How social media affects your search results

A good placement in search results is as important as acquiring customers for your business. If you don't know how social media can affect your search results, read on.

What search engines look for

First, you need to understand what search engines are looking for so you can recognise how social media affects search results. For example, the authority of your tweets, how many +1s your URL gets, how many Facebook likes and shares your URL receives, and how many tweets and retweets your URL gets.

Every time someone mentions your local business on social media, it helps to improve your search ranking. The size of your following and the engagement your social posts receive also play a role. Here's an example:

Luigi’s Italian Restaurant in New York City received a tweet from a local newspaper about its delicious dishes. This tweet was favourited 400 times and retweeted 50 times. Both the newspaper’s and Luigi’s Twitter handles were subsequently active. Since Luigi’s URL was linked to the Twitter account, Luigi’s website was able to receive a better ranking in search engines.

How this can help local businesses

Engagement on social networks can help to improve your rankings, even for keywords that are otherwise difficult to rank highly for (the generic ones). However, this works best for search terms that have little competition. So, if the keyword that is creating a buzz on social media is „Italian food“, you might find yourself ranking at the top for that keyword. Local businesses can take advantage of this, as it helps them improve their business's search results for these general but necessary search terms.

When sharing content, be sure to include low-competition keywords, such as „Authentic Italian Food in New York,“ to help them gain traction on social media and improve your search engine rankings. The more content you share from your website on social media, the better your website will rank, which means more visitor traffic will be generated for your website.

How to optimise your SEO

Before you start your social media SEO campaign, you should check how you've performed so far. You can do this with the free tool LocalVox Check. Make sure you know which keywords are most important to rank for. You can LocalCast use , an SEO tool that helps you track your ranking and find keywords you can use to optimise your website and your social media posts.

A deeper understanding of your social signals and their impact

So you know: the more active you are on social media, the better your search results will be. Let's now look at exactly how this works on the different social networks:

• Google+ Compared to Twitter and Facebook, Google+ is still in its infancy, but it has a big impact on social content. It works like this: the more +1s, the better. You should try to get +1s for your brand profile, your website, and your social media posts. When your brand page receives a lot of +1s, it gives you more authority, which helps your future content rank higher. Your authority is also determined by how many followers you have and how often your content is shared. Your social media strategy should include a method for generating more and more +1s over time. It is important that you focus on a network of people with great profiles, because those who know you can help establish your voice.
• Facebook Facebook is used by over 900 million people, making it the ideal platform to improve your search results. There are studies that show Facebook has a greater impact on your search ranking than Twitter or Google+ (which is something to keep in mind). The more „shares“ and „likes“ your posts receive, the better your rankings will be. The number of comments you receive is also helpful – if you get plenty of likes, shares, and comments, your ranking will improve significantly.
• Twitter With around 500 million users, Twitter posts improve rankings when the tweets have authority, as opposed to quantity. Factors that can help you in your search results include the authority of your followers, mentions, and retweets, the number of your followers, mentions, and retweets, and the speed and intensity of your tweets and retweets over time.

There are other social media sites such as Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Reddit, FourSquare and Digg that you can use. These are the factors that play a role in getting better placement on these sites:

• Pinterest How many pins, repins and comments you receive, and the growth rate of these pins and repins.
• FourSquare How many check-ins and the distribution rate of these check-ins.
• Reddit, Digg and StumbleUpon How many upvotes and comments you receive.

Link building via social media

Link building isn't a new concept and is just as valuable today as it was 10 years ago. However, it's become much easier thanks to social networks. In the past, people tried to build links using „black hat“ tactics, such as spammy comments on forums and blogs. Today, you can integrate link building into your social media strategy. For example, you can include links to valuable content from your blog in the social media posts you publish.

Improve your Google ranking by using social media

There are many benefits local businesses can draw from social media accounts. They can become an authority, gain a larger following, network with influencers, and increase inbound traffic through link-building and organic search results. Social media has a big impact on the way we do business today, and if you use it correctly, you can steadily grow the customer base for your local business.