Enhancing the Impact of Social Media on SEO

Given the continuous buzz about the impact of social media on search rankings, it is unlikely that you have not incorporated social media into your SEO strategies.

The extensive popularity of Facebook (Facebook now has 1 billion users) makes it one of the most favored social networks. Besides, helping you connect directly with your customers, Facebook presence and activity has an obvious and positive impact on search rankings.

But do you know exactly how to maximize SEO benefits with Facebook? Here are four Facebook facts you should be aware of.

Four Facebook Facts Related to Enhanced Search Rankings

1. Facebook Titles have SEO Value

While creating a Facebook page name, it is best to stick to your business name. Avoid generic keywords here like ‘plumber’, ‘florist’ etc as it may appear spammy and reduce chances of people ‘liking’ your page in the future. And likes are important for SEO. 

Once you have 25 likes, you can create a vanity url (or username), which can be closely related to your page name. So now Facebook address will read www.facebook.com/lovelyflorist rather than www.facebook/1234. You cannot use generic terms here.

As Facebook pages are indexable by search engines, your page name and user name have SEO value and using your business name will enable high rankings for your business name searches.

2.The Right Category Increses Your Search Relevance

 When creating your Facebook page, you have six category options to choose from – local business, Artist or band, company, brand etc. Make sure you choose the right category so that your Facebook page shows up in the relevant search results. Also the meta description tabs depend on your categories, making available just the right information to searchers. This increases chances of click-thrus and further enhances search rankings.

3.Optmized Facebook 'Content' Helps in SEO

Areas where you post content on Facebook should be suitably keyword optimized so that they can be duly indexed by search engines for SEO. These include content in the ‘about’ and ‘info’ tabs, as well as your Facebook posts and status updates. And don’t miss out on creating custom tabs, which have more staying power SEO wise, as compared to status updates that lose relevancy with time. Aptly named custom tabs are important for SEO.

4. Build Links to Your Facebook Page

In bound links are important factors for search ranking. Creating links to your Facebook page can help it rank well. Don’t forget to link to your Facebook page from your website and blogs. And did you know that when a fan likes or comments on your post, Facebook creates a link to their profile page, which is indexed by search engine. So if you focus on creating super content that receives multiple likes, shares and comments, you create a strong link network to your page that helps in SEO.

And of course higher number of Facebook likes and shares are in any case positive social signals for search rankings.

How have you used Facebook for SEO?

This post was written for us by Yasir Khan top SEO consultant. Yasir heads Quantum SEO Labs, offering premium SEO services at http://www.quantumseolabs.com