Social media and search engine optimization (SEO) are two of the most important aspects of marketing, and a successful marketing campaign is difficult to create without incorporating both of these features. However, incorporating social media and SEO into your marketing program is not enough; you also need to integrate social media and SEO. In other words, you need to use SEO tactics when engaging in social media, and use your social media activity to improve your SEO. This approach is often called Search Marketing Integration (SMI), and below are three reasons it’s important for your business.

When SEO started to become a big thing in marketing and everyone was trying to optimize their sites, the focus was mainly on keywords. This resulted in many completely useless websites that were stuffed with keywords, but were of no benefit to the viewer because they didn’t make any sense. Then, once the algorithms changed to demand a higher quality level of content, the name of the game became incoming links. Now, though, incoming links and stellar content are not the only facets of your business that will earn you a higher SEO ranking. Now, SEO has changed and has begun to look at your entire online presence as a business, including your social media activity; enter SMI.

Social Media Activity is Searchable

While it’s true that an online search of your business will likely turn up your Twitter and Facebook accounts, social media activity is far more integrated with your online presence in the area of SEO than it once was. Now, search engines look at who you’re following, who follows you, what you tweet about, how actively people are engaging with your social media accounts, how many people click on your links, how many shares and likes you get, and more. The reason? SEO engineers recognize that this is a brave new world where marketing is concerned, and they want to make sure that someone in the higher SEO ranks is earning that place, not getting there by cheap tactics. It’s becoming harder to fool search engines, meaning every aspect of your online presence has to be at the top of its game. Since your social media activity is now a part of how you’re ranked in the area of SEO, it’s very important that you are using the best SEO tactics, as well as engaging viewers, with your social media presence.

Engages Your Audience

Algorithm engineers and tech gurus are not evil beings who sit in a room and think up ways to radically transform the way your business is found online, although it may sometimes seem that way. Instead, they recognize that the way people search, interact with, and shop at businesses is changing rapidly, and SEO has to keep up with that. People are very active in social media, so if algorithms were still programmed to reward keyword stuffing, it would sink the businesses doing everything right. So, SMI is to your advantage, because if you’re catering to the search engines, you’re likely catering to your audience, as well. SEO exists to help websites and business owners attract the audience they need and want to their business, so by engaging in social media with SEO and your viewers in mind, you can dramatically improve your online presence and create a highly effective and engaging campaign. Engaged audiences mean more business for you.

Integrating social media and SEO into your online marketing efforts is important, but integrating them together is just as important. Every action you take in social media that is branded with your business name should focus on two things: engaging the customer and attracting the search engines. The better search engine algorithms become, the more those two goals are becoming one in the same. But until they are synonymous, pay attention to how you’re using SEO in your social media activities to ensure the greatest online visibility possible.