Many business owners who are new to or inexperienced with online marketing assume that SEO and social media are unrelated, with each operating independently of each other and requiring separate and distinct goals.  SEO and organic social media marketing actually work together in many ways to send signals to Google.  Companies with high social signals tend to have high ranking positions in the search engines.  According to Searchmetrics’ Rebooting Ranking Factors White Paper:  “The top-ranked websites in Google’s rankings displays vastly more social signals than all other pages. This is primarily due to the overlap between brand websites performing strongly in social networks and being allocated top positions by Google.”

Here are 4 ways social media can bring more visitors to your website and improve overall SEO:

1. Link Building

When it comes to SEO, Google loves two things: high-quality content and links.  The more shares on social media you have, the more opportunities people have to see your content and link to it. It doesn’t matter if it’s Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or Facebook. If you have high-quality content that gains traction on social media, you’re more likely to get links from other websites. While the incoming links from your social media shares don’t have the same impact as authentic links from high-quality sites, they can influence your bounce rate and time-on-site engagement, which influence SEO.

Social media is also a great way to make networking and outreach for link building a little easier. Try using social media sites to find link prospecting opportunities and to build relationships with other people and businesses that are active in your industry.

2. Content Promotion

There’s no better way to improve your website’s authority than by giving visitors a high-quality experience, and that is a result of providing great content on your site. One of the core functions of social media is content sharing.  Promoting your high-quality content on social media provides another opportunity to deliver that content.

3. Brand Awareness

In June 2017, SEMrush published a report that studied 600+ keywords to determine what actually impacts search results. The number one ranking factor was direct traffic to a website — direct traffic usually correlates with brand recognition as these people are already aware of your company.  Social media is a great tool to boost brand awareness because it offers direct access to your target audience. Posting helpful content, responding to questions or comments, and participating in community conversations all help build brand awareness. Also, paid options such as advertisements and sponsored posts provide an opportunity to reach an even larger targeted audience.

4. Engagement

Content that receives a lot of engagement on social media platforms will rank well for the topics covered. If you’re a local business, local SEO should be a top priority. Social media can help attract local visitors to your site and send positive signals to search engines.  Here are 10 ways to increase your company’s engagement on social media.

Even if social media isn’t a direct Google ranking factor, there is a strong correlation with SEO.  It is also one of the best ways to promote content and be found online. Which is, ultimately, what SEO is all about.