Social SEO: What It is and Why You Should Care

You are probably already doing SEO for your web site, but what about social SEO? And for that matter, just what is social SEO? Get the answers to those questions plus some easy to use social SEO tips here.

What does Social SEO mean, and how can it help your business? It sounds complicated, but there are simple ways you can improve your Social SEO and help your business. First, let’s go back to basics to get an understanding. The term SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. You can take certain actions to improve your SEO strategy and improve the visibility of your website in a search engine’s results page (SERP) when someone searches for words or phrases relevant to the content on your website.

Social SEO refers to the idea that social media links and interaction play a considerable part in a website’s search rankings. Basically SEO is all about optimizing content—whether it’s on your website or on a social media platform—in order to appear higher in search rankings.

Here are some uncomplicated Social SEO tips you can easily start implementing today:

Don’t leave info fields blank

The key to an SEO friendly social media profile is to be descriptive as possible.  Always fill out the ‘About’ or ‘Information’ sections of any social media platform. Use words or phrases that describe your business and are also terms individuals would use to search for your business. To optimize your Facebook Page for local searches, it is very important to include your address, city, state, and zip. Always include links from your social channels back to your business’s website (and links from your website to your social channels). The “Category” field is often overlooked on Facebook Pages but is important for Facebook mobile searches. Check to make sure your business is listed as the correct category while editing your basic information.

Create shareable content for link building

A key factor in SEO is link building. Simply put, this means having good website to website relationships through links. When you have more quality sites linking to your website (inbound) and you are linking to other quality websites (outbound) the more authoritative Google determines your website to be. More authority equals a higher SERP rank. Likes, comments, +1s, repins, retweets, etc., all play into the weight given to your links. If you create content people want to share, you can create more inbound links.

Set up a business account on Pinterest

Pinterest is great for link building and improving your keyword strategy. Google indexes pages from websites with heavy traffic faster and higher in a SERP. You can increase your content’s visibility in SERPs by adding keywords within the title of a Pinterest board, the board’s description, and you even have up to 500 characters to describe an individual pin so you’ll want to include keywords there as well.

Additionally, you can customize the pin’s link and point people back to your website or blog—further increasing the opportunity for your content to rank higher in a SERP. From an SEO perspective, Pinterest allows you to do a few things that other networks don’t, so take advantage of it.

Create a Google+ Business Page as well as a Google+ Local Listing

Sign up for a Google+ Business Page and complete as many fields as you can in the “About” section using keywords that describe your business. Google also allows you to add several customized links within your profile, you can use this as an opportunity to link back to your website, blog, and additional social channels. By spending 10-minutes a day sharing your content to your Google+ page, you’ll be more likely to appear within Google’s SERP.

In order to perform well in local search results it’s critical that you optimize your Google+ Local listing (formally known as Google Places). A Local Google+ page is different from a Google+ Business Page because it allows customers to easily connect with that business’s physical location. Update the details about your business—address, phone number, hours, etc.—and you’re good to go!

Remember, improving your SEO takes time and SERP changes don’t happen overnight. Always be as descriptive as you can and keep your info up to date. Ultimately, as a small business owner you shouldn’t obsess over SEO, but instead focus on providing quality content.