One of the greatest debates in the Internet marketing industry is exactly how social media affects search engine optimization and website rankings.
Industry leader Search Engine Journal reports that there are many ways social media can boost your traffic – both directly and indirectly.
Let’s start digging into some data proof from Google executives and my personal experience
Let’s start at the most important point for all Internet traffic that is the Google algorithm. In the past, it was thought that social media shares had no direct effect on the ranking calculations. However, it has now been confirmed by the head of Google’s team Matt Cutts that links from important social media such as Facebook and Twitter have been used as ranking signals. This is great news because now you have another avenue to build your SEO.
But it is confirmed that it is not a direct ranking factor but it does have an impact on your rankings. The correlation between social sharing and positions of rank is very high. Specifically, the number of social signals per page is compared to other ranking sites and being allotted top search engine pages positions by Google for the one with the greater quantity. So the point is that it has a correlation but not causation.
In 2019 Google has said the quality is more important than quantity SEO factors. So be sure to have a professionally designed logo and website.
Social media shares and engagements act as a quality indicator and thus will have a greater impact on your site traffic going forward.
The top four ways social media helps your Site Rankings
Link building
The more social media shares you have the more people will see your content and naturally link to it. Since links are the number one ranking factor in Google this is a major benefit and strong reason to build your social media channels.
Increased web presence
As you develop your social media presence and enlarge your scope, your brand awareness will skyrocket. As a direct result of these positive impressions, consumers will be more likely to click on your listings when they find them in the search results. The percentage of click-through rate has been a confirmed ranking factor.
Content promotion
Indirectly social media can help your search engine rankings by promoting your content to prospective customers. If your site has low traffic volume your content is not being seen by your target customers. By sharing your content across social media channels you are reaching your target customers and will be able to engage with them directly on their favorite social media site.
Google and Twitter partnership
Google and Twitter have a strong partnership in which Google displays relevant tweets directly in the search result for branded searches. As such you can take advantage of this partnership by remembering to tweet and to tweet often to capture this traffic generating perk. Then as your traffic volume increases Google will take and reward you with higher search engine rankings.