A recent survey showed that 25% of small businesses used social media for marketing. This was done in 2022, showing a decrease from 2021, which was 73% of businesses.
SEO and social media are incredibly important for businesses. These are marketing tools that should not be ignored if you want to see real growth.
You may be using SEO already on your online business pages. But that isn’t enough, you also need to start utilizing social media platforms.
Keep reading to find out how to use SEO and social media combined.
What is SEO?
Are you wondering how SEO works? SEO stands for search engine optimization where a website is optimized to display higher in search engine results.
This is a complicated way of saying that your website is easier to find. The better your SEO, the more people will see and click on the pages of your website.
This will help you to appear relevant and popular within search queries. As this continues to happen, your website will rank better in search engines.
This is vital if you want to start marketing businesses online. There are so many websites online that without a solid SEO strategy, you’re unlikely to capture any attention.
Why Does Your Business Need Social Media?
Before we get into the details of SEO and keywords, why do you need social media? Social media platforms or something that many businesses fail to get.
You may not think that this is important for your marketing strategy or that it will bring in results. The reality is that social media is a great tool for businesses.
One of the best aspects is that social media is completely free. To create an account and use the platform, all you have to do is dedicate a little bit of your time.
This gives you access to thousands upon thousands of potential customers that you wouldn’t otherwise find.
Local Customers
If you have a physical and online business, social media can be very helpful. You can use social media to directly target local customers.
You can use things like local keywords and local hashtags. You can also adjust your settings to better reach out to those in your area.
This helps to bring awareness to your business and gives you better visibility. You will be able to reach customers that would otherwise never find your business.
This is a much cheaper and more effective option than trying to advertise in other ways.
Broader Reach
Not only can you access local customers, you can access customers all over the world. If you have an online business, this is invaluable in growing your presence.
People from all areas over the world use social media platforms. Your social media posts could reach someone 1000 miles away or in a completely different country.
This kind of outreach is something that is very difficult to get in other ways. It is especially hard to find without having to pay any money.
This opens the doors to so many possibilities when it comes to potential customers.
Personal Touch
Having a social media account for your business adds a personal touch. More and more shoppers are now found online browsing through their options.
With so many options available for the same items, people have become picky here. They aren’t going to trust the first company that they find.
You want to create a personalized experience where your brand reflects you. Customers are more likely to trust a brand if they see more personal aspects of it.
You can create personalized content that focuses on who you are and why you started your business. People love these kinds of aspects and it makes them trust a company more.
This also creates better customer loyalty that will result in repeated sales. If people like you and what you stand for, they won’t be looking for other options.
Updates and Deals
Social media is also a great place to share things about your business. You may have a deal coming up or some updates regarding the items that you sell.
These are updates that can be difficult to communicate with people. If you don’t have an email list or regular customers, you won’t be able to share this information.
Social media provides a free and easy way of letting people know what’s going on. You can update them about when new products are available and if they can get a special deal.
Combining SEO and Social Media
Now that you know a bit about SEO and social media, let’s talk about combining them. For the best result, you want to combine these two marketing tools.
In reality, businesses should be applying SEO in every area of their business. This even includes product names, descriptions, and other website pages.
Use Hashtags
Many social media platforms still rely heavily on hashtags. These are similar to keywords since they are words and phrases that people are actively searching for.
These are words and phrases located within the continent or at the bottom of it. This helps your social media posts to show up when somebody looks for that word or phrase.
If you sell baby clothes, this may look something like the phrase, “#babyclothesforgirls”. You will want to do hashtag research to find the most relevant options.
Apply the Same Keywords
You also need to be utilizing the same keywords that you use on your website. This will give you our SEO better strength and help you to rank more and more.
You can do this by adding those same keywords to your account description. Or you can add these keywords throughout your social media posts and updates.
This is important because social media posts are also able to rank on Google. If someone looks up a specific keyword, your social media post may show up before your website does.
This gives you a much better chance at ranking and showing up before more people. It is much better to spread out your keywords like this so that you aren’t relying completely on one source.
You also create a better reputation with Google by ranking more for keywords. It will see these results and will continue to put you further in front of people when they search queries.
Create Quality
You don’t want to just create social media posts to put yourself out there. You need to make sure you are focusing on quality, not just quantity.
This will vary depending on the social media platform you are using. Options like Instagram and Facebook allow you to create longer social media posts.
These can include several paragraphs about your business or your products. Try to make sure you are delivering something useful to the reader that will help them.
For options like Twitter or TikTok, your options are a bit more limited. You may want to create a video about your products or a short tweet about a product update.
No matter what you are creating, make sure it is adding value to the reader, not just taking up their time
Post Often
As much as you want to focus on quality, you also need to have quantity. Social media is a booming market, and millions of people are posting every single day.
Because of this, it is very easy for your posts to become varied. A post could become buried within a few minutes or a few hours, making it hard to see results.
That is why businesses should focus on posting at least once or multiple times a day. This will depend on the platform since certain platforms are busier than others.
For instance, Twitter is very overcrowded, and posts are buried quickly. You may want to tweet 10 to 20 times every day to make sure your tweets are seen.
SEO and Social Media: Marketing Strategy 101
Having an SEO and social media presence is very important for businesses. These are two individual marketing strategies that you should be taking advantage of.
But you should also be combining SEO and social media for the best results. This allows you to rank better and get your business in front of more people without having to pay for marketing.
Are you interested in getting help with your SEO? Contact us today at GHAX Digital Marketing Agency to book a call about your marketing strategy.
