How Social Media Affects Your Google Rankings

When it comes to increasing your position on Google searches, it’s a known fact that content updates are king. The more quality content you add and how often you update existing content can make all the difference. But simply increasing the number of keywords used in each piece of content isn’t going to cut it anymore. How then, do we get our content found on Google and continue to rank on the first page of search results? 
Content distribution and sharing have drastically changed with social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Conversations now happen instantly and are transparent for your social media followers to see and participate in. Customer and client engagement is now measured through metrics such as comments, shares, tagging, and hashtags. The Google algorithm has evolved and continues to evolve with the social media landscape and now tracks engagement, conversations, and social shares. Maintaining a consistent social media presence now plays an important part in maximizing your website’s SEO and ranking higher on Google search results pages. 

Encourage Social Sharing to Make your Content Easier to Find

As Google continues to evolve its algorithm, it’s constantly looking for ways to better interpret and distinguish quality content to display on the search results pages. Google has to quickly filter through all the posted content, determine the content that is authoritative and high quality, and index that content so that it is displayed in the search engine results. In order to streamline this process, Google now looks at how many times a social media post has been shared, who is posting it, and when it was posted to decide what to index first. The faster the content gets indexed, the sooner it is shown in the search results page. Be sure to include links to your social media profiles on your site’s homepage and incorporate social sharing on your blog posts. 

Social Media Reputation and Site Authority

Having consistently updated and well-engaged social media platforms can improve your reputation and social equity in the eyes of Google. Building your reputation across your social media platforms, engaging with your followers, and sharing relevant content not only benefits your brand awareness but also signals to the Google algorithm that you’re an authority in your industry. When the Google algorithm sees your social media presence as one with a trusted influence, you’ll see a boost in your SEO rankings. 

Social Shares and Backlinking

Originally, the number of links coming back to your site (backlinks) was the main factor in deciding if your site was relevant and contained up-to-date content. By populating your website with mass amounts of keywords and inbound links from other sites, you’d ensure higher rankings on Google. Instead of just looking at how many times your URL appears on other sites, Google now also takes into account how many times your URL appears in social media posts, likes, comments, and shares in order to rate the authenticity of your site and content.

Don’t Forget About Google’s Platform

There are numerous social media platforms and each one has a unique way of growing your brand and increasing audience engagement. It can be time-consuming to leverage them all and know what type of content to post. It should come as no surprise that Google favors its own platform, Google My Business. Comments and reviews on this platform have shown to have an influence on your search engine rankings as well. Make the most out of all of the social media platforms that impact your business the most by maintaining a consistent presence and tailoring the content to each platform.