It seems as though there are many businesses (and even marketers) who forget to take the effects of social media on SEO (search engine optimization) into account when forming their marketing strategies. Now, we know that your social media channels won’t directly impact your search ranking, but they still have a notable impact on your SEO.

Considering this, you will no doubt want to use strategies as part of your social media posts to help your search engine ranking and increase your visibility, right? The ultimate goal is always making it easier for customers to find your page, so here are some effects that social media has on Search Engine Optimization that you may want to keep in mind.

Effect 1: Your social media following

We’re going to go ahead and assume that you threw the terrible idea of fake followers out the window long ago. High-quality followers are crucial. Not only does it mean that your business is offering quality information, but real, organic followers, says you are likely an authority in your field.

The reason why this is important is that search engines will recognize the validity and utility of your business and site. High-quality followers on social media leads to greater visibility in search engines, simple.

Effect 2: External link building via socials

While the sharing of content within your social networks is great for building your profile in those platforms, it doesn’t automatically increase your ranking on Google. Social shares spread your content to wider audiences which will significantly increase the chance of linkbacks. And you really want those.

SEO is strengthened by visits to, and duration of time spent on, your page. Great quality content that is shared across social media exposes you to wider audiences and increases the chance that people will end up on your website if they like what they have seen on the socials. The key rule is always to have quality content everywhere; social sites are just the most accessible channel on which to spread the word.

Effect 3: Reviews

Online reviews are like word-of-mouth, positive and negative. And like it or not, many consumers turn to online reviews before they make a decision on a purchase. Social media is the easiest way to encourage customers to leave a review. The risk? It will be negative. The way to mitigate that? Be great at what you do.

Reviews are basically social proof, it’s strange, but people trust strangers whom they deem similar to them. Pushing this even further, people have in more trust in recommendations from users they know. Social media has evolved from a mere direction to your website, positive reviews on socials can lead to higher organic search results.

Effect 4: Brand awareness

All good businesses understand the importance of brand, how consumers view it and how they connect to it. Will they be champions and fans of your brand, or will they turn on it?

Social media marketing can help you explain the story and personality of your brand while expanding your reach. Your socials connect your brand to your industry and your potential followers (and actual followers). You are cementing yourself as an authority, intrinsically linked to the products and services you offer. People don’t call cola, “cola,” they call it Coke. Sure, that is the pinnacle, but on the way there you will benefit greatly from people searching the engines for your company directly when they are looking for what it is you offer.

Effect 5: Post and page optimization

This point is almost the reverse, it’s the effect of SEO on socials. Google is the world’s most powerful search engine and the central place people turn when they have a question. “Google it.”

It is important to keep in mind however that they are also searching platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook as well. The various SEO strategies you use to optimize your website can also be applied to your social media pages.

Effect 6: The mobile audience

One of the great things about Google and their many algorithms is that it continually works to improve the user experience. Google knows there is a great importance of social media due to the sheer volume of people that use it; therefore, it works with the socials to provide the content that people are looking for.

This means more information from the likes of Twitter and Facebook. For example, Google is working with Twitter to enhance search indexing which places great importance on that platform, and this is only the beginning.

Effect 7: Relationships

Social media is terrific for building relationships.  It has made everyone and everything far more accessible, and it has also shortened the reasonable reply times. If people message you via your socials, they expect to hear back quickly.

The good aspect of this is that strengthened relationships are an easy lead to your website, and more visitors means an increased search ranking. This means that building relationships and brand awareness on social media can directly increase conversions.