There has been a lot of talk – especially as of late – about the importance of integrating Social Media Marketing into your SEO campaign (or vice versa). For some time SEO and Social Media Marketing were recognized as separate strategies when it came to Digital Marketing but over the years, along with search engine algorithm updates, the two have increasingly become linked.
With Google’s development of the Google+ platform, and the Bing/Facebook Partnership – search engines are not ignoring Social Media. If anything, they’re embracing it.
The cold, hard facts:
- Hash Tags are being incorporated in search results
- Social signals continue to correlate very well with better rankings
- A LOT of research is being done on the Correlation Between Google +1s and Higher Search Rankings
Those are the facts standing in place today. As for the future, we anticipate Social Media to continue to play an even larger role in SEO.
The reason for this Conclusion:
Search Engine algorithms have come a long way to help analyze data and provide users with the best, most accurate results. However, in keeping with the goal of providing users the best results, doesn’t it only make sense that a human generated opinion (ie: Likes, Tweets, Shares, Pluses etc.) should count towards search engine result relevancy? We think so.
In the past we’ve discussed the importance of fresh, unique content being an essential piece of SEO, you should start thinking of your Social Media Marketing in the same way.
What you should do:
Throw your arms up in the air and wipe your hands clean of the rat race that is SEO. I’m kidding! What you need to do is embrace social media into your current campaign(s). Part of SEO is having the ability to adapt with what Search Engines (and users) appreciate – this is simply one of those cases. Get started, it’s better late than never! And as always, if you need help – we’re here to assist.
Want to learn about leveraging Social and Search into your marketing strategy? Click here:
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Tim Dugan
Digital Marketing Strategist
[Image credit: Jason A. Howie]
