Why Social Media is Key to SEO Success

August 12, 2014: SEO has two main elements: on-page factors, which include site content, usability, and accessibility to search engines; and off-page factors, including the inbound links that influence the degree to which search engines think a site is important.

There is no evidence that social media has any direct impact on one’s search authority. Any links from LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter do not convey any Page Rank or other authority ranking factor in and of themselves. But social media has a large and important indirect role to play in the link-acquisition process.

Link-Building: The Old Way

Acquiring legitimate inbound links has always been the hardest, most labor-intensive task in off-page SEO. Because Google and the other engines prohibit publishers from soliciting links in exchange for monetary or other consideration, the only way a publisher could get the word out about a given link-worthy article or content item was to contact webmasters individually, usually using e-mail. While it was possible to get legitimate links this way, the process was inefficient.

Link-Building: The New Way

Social media changes the process for the better. While individual webmasters from which links are sought can still be contacted when new articles are published, the chance of acquiring links is vastly expanded. Publishers can now identify specific social media influencers and topic-based groups relevant to the article subject, and notify them that a new page or article exists. While some targets of the notification may simply retweet, like, or favorite the notification (none of which convey any SEO value in themselves), some percentage of this audience may take the final, desired step of including a hard link to the publisher’s article in their blog or site.

Social Link-Building Tips

1. Identify appropriate online groups in your industry

The people most likely to respond — and link to an item you publish — are those in your own industry. You can find industry groups on the Web or on social networks such as LinkedIn. Take some time to find such groups, join them, monitor the discussion, and post a link to your article when it fits the context of the discussion. Resist the temptation to spam irrelevant articles into the conversational stream: any notifications you make must be relevant to the discussion at hand.

2. Identify Social Influencers with blogs

Because your ultimate goal is a hard link that conveys SEO value, don’t chase after social influencers on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn who don’t actively maintain blogs (not all of them do). Limit your selection criteria to influencers who maintain an active, balanced social media portfolio.

3. Go where the reporters go

Reporters love Twitter because its real-time nature lets them jump on news events, develop sources quickly, and use content found there to populate their own stories. If you’re doing something interesting (for example, releasing a new data-driven report), make sure you notify the groups where reporters are most likely to be lurking.

4. Share the spotlight

Consider profiling people and firms active in your industry via Q&A-style articles that highlight their achievements, unusual/provocative views, and insights. Share this content with your interview target before and after it’s published. Do a great job, broadcast the link to your social networks, and the chance of being an awarded an editorial link will be increased.

5. Think beyond articles

Articles you post on your blog may work as good link bait, but consider adding additional forms of content that provide more value, for example, e-books and slideshare presentations. Although you’ll have to put more labor into these high-value content types, you’ll be creating content that’s more link-worthy.

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