5 Easy Social SEO Tips for Small Businesses

Social SEO, what does that mean?

Social SEO is the idea that social media links and interaction play a part in a website’s search rankings.

It sounds complicated (and, in reality it is) but basically SEO is all about optimizing content—whether it’s on your website or on a social media platform—in order to appear higher in search rankings.

Here’s 5 easy social SEO tips you can easily start doing today:

Optimize Social Media Profiles

The key to an SEO friendly social media profile is to be as detailed as possible. Make sure you fill out the About or Information sections of all your social media platforms. Also be sure to use words & phrases that describe your business and are also keywords individuals would use to search for your business.

Here’s an example: To optimize your Facebook page for local searches, it’s important to include your exact address, city, state, and zip code.

You should always include links from your social profiles back to your business’s website. Also, link from your website to your social channels.

Bonus Tip: The “Category” field is over-looked a lot on Facebook pages, but it’s important for Facebook mobile searches. Double check to make sure your business is listed in the best category while editing or updating your basic information.

Optimize Your Social Media Content and Updates

To optimize your social content, always include some of the most relevant search keywords you determined for your business in your Facebook updates, tweets, pin descriptions, etc.

It’s also important to remember to share content from your website or blog on social media to give it a slight SEO boost, too.

Sharing new content on Twitter can be important because it helps Google index it faster (indexing means Google adds this URL to their database).

Insider Tip: Use your business’s name in your social posts. This helps Google associate the keywords you use to describe your business with your business’s name.

Sign Up for Google My Business and Spend 10 Minutes Each Day on It

No one loves Google+ more than Google. Sign up for a Google+ Business Page and complete as many fields as you can in the “About” section with keywords that describe your business.

You can also add several customized links on your profile. You can use this as an opportunity to link back to your website, blog, and additional social media profiles.

By spending just 10-minutes each day sharing your content to your social media pages, you’ll be more likely to appear within Google’s SERP in your followers’ results.

Use Pinterest

A simple way to create shareable content is by using Pinterest. Pinterest is great for link building and improving your keyword strategy. It can also be a good source for referral traffic to your website.

Google indexes pages from websites with heavy traffic faster.

You can increase your content’s visibility in SERPs by adding keywords within the title of a Pinterest board, the board’s description. You even have up to 500 characters to describe an individual pin so you should include keywords there as well.

Also, you can customize the pin’s link and direct people back to your website or blog posts—further increasing the chance for your content to rank higher in a SERP.

From an SEO view, Pinterest lets you do a few things that other social networks don’t, so take advantage of it.

Bonus Tip: Google prefers high-resolution images, so use high-quality images on Pinterest whenever possible.

Create a Google Local Listing

According to Google, 97% of consumers search for local businesses online.

In order to do well in local search results it’s critical that you optimize your Google Local listing (formally known as Google Places).

A Local Google page is different from a Google+ Business Page because it allows customers to easily connect with that business’s physical location.

Make sure the details about your business are accurate—address, phone number, hours, etc.

Bonus Tip: Be sure to keep your info up-to-date on Google Local, Twitter, and Facebook—it helps!

Here Are Some Common Social Mistakes to Avoid:

Not making your business’s social media sites public.
Uploading images to your social channels with file names such as: Photo22 or IMG1418—images with meaningful file names like social-media.jpg can help you rank better.
Not using your business’s name as your Facebook Page name or Twitter name.
Duplicating another website’s content. Your time and resources are limited as a small business owner but Google doesn’t like this.
Creating a Facebook Profile instead of a Facebook Page
Not customizing your Facebook URL.
If something appears to be a fast & easy way to improve your SEO it’s probably a black hat tactic (that means it’s bad), Google frowns on these unethical techniques and penalizes those who implement them.

Keep This in Mind with Social SEO

Improving your SEO ranking can take a lot of time and search result changes don’t happen overnight. Always be as descriptive as you can and keep your information current.

Overall, as a small business owner you shouldn’t obsess over SEO.

Instead, focus on providing a “wow factor” for your customers and your business will benefit through natural word-of-mouth. And make sure you contact us if you want to outsource SEO work for your company.