Playing the social media game right helps small businesses make further progress on their search engine scores. As mentioned in the earlier article about getting started on SEO, accomplishing the following basic tasks ensures that there is relevant content for search engines about your business and enough backlinks to increase reputation, both very important metrics to get better rankings.
1. Optimize social media pages
Presence on all the major social media pages is important. This is the most reputable way to start increasing your footprint on the Internet.
Fill in the "About" section: Make sure this section is filled with as much relevant information as possible. While at it, add in as many keywords that have been identified for the business as possible. This helps search engines not only make relevant connections between your business website and your social media pages but also ensures that there is the right context.
Fill the "Category" section: Most sites have a “Category” section. Ensure that this section accurately reflects your business. Down to the exact niche in a field. For example, a physical therapist could be specializing in physical therapy for athletes. In that case, in addition to PT, also mention the specific sports covered. This tells search engines about your specialty, and will bring you up in the results for a relevant search.
Page name and business name: Ensure that the page name on all platforms is the same as the business name. This is one very common but obvious mistake small businesses make is to name the page something other than the business name. Avoid this at all costs.
Create a vanity URL: Most platforms allow businesses to create a vanity URL for their page. Create it, and start using it in all your communications. This is like having your own custom phone number, and will be easy to remember for your potential customers.
2. Optimize content The content you post on social media pages is the same content that search engines use to build a context about your business. Use relevant keywords on posts: Always use relevant keywords when posting an update. You can never have too many keywords. Link back to your website: Where possible, post the content into the blog section on your website and post a link to that blog on your social media pages. If that is not possible, at least post a link to your website. This will increase the number of backlinks to your website. Include the business name: Include your business name in your social media posts where possible. This helps search engines associate your business name with the keywords posted.
Name images appropriately: This is one important task that almost all business overlook. Always name your images appropriately. Search engines read that too! For example, if there is an image of a physical therapist demonstrating a muscle stretch, name it “demonstrating muscle stretch” instead of pic1.png or so. This tells search engines that the image is of that stretch, so that when a search for that muscle stretch happens, your image and hence your website will be in the results.
3. Make shareable content In addition to posting links to your website on your social media posts, another easy way to increase backlinks is to entice other people to do so too.
Post engaging content: Always post content that is engaging enough for people related to your niche so that they want to share your posts on their pages. This is the easiest way to “outsource” link building. The more interesting and relevant your posts are, the higher the odds of somebody else reposting them Add share buttons: Wherever possible, add share buttons to your posts so that sharing that post will be easy and straightforward. This will ensure that all the spur of the moment shares happen! The easier we make it to share your content, the more shares we get. 4. Create a Google My Business listing Creating an account on Google My Business means that your business appears right when people are searching for services or business like yours on Google Search and Google Maps. Optimize your account: Create an account on Google My Business and optimize it by following all steps indicated in #1 earlier in this article. Sync your information: Make sure business information on Google My Business and other social media is in sync. This will ensure that there is consistency about your business on all major platforms and will increase your reputation on the major search engines. Following these steps serves two purposes, you will have established a comprehensive presence on the very important social media ecosystem and you will kick-start SEO for your small business as well!