It has been a debate in digital marketing for a while now: do social signals impact search ranking?
While the jury is still out for many on the issue, Google’s Matt Cutts has said that a brand’s social presence is part of the overall mix of search ranking factors, stating that “who you are on Twitter can definitely impact how well your page ranks on a regular search page.”
It’s not a definitive explanation of how social impacts SEO, but it’s further evidence that the two strategies are interwoven – building a strong social presence is likely to boost your presence in the SERPs and vice versa. So how can you amplify the SEO boosting possibilities of social? These tried and true strategies are a great place to start.
1. Master Your Content Marketing Strategy
Solid content that appeals to your specific audience is at the core of almost every digital marketing strategy, and it’s especially important when it comes to SEO and social media.
If your strategy is good enough, you’ll engage your social audience while simultaneously climbing the rankings. This means not only optimising it with relevant keywords but taking time to understand guest intent so you can plan content around their specific needs, queries and pain points. Create content that provides real value to your guests, publish it to your website and social media, and you will inevitably boost both your search and social performance.
2. Boost Your Social Audience
It’s simple: the more qualified traffic you get from email, social, or other platforms, the more credibility you have in the eyes of the search companies. Google’s algorithm also uses behavioural signals such as the number of users who click your website in the search pages. If you have built a strong and credible presence on social media, people are more likely to recognise your property name and click when it pops up in search.
To encourage as much social traffic to your website as possible and enhance your hotel brand’s recognisability in the SERPs, you need to maximise your social following.
How do you increase your followers?
- Present your hotel consistently across your website, social channels and email using engaging, high quality content that is relevant to your guests’ needs
- Post high quality images with each post
- Use contests to generate interest in your brand and widen your reach
- Use social media to converse and build community
3. Drive Shares At Every Opportunity
Although some have dismissed shares as a vanity metric, generating as many shares as possible can only have a positive impact on perception of your hotel’s authority, both in the eyes of the search engines and your guests.
Google is on the lookout for any external signals that suggest your content is a reliable and high quality source of information for its users – it uses this information to determine domain authority and ranking position. So, if 20 guests share your post, great, if 2000 share it, you may be onto something!
Great content can earn huge awareness on social media, and that translates to more traffic, better credibility and higher search rankings. How do you view the link between social and SEO? How are you working on both this year? Let us know in the comments below!
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