For most modern-day businesses, social media plays a crucial role in how owners develop, expand and improve their online presence. In fact, many small businesses that do not have the resources to invest in a website use only social media accounts to get started. Social media websites also form part of your company’s search engine optimization opportunities. If you can use the same company that provides your SEO services to handle your social media, you have struck gold.

The Impact of Social Media on Your Brand

Companies have a love-hate relationship with social media. Build the right social brand and you could see website traffic soar through the roof for all the right reasons. Suddenly, your brand scores lots of free publicity through reviews on YouTube and photos on Instagram. However, in the wrong hands or after one mistake, social media followers can turn against the very brands they support.

So, what can companies do to ensure they experience more positive outcomes than negative ones? Here are a few tips:

Hire a diverse team to ensure people from various backgrounds vet messages that go out online.
Rely on experienced professionals to handle social media management accounts, so there are fewer mishaps.
Have a crisis management plan at the ready, just in case something does go amiss online or off.
Avoid sensitive topics that may lead to negative blowback you feel your company is unable to weather, whenever possible.
Focus on not just publishing posts but building a community and learning more about your current and potential customers.
Incorporate solid SEO strategies into your social media campaign.

How Social Media Affects Your Search Engine Optimization

Did you know that social media posts now rank in Google search results? From Quora answers to Facebook business listings and Twitter posts, your social media content can attract good SEO for your brand. What does this mean for your company?

1. Social Media Platforms Act as Search Engines

Not only do social media posts rank in other search engines, but they provide search engines of their own. YouTube is an excellent example of this. Google’s champion social media platform is second only to itself as a search engine and completes more user searches than Ask.com, AOL and Yahoo combined. Hashtags form part of the internal search engine and make for great branding tools as well.

2. Social Media Backlinks May or May Not Count

There is an ongoing debate among social media gurus about whether social media backlinks count as credible backlinks that Google actually pays attention to. Many say no, they do not. However, if you have ever had a post go viral, you may also notice your SEO performance surging. At the very least, being super shareable online can’t hurt.

3. Social Media Accounts Can Refer Website Traffic

Even if your company’s social media backlinks do not provide direct SEO juice, they do help refer traffic to your website. This is likely one of the reasons that having a linked web page go viral can boost your business. Even if you do not have a link to your website in the post, links on your social media profile make it possible for interested parties to dig further.

How To Move Forward

If you have not created social media accounts or neglected the ones you do have, you may miss out on big opportunities in marketing. After all, roughly 40% of consumers online use social media as part of their product research process. To add to this, when people complain about a brand on Twitter, 78% expect the company to respond in an hour or less. Is your social media strategy up to the task?

Unwired Web Solutions can help you create an effective social media strategy. Reach out to us to find out what hiring a local SEO company can do for your business’s online presence.

Google takes hundreds of elements into account when it ranks your website. Although keywords are one big factor, elements of user experience, aka UX, is also considered. UX is about the user and concerns how easy your website is to use and navigate.

When visitors come to your site, can they understand your site and find what they want? UX also takes into account your site’s credibility and accessibility. When your site is designed to meet expectations for users, search engines use that information for search rankings. More importantly, users come back to your site.

Here are five tips for improving user experience.

1. How easy is it to read your website?

When users come to your website, the information needs to be organized in a way to let them easily find information. Use bulleted lists. Keep paragraphs short. Put in headings for easy skimming. The sad reality is that most people don’t read blocks of text; they’ll just scan the headers.

Use a conventional flow for your site:

Logo in the left-hand corner
Call-to-action at the top
Search feature at the top of the page
Contact information, social media icons and sign-up forms in the footer

Make sure your text stands out against the background. It’s okay to get creative, but keep UX in mind.

2. Is your content fresh and relevant?

Users who come to your site want updated information. Fresh content helps your site be found by search engines. Content that is up-to-date and interesting adds to your credibility. Create blog posts that offer new information about your industry and business to give customers insight. Meet consumers at any place along the sales journey, whether they’re just gathering information or ready to purchase.

3. Can users connect with you on social media?

Modern shoppers want to know about your business before walking into your store. Give customers a way to connect with you through social media. Your promotions and campaigns online can help you grow your customer base when you provide value. Giving ways for customers to easily find you on social media increases the user experience.

4. Do you interact with your customers?

When customers post reviews, negative or positive, do you answer? You need to post responses to users who interact with your business on social media and through Google Business Profile reviews. Not only does this keep current customers, but potential customers are watching your brand. They’ll get to know you through your engagement on your social media. Demonstrate your commitment to customer service and support.

5. Is your website optimized for performance?

Content is king, but the technical side of your website is just as important to UX as what you post. If you want users to click on something, make it obvious. Optimize your site to make pages load quickly and get rid of features that cause slow load-times. Make sure your website looks great on different screen sizes. Add metadata that helps search engines find your pages. Although your users may not recognize these things, ignoring the technical aspects of SEO decreases UX.

Analyze How People Are Using Your Site

Use analytical data to see how you are doing. Test different versions of your pages to see which performs better. Have a plan for using your website. Set goals and constantly work to achieve those goals.

Building a website isn’t as easy as putting words up and waiting for people to come. You have to be proactive and work hard to grow a customer base that responds to your brand. Talk to an SEO company about making your website SEO friendly and customer-oriented. User experience boosts your online presence by increasing customer engagement, which in turn helps your search engine rankings.