08 Mar
Susan Sweeney, social media guru, has written a great article explaining the benefits of social media in relation to SEO.
All of the acronyms and rankings can be confusing, but Sweeney does a great job of giving a clear and concise explanation of how social media and SEO can work together.
You can read her article here.
After reading Sweeney’s post, I have my own take on the subject. Networking with social media does extremely well in relation to SEO and the building of a positive on-line presence.
It Creates A Natural Network
I like to think of social media as a way to create an on-line network that would serve the same purpose as traditional work networks. One of the greatest things about social media is that allows us to easily connect with others in our work fields. This is the big pay off. Social media has allowed us to syndicate the process of finding industry peers and authorities. It’s like networking on steroids.
I think that once these trusting relationships have been formed with either colleagues or consumers, links are then shared to sites that are actually relevant to the subject matter. As Sweeney mentioned, relevance is important. She calls this natural link building. I look at it as if a colleague decides to pass my business card along to someone they meet. It’s the same thing, but with a link to your blog or website. It might even be your Facebook or Twitter page.
Sweeney also talks about the debate of whether or not links inside of social networks are valued by search engines. Google displays the latest on a given search query so it’s hard to deny that there is some value.
My point is that while SEO is an important aspect to your on-line marketing strategy, social media can provide a ton of high-quality traffic if done correctly. Plus, those good relationships you form from networking will lead to solid links to your site, which I can guarantee you will help your search engine ranking.