10 Key Social Media SEO Tips for Small Businesses

To remain competitive, posting valuable content is not enough. Customers do want something that they can also share with others on their social media sites. When content is shared, this increases both your search and social media visibility. This is how Social SEO works: optimizing social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram to be able to promote website content. As a small business owner, you can use social media to be able to boost your visibility in search results. It is an opportunity to build links to your website, establish followers and grow your online business. Here are 10 simple yet effective social media tips to boost your SEO:

1. Get social with sharing buttons

Make your content easy to be shared on Facebook or retweeted on Twitter. Place social media buttons on your website to make it easier for readers to share your content. Highly visible social buttons for Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest act as fuel for your users as these buttons increase the number of links and shares of your content.

2. Personalize social engagement

Give your brand a personalized touch by nurturing your fans with a humanized experience. This strategy tends to attract more followers and keep your current ones engaged. The more active your social media presence is, the higher you'll rank in search engines.

3. Optimize your social media profiles

Ensure that your social media profiles describe your brand completely. Do this by:

 Using keywords and phrases that people will make use when making a search

 Including your address, city and state on your profile to optimize local searches

 Including your website and blog link in your profile

4. Optimize content for social media

Write for your followers and not for search engines. Create content that is interesting or informative enough that it makes people want to share it on their social pages as well. Engaging content improves your website ranking and is likely to get likes, retweets, repins, reshares as well as comments when shared on social media platforms.

5. Influence social sharing

All those shares, likes, comments, retweets, favorites and +1s all count in increasing your credibility and authority. Think of ways you can encourage your fans and followers to do this. For instance, post interactive surveys and then ask people to “like” or “share” the post if they agree with it.

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