Since Social Media advent, SEO specialists have used social media for various different tasks for example conducting keyword research, incorporate it into website for updates, getting links and improving rankings, direct traffic to the website and distributing the contents.
Clients often ask me ‘what is the best integration of SEO and social media marketing?’ In reply, I quote Google, “Focus on the user and all else will follow.” According to a recent research on social media done by myself, in which some of the world leading social media experts participated, it was found out that customer experience was in the heart of social media interactions from a business point of view. Customer experience results in enhanced loyalty and customer satisfaction. This enhanced customer experience is very helpful in building communities and engaging them in conversations about the brand. Even though word of mouth is often not under the direct control of companies, they may still impact it by improving customer experience and using communities.
How can customer experience be managed from SEO point of view:
While real-time problem solving and customer service are of prime importance for enhancing customer experience from Social Media point of view, the following are the main elements from SEO point of view:
- Targeting only relevant keywords
- User friendly website design (Clear navigation and contents layout, lighter page size, FAQs, Clear and smooth check-out process, cross-browser compatibility etc.)
- Creating well-optimized quality contents frequently
This will, in turn, result into more traffic and more time on site with less bounce rate while giving valuable backlinks to the site.
Online reputation management
Sometimes unwanted things may happen for various reasons, which can badly hurt online reputation of the firms. It is, therefore, important to have a risk management plan ready to deal with such an unwanted situation. This is where integration of SEO and social media becomes so important.
A good reputation is extremely necessary for increasing sales, making joint ventures, improving customer experience and helping with the recruitment and retention of talent. So companies should have a risk management plan regarding that.
SEO, Social Media and Online Reputation
When companies ignore customer experience and make them upset by not providing them with what they have been promised, they may express their anger by writing negative reviews over social media channels about the firms which ultimately are shown on top of search results for the brand related keywords. In such cases it becomes increasingly important to repair the reputation.
Consumers trust Google organic results and they know that Google ranks the trusted and well-reputed websites on top of search results. Hence, a positive presences on the first page of Google greatly increases the positive perception and reputation of a brand.
SEO and Social Media marketing integration
As it is almost impossible to delete negative press, firms can push any negative press deeper in the ranking by having well-optimized contents on variety of social media and other online platforms which best represent the business. It is also important to respond proactively to any negative press using all the social media channels. SEO is not just about optimizing the main website, it is about optimizing all digital assets. By knowing the customers and their keywords, by SEOing website, blogs and other social presences for those keywords by frequently generating quality contents, companies can secure many top positions over search engines which can push negative comments down in the ranking and can help with online reputation and hence building trust. Thus, a proactive self-defence by developing social and other web presences in a search engine friendly manner through SEO is another top way of integrating SEO and Social Media marketing.
Long-term SEO and Social Media marketing Integration
The long term integration requires the use of social media carefully in a well-optimized manner to stay on top in ‘semantic web’. I will write a separate blogpost about it later on.
See also: Top 10 Benefits of SEO for Businesses ; Top 10 Benefits of Social Media for Business ; SEO Specialist’s Website ; What are SEO and SEO Specialist? ; Should Facebook Have a Dislike Button?
