Search engine optimization, or SEO, has become an increasingly important tool for businesses of all shapes and sizes throughout the last few years. SEO helps to make websites easier for people to find. The easier a website is to find, the more likely people are to browse that particular website. If the website were to belong to a company, perhaps even your company, the odds of people utilizing your services based on their search results would dramatically increase. With this concept in mind, let’s take a look at how social media sites like Facebook and Google+ help to shape SEO.
Under the Hood of Social Media
So, how exactly is social media helping to shape SEO today? Well, it’s really all about page ranking. The higher your webpage ranks, the more visible your company becomes. Creating special pages for your company on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter helps your content get indexed faster. In turn, this reduces the time it takes for search engines such as Google to find your website.
The Language of Social Media
These days, the web is filled with all kinds of social media websites that can be used to impact SEO. There’s Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Yelp, and Pinterest, just to name a few. All of these sites offer up ways for users to “share,” “like,” “follow,” “+1,” and even “pin” the various pictures, articles, and videos other users have uploaded. Since these social media sites have become a key piece of the SEO puzzle, it’s important to have a good understanding of what users are actually doing on these sites.
How “Sharing” and “+1’s” Help Your Business Grow
Google+, while relatively new, has proven itself in the realm of Social Media and SEO. Undoubtably, the fact that it was created by one of the world’s most powerful search engines is a big part of its success, and of its relevancy to improved page rankings. In order to determine how your website stacks up against the competition, Google examines the number of “+1’s” your site generates, the relevancy of the people doing the sharing, and the speed at which the shares occur. Similarly, Google looks at how many people “like” your page on Facebook and “follow” your page on Twitter. Additionally, the more “shares” or “tweets” your website or page content gets, the higher your website becomes ranked on Google!
