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Using Social Media to Build Quality SEO Links to Your Website

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Published: April 3, 2014

Links that point back to your business website from other sites are one of the most effective methods of improving your ranking in the search engine results. All backlinks, however, are not created equal. Google and other search engines value backlinks from authority websites much higher than backlinks from spammy sites with little or no value to the search engine user. The quality of your backlinks is much more important than the quantity and too many low-value backlinks can actually get your website penalized by Google.

Using social media channels to generate quality backlinks for your website is a great way to improve your search engine rankings by giving the search engines what they want to see. Some of the most effective social channels to consider for your link building campaign include Google+, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

Develop Your Social Link Building Strategy

You need to resist the temptation to sign up for every social network you can think of just for the sake of blasting out a blanket request for links. Social media doesn’t work that way: it’s about building relationships, and that takes time. You’re much better off concentrating on a few core social channels where you can devote the time and energy required to build a solid social presence for your company.

  • Start by identifying your target audience. Search for relevant industry data and social listening tools that will help you understand what people are talking about on the various social networks. With this information, you can begin creating profiles of your target audience.
  • Once you have an idea of who you’re going to be talking to, you can start building core interest groups. These are simply different groups of people who have an interest in your company or industry. Present customers might be one group, prospective customers another, suppliers and vendors yet another, and so on.
  • Create your business personality. This starts with the information in your business profile. Your first posts should set the tone for how others view your company. Avoid all sales hype and self-promoting content for now; focus on providing genuinely helpful or interesting information about your company or industry.
  • The content you post needs to be link-worthy. Well-written and informative content that is useful and relevant to your audience is what will give you the social signals, in the form of likes, retweets and shares, that the search engines are looking for. Ideally, you want to position yourself as the go-to authority in your field.

Content is King in Social Media

Your posted content needs to be carefully crafted to attract social links as well as to avoid alienating your followers with blatant self-promoting messages. If possible, present your content across a variety of media such as straight text, video and infographics.

  • About one-third of your posts should contain interesting and useful information about your field. Feel free to link to other sites that your audience might find helpful.
  • One-third of your posts should feature insider information that your readers can’t get elsewhere. This can be more personal in nature; include information about community events and interests.
  • The remaining one-third of your posts can be reserved for soft-sell promotion of your company.

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