard for your advertisements. It’s a place to actually engage with others. Connecting with potential customers and others in the industry will help you earn attention and natural links over time.

Monitoring success

Since social media requires an investment, you want to be making the most of it. Determine which channels and what types of posts are driving the most traffic and engagement and modify the social strategy accordingly.

When it comes to social media and SEO, you get out of it what you put into it. Very basic social sharing without promotion won’t have a huge impact, while a more thorough campaign will yield tangible results over time.

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