seo ranking If you are familiar with this blog, you know that SEO trends and strategies are a frequent topic of conversation. The question we are answering today of whether social media impacts SEO efforts have been studied by many marketers and individuals in the search industry. To give a short answer, yes—social media can improve SEO. However, it doesn’t affect SEO rankings in the way most people might think.


Social Media Isn’t a Direct Ranking Factor

Google has made several comments on the topic, but most recently said that social media pages are treated like any other search pages but are not taken into account for SEO. However, there is a correlation between social media and ranking position that you have probably noticed yourself: well-known law firms with established social media pages tend to rank higher in searches. This happens because, with a lot of popular social media pages or posts, more people will link to the firm, thus indirectly boosting rankings. So in order for your social efforts to pay off in terms of SEO, you need to focus on getting your content found and read. 

How Social Media Boosts SEO

Backlinks are Key. As mentioned, more links leading to your content will help boost your position in search rankings. Attracting potential links is where social media comes in. The more you share your content to Facebook, Twitter and the like, the more likely it is that others will share it, or link to it in their own posts. This, of course, depends on how well your firm engages its audience on social media. 

Audience Potential. In today’s digital landscape, your law firm can’t be competitive without a social presence. That’s largely because social media is one of the quickest and most effective ways to build a wider audience. By creating a brand on social media, your firm can boost its reach and reputation. This has indirect effects on SEO because as more people become familiar with your firm and its brand, they will be more likely to click on your content when it appears in search results. 

Optimized Social Profiles. The bios of your social media profiles can be goldmines when it comes to SEO. In fact, social profiles often come up in the top of search results for a company or brand. Your firm’s social profile pages will obviously have your name in them, likely along with some keywords or phrases regarding your practice area. You should include a link to your website as well to increase the chance of receiving more clicks to your site. 

Hashtags. When used correctly, hashtags can help boost the visibility of your content and therefore help with SEO. Hashtags on social media are essentially keywords, so choose wisely when describing your content in social posts. Tools like hashtagify.me help users find the best hashtags for their content based on popularity and trends. 

Don’t neglect video. While Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are typically most focused on when it comes to SEO, Youtube is actually the second most-searched search engine after Google. Having a presence and promoting your brand on Youtube will help to build links to your videos that can potentially rank organically in search engines. 

Boost time spent on site. Statistics like time on page, time on site, and bounce rate are true SEO ranking factors. By targeting people on social media with pages that are truly relevant to them, you’ll get qualified traffic that is more likely to engage longer with your content. 

Takeaway

So there you have it: the long answer to the frequently asked question of whether social media can help your law firm’s SEO ranking. The bottom line is that social media activity serves to boost your firm’s visibility and get your content found and read, which is essentially the goal of SEO.

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Updated and Republished from Jul 8, 2019.

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