For many of us who are new to search engine optimisation and social media marketing, the lines between the two can often blur. And you are probably wondering if social media marketing can even provide much help to your SEO, because in the past, there have been stark differences between the two.
The difference was that, when a person went onto Google to search for a certain topic they were looking for answers, and when they were scrolling through social media, they were simply looking for entertainment. However, more people now are using social media to find the answers they are looking for, which has changed the way social media and SEO interact.
You could be using your social media marketing strategy to research keywords for SEO. More people are now searching social media platforms using topics and hashtags, and you can use this to your advantage to find relevant keywords. Not sure how to start? Below we give some tips and tricks.
Understand Audiences Using Facebook Ad Targeting
Almost everyone across the globe has a Facebook profile, which means that this social media platform has access to an immense amount of data, and that this data is extremely specific. You can use Facebook Ad Targeting options to discover different demographics about your audience, such as geographical location, age, and interests.
You can use this content to discover topics and keywords that this audience is searching for. For example if you sell holistic health products, you might find that 30 year-old women in Cape Town are searching for “health stores in Cape Town”, which you can use in your content to help improve its search engine results and online visibility.
Find Trending Topics
If you would like to make shareable content that is in-line with the times, you can use social media marketing to find trending topics. Platforms such as Twitter are ideal for this, as it is a hub of newsworthy content and topics that are highly relevant to their audiences. It will also help you to use the exact language of your consumers, improving the content engagement.
You can also follow hashtags on Twitter to find trending conversations and look for questions being asked about these topics. For instance, a hashtag such as #howtocookthat might bring up questions on how to cook deep fried food, which you can use as a topic for a blog for your catering company’s website. These topics will be highly relevant, too.
Investigate Instagram
Instagram is arguably one of the most popular social media platforms in use today, and can be used to discover unique keywords for niche audiences. Some of the keywords used are location specific, which is great for those who want to improve their local SEO by posting blogs on free business directories or on their Google Business Listing.
You can also search hashtags relating to your industry directly to find hyper-specific keywords to use in your content. You might even find keywords you had not considered targeting as yet, which could improve your online visibility and help to keep your content unique and fresh. Instagram is a simple-to-use platform and should be part of your social media marketing strategy already.
Use Keyword Research Tools
Once you have found some keywords on the various social media platforms, you should put them into keyword research tools to find out the search volume and see which would be easier for your business to target. This will help you to create a content calendar that will be relevant and will drive a better return on investment.
By performing this research you can create a more targeted and structured content plan. You can create content specifically for each platform using the keywords for each one, helping to improve the visibility of your content and boosting your search engine results. This can also help to enhance customer engagement.
Stay Social
You may not have first thought of combining social media and SEO, but when the two are put together effectively, you can devise a highly efficient digital marketing strategy. You can use Facebook Ad targeting options for various demographics and their search terms, turn to Twitter for trending topics, and investigate Instagram for hashtags that are local SEO friendly.
Combining social media and search optimisation can be tricky, so be sure to contact the NetMechanic team to find out how we can help you find the right keywords for your social media and content marketing strategies.