Sometimes all the buzz about social media can make it it seem as if SEO is dead. Sometimes the daily focus on implementing SEO can make it seem as if the social media buzz is about some planet in a different universe. In reality, neither is true — yet.

Your Website Is One Among Millions

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Evidence SEO works for social

Most traditional SEO strategies continue to work, but creativity will be needed to stay on top of the SERPs as the social media landscape continues to be unsettled. The relevance of specific strategies fluctuates, but SEO strategies such as using keywords or links seemed to result in landing towards the top of SERPs in the last year. For example, if you Google someone’s name, you can usually find a link to their LinkedIn and Facebook profiles and their Twitter account on the first page of SERPs. (Or at least to somebody with a similar name.) Doing traditional SEO on the new social mediums has gradually become part of the job.

The benefits to your SERPs of  linking back to your website from social media platforms is still unclear, and will change as search engines continue to refine their algorithms and change the weight given to various social media networks. But it is clear that the consistent, yet moderate use of links back to your website won’t have any drawbacks.

Evidence things change

Google+ kicked up quite a storm with its debut. It’s already achieved way more than its predecessor, Google Buzz, and with the resources Google is putting into it, it likely has the staying power to last for quite a while. The recent announcement that the Google+ social network now includes the standard Google search functionality could also change everything, since Google continues to dominate with an 86% search engine market share. Facebook still has quite an advantage since it arrived at the party so much earlier and has so many users, but many people believe Facebook is just one disastrous privacy policy change away from losing that majority to somebody else.

How to do SEO for Social?

So how do you do SEO for Social? While “Content is King” remains true on traditional websites, social media is often limited in the amount of text you can post at any one time. There are also common sense limits to the frequency with which you post content to various mediums. Posting too frequently is often viewed as spam, and a person or a company who is seen as spamming will lose followers and lose credibility with those who remain.

The key to successful social media SEO is, in my opinion, to concentrate on using social media well. Be consistent both in frequency and topic, and customize your approach for the culture of each social media network. Avoid only talking about your company’s latest product. Try mixing it up by sharing things you’re personally interested in. Some topics can have something to do with your business, but others can be local centric or just for fun. As always in business, avoid things that can be divisive (religion, politics, etc…), but don’t be afraid to be a little bit controversial. This gives you flexibility when deciding on what to post or comment on. Using some of your targeted keywords and linking back to your website on most posts will make it easier for people to find you at several points of access.

So, has social media killed SEO, or vice versa? No, but I’m not about to predict what the future holds for the relationship of the two. Stay tuned…