{"id":68,"date":"2015-10-04T14:30:14","date_gmt":"2015-10-04T18:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/harrisweb.ca\/blog\/?p=68"},"modified":"2015-10-13T16:11:44","modified_gmt":"2015-10-13T20:11:44","slug":"social-media-for-better-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.harrisweb.ca\/blog\/social-media-for-better-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Social Media for better SEO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Small Business can use Social Media for better SEO – Search Engine Optimization<\/h1>\n

Google \u00a0and other search engines endevour to provide everyone with the best information through the best search results possible. \u00a0To do this they develop\u00a0algorithms to rate many different aspects of what the search bots find on the web.<\/p>\n

What does Social Media have to do with rankings?<\/h2>\n

Although search engines do not use social signals directly in their search engine algorithms what they do use is links and each piece of social content, be it a tweet, a facebook update, or google+ post, have the potential to be linked to your website and be followed to your website.<\/p>\n

Mark Traphagen does a fine job in discussing How Google Uses Social Media Signals<\/a><\/p>\n

Google has stated, “Yes, we do use [links that are tweeted] as a signal. It is used as a signal in our organic and news rankings. \u00a0We also use it to enhance our news universal by marking how many people shared an article.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Bing, “We do look at the social authority of a user. We look at how many people you follow, how many follow you, and this can add a little weight to a listing in regular search results.\u201d<\/p>\n

So How Should Small Business Use Social Media?<\/h2>\n


\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Use<\/a>

Wondering who I am?<\/p><\/div>\n

1. Define: Who am I?<\/strong>
\nWho are you? \u00a0What is your brand?\u00a0 Do you have a logo, colour scheme, tag-line, and mission statement?\u00a0 You should sit down over coffee and define all these things and then, make it consistent across all the platforms you participate in, like your webpage, Facebook fan page, twitter page and Google +.<\/p>\n

Let\u00a0people know who you are in a consistent manner, and define a USP – Unique Selling Proposition.<\/strong><\/p>\n

David Amerland writes simply about defining who your are in: \u00a0SEMANTIC SEARCH \u2013 THREE BASIC PRINCIPLES YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. What do I do? – Defining Keywords<\/strong><\/p>\n

When people are looking for what you do they use a certain words and phrases to search for your product or service. \u00a0Google tracks search terms and the where the searchers ultimately end up. These search terms become Keywords with varying relevance to your industry.<\/p>\n

In my industry terms like: SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Graphic Design, Website Design, Web Development, and Layout are all keywords that many people enter as search terms that ultimately end up at my website.<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0One aspect of SEO is to use Keywords, related to your industry, in everything you write. \u00a0You can get some ideas of your own keywords at Google Adwords<\/a> once you have them, write them out, paste them to your desk, and use them whenever you write something. Keyword research has become more complex and more important since I first wrote this article, here are some Tips on Keyword Research<\/a>\u00a0. \u00a0It is important, especially when you are first starting out, to find some niches that you can rank in and glean some traffic from it.<\/p>\n

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Google Authority<\/p><\/div>\n

3. Who knows more than I do? – Defining Authority<\/strong><\/p>\n

So given that more 50% of North Americans have a Facebook account, should a small business go out and get as many FB “Likes” as possible, well yes and no; the reason being as stated above search engines do not use “likes” as a ranking signal, but the social media platform does. \u00a0So your posts may be seen by more people on the platform and they may start following you if they like what you offer. \u00a0The more people you have sharing and linking and amplifying your content, the better your search rankings will become. \u00a0Also your posts may attract the eye of someone who is authoritative in your industry.<\/p>\n

Google looks at the “authority” of who you link to and who links to you.\u00a0 So be discerning and go out and find someone in your industry that you look up to, and follow them, read their articles, posts, tweets, follow their links to find out who they look to for authority <\/span>and advice.\u00a0 Think of it this way, if you were a contractor and Mike Holmes<\/a> banged on your door to ask your advice while filming his show, would your authority increase?\u00a0 Sure would!<\/p>\n

In this short post and video, Mark Traphagen and Eric Enge discuss Why Does Authority Still Matter<\/a><\/p>\n

4. What do you know? – Being Social<\/strong><\/p>\n

Along with reading and following, re-tweeting and generally delving into your industry, you should also be commenting, offering opinions and joining into discussions on forums.\u00a0 While doing this you are gleaning useful information.\u00a0 When you read something and say to yourself, “Self, I know a better way to do that.” you should comment, engage with authority figures, this is a way to hitchhike your way up the authority ladder using the authority of others.<\/p>\n

Not only should you comment, you should blog about it.\u00a0 Write about stuff you know, stuff you’ve learned and add those tidbits of wisdom gained from your own experience.\u00a0 Publish your musings online on Google+ or LinkedIn, tweet about your article, and let your Facebook friends know that you wrote something.\u00a0 This all goes to increasing Your Authority<\/em> within your industry…and who knows, Mike Holmes just might come banging on your door asking advice!<\/p>\n

Another aspect of being social is that you begin to build relationships with others. \u00a0If you build relationships and a following of between 50 and 100 people that read, like, plus, comment on your stuff, then you have a real audience that will help you amplify your content through social media. \u00a0Getting people to come to your page, read and article or 2, or even link to and share your stuff, will go a long way to increasing your own authority and search engine rank.<\/p>\n

\"dont-be-stupid\"<\/a>

Don’t Be Stupid<\/p><\/div>\n

5. Don’t be stupid<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you sunbathe nude in Mexico, make sure nobody takes your picture…unless you’re Madonna, who seemly can spin every stupid thing she ever did into social media silk. \u00a0Protect your brand!<\/strong>\u00a0 Nike spent untold millions, and a decade of time, and had to completely re-invent their company to dig themselves out of the “Child Labour” debacle – still we remember it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"

Tempus Fugit<\/p><\/div>\n

6. How Much Time?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Experts vary from 4 to 14 hours per week should go into monitoring your social media platforms and writing content for your readers.\u00a0 The best way to do this is to schedule time to do this, say 30-60 minutes each day for monitoring and a 2 – 4 hour block once per week to write something.\u00a0 Many experts claim that you should post something relevant each week; I am of the mind once every 2 weeks is a good schedule for small business.\u00a0 The rewards in business of a well-managed social media endeavour can be priceless.<\/p>\n

7. Don’t ignore the SEO basics<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are many basic things you can do to your web pages to help then to rank like title structure, headings, hierarchy, related keywords and more. \u00a0Here is an article on SEO Basics\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

If you want to be a significant player within your industry, even if it is only on a local level, than a good social media\u00a0strategy\u00a0is an important part of your marketing mix.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Social Media for Small Business<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[39,56,20],"tags":[54,21,23],"class_list":["post-68","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-semantic-search","category-seo","category-website-design","tag-graphic-design","tag-seo","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harrisweb.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harrisweb.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harrisweb.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harrisweb.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harrisweb.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/www.harrisweb.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1206,"href":"https:\/\/www.harrisweb.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions\/1206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harrisweb.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harrisweb.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harrisweb.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harrisweb.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}