Digital marketing used to be social media vs website search engine optimisation (SEO). Now it’s keywords and SEO on social media and websites – after all, if your customers are searching for you using new search functions on social media platforms, our goal is to make it easy for them to find you!
Love hashtags? Worried about changing strategies? Don’t worry, SEO on social media can be as simple as tweaking the way you describe your business to help the platform match you with your ideal customers. Hashtags aren’t going anywhere just yet – they still play an important role categorising your post and reaching people’s newsfeeds based on interests.
SEO – search engine optimisation for social media
Optimising your social media accounts for search engines is similar to optimising a website, find the best keywords for your business, then use that keyword in a few key places. With good research and a hint of luck, this helps you appear towards the top of relevant search queries.
Start by working out what terms your ideal customers are using to search for businesses like yours. What questions do they ask? What are their pain points or issues they want to resolve? The aim is to find a few keywords that you want your page to rank for.
Keyword research – the secret to social media SEO
Start your keyword research – brainstorm
Start by considering the way you would describe your product, service or business in a few short words. Now consider the way your customers have described it in reviews or conversation. Write a list of 5-10 words or short phrases that you think people might search for in order to find your business.
Test your brainstorm list – SEO tools
Now enter your list into a tool like Google Ads (a traditional website SEO tool, but it’s free to use and there is a lot of overlap), UberSuggest (actionable social media analytics and keyword research) or SEM Rush (costs more but gives you all the tools in one place including social listening) to discover:
- How many times each word or phrase is searched for in a month
- Whether people are searching for it more or less this year over last year
- How many businesses are trying to rank for them
- Alternative (or additional) words you might consider
Identify the best keywords for social media SEO
- High search volume OR increasing search volume.
Take the keywords for this article as an example. You can see from my Google Ads search below that ‘SEO on social media’ is only typed into Google 10-100 times a month in Australia – but that’s 900% more than the previous year. Identifying key words increasing in search volume can be a great opportunity to get ahead of your competitors.
- Clear connection with intent to buy.
Just because it has great search numbers, doesn’t mean you should try to rank for it. Think about why people are searching for a term, and how that aligns with your services.
- Low competition.
If you sell dresses, the word ‘dress’ is likely too competitive to outrank the mega online department stores. Try getting more specific – ‘customised long red maxi dress’ might be easier to rank for and more likely to attract customers keen to buy exactly what you offer.
- Strong results in your geographic target location.
Most of these tools allow you to refine your search as much or as little as you like. While world search counts can be interesting, be sure to refine to your geographic area if your ideal customer is local, just to be sure they use the same terms! After all, one woman’s jumper is another woman’s sweater.
Keyword placement for social media SEO
Using keywords for social media is much like using them for website search engine optimisation – don’t stuff them in where they don’t work, simply use them naturally to make it clear what your business is and how you solve problems for people just like your ideal client.
Once you have your main keyword or phrase, and a few alternatives, review your social media profiles and whether you can amend the following to include them better (remembering that your brand name should be one of your keywords).
Places to use your keywords on social media
- Your handle.
This is a big one, like your website URL. Ideally it should really be the same as your website URL to target your brand name. Eg. Www.thesocialnest.com.au @thesocialnestau (Insta) and The Social Nest (LinkedIn).
- Bio, title or about section.
If your handle is your business name the next most prominent place for text should include a clear keyword about what you do and how you help. Eg. Bob’s Inn. Food to satisfy after a hard day at the worksite.
- Content.
Every post should be related to one of your top 10 keywords somehow – otherwise why are you posting it? If your post is image or video heavy make sure the keyword appears in your alt text or subtitles.
Bonus idea: If you are targeting a specific geographic location be sure to tag it in your about section, and, where relevant, when you post your content.
Social media SEO – a free and easy way to boost your online visibility!
Strategically chosen keywords used in the right locations across your social media for SEO is a simple way to have a big impact on your brand visibility, and it doesn’t just help your social media following. It can also:
- Increase brand visibility on Google.
Try typing in your business name on a private browser screen or new device. Ideally you want every result to be about your business – a Facebook page, Website, About page on website, personal LinkedIn page, and maybe a backlink or two from amazing businesses that support you! Optimising your social media pages can help this!
- Increase brand consistency across platforms.
Link from socials to website and back again. Use the same keywords so it’s clear you are the same business.
- Increase clarity for your ideal customer.
Time is short, and your ideal customer wants to know within three seconds if you can help them with their problem. Having the right keywords in prominent places means they stay to find out more.
Ready to add keywords and SEO to your social media strategy? Book a call with me today.
