SEO for Social Media Guide

VSEO for Social Media Guide

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© 2015 BancVue. All rights reserved.

What We’ll Cover

What is social SEO?

How Social Networks Influence Ranking

Basic Tips for Social SEO

Do’s and Dont’s of Social Media

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W h a t i s S o c i a l S E O ?

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What is Social SEO?

Social SEO is the process of creating and managing social media activities for the purpose of improving a brand’s ranking with search engines.

The focus is on improving SEO for your brand, rather than just for your website. It encompasses all the ways in which your brand is visible online, including local listing pages, social media channels, blog posts, and more.

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H o w S o c i a l N e t w o r k s I n fl u e n c e Ra n k i n g

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How Social Networks Influence Ranking

Google says that metrics (like number of Facebook Likes or Twitter Followers) don’t affect SEO, but being active in social media can still influence rankings.

Social signals account for 5.8% of the factors influencing search engine rankings, according to a 2014 survey of SEO industry experts. For high-demand keywords, with competing websites that are all well-optimized, social signals can make a difference in who claims the top spots.

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How Social Networks Influence Rankings:

An active presence in social media can:• Lead to your content being shared across multiple sites. Your

link’s appearance in multiple places may convince Google that your content is popular, relevant and authoritative.

• Create an image of a quality business.• Elevate consumer awareness of your brand.• Drive more traffic to your website.• Increase the click-through rate that affects your Google

ranking.• Help generate positive online reviews that also contribute to

search engine ranking.

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B a s i c T i p s f o r S o c i a l S E O

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Ideally, you should have a presence on the top three social media channels the search engines track: Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. Forgo an account only if you don’t have the resources to maintain the account with frequent updates. The earlier you begin actively participating in social media, the more positive the long-term impact will be for you in search engine results.

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Creating Your Profile:Google+ and Facebook let you choose a category for your business. Choose something specific to your industry, like bank or financial institution, rather than something generic like local business.

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Creating Your Profile:Use every opportunity you can to ensure easy access to information about your institution. As such, you’ll want to completely fill in all fields of the profile. Don’t skip sections like hours of operation or phone number if the information is available.

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Creating Your Profile:Include a link to your website on your profile. It helps search engines make the connection between your brand on a social platform and the website they have indexed. If there’s no designated place for your URL, include it at the end of your description.

Note: On Google+, it’s important to verify your website.

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Creating Your Profile:In your description, include information about the location of your banks and branches. This will help search engines and social media platforms understand which users will find your profiles relevant.

Note: On Google+, it’s probably a good idea to claim a Google+ page for each branch so it appears on Google maps.

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Creating Your Profile:Finally, it’s helpful to include links to your other social profiles so users can easily connect with you on multiple platforms. It also makes it easy for search engines to connect the dots and understand that each of these touch points they’ve found on the web are specifically for your business.

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How to Write a Post:The ecosystem of search and social will continue to evolve, so it’s not enough to just have a presence. You will also need to interact with those who have liked or followed your brand. Use your brand name on occasion in your posts so search engines have more signals to associate the content you post with your brand.

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How to Write a Post:Post about what is happening in your local community and the ways you support it. If you’re part of community events, send someone there with a camera or smart phone and post photos of the event, either live or post-event.

Photos are some of the most-shared content on Facebook. When you post a photo, make sure to include a caption with it to make it search engine friendly!

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How to Write a Post:A great way to get people to interact with you is to ask a question. For example, Pelican State asked its followers what kind of content they care about. Their responses can help the bank plan ahead for their social media content.

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URL Shorteners like bit.ly are used frequently for social media. Since certain platforms like Twitter have character limits, it’s important for URLs to be short and sweet. You may also want to use shorteners to keep a long URL from taking up too much visual space in a post, since some URLs can exceed 1,000 characters.

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Bit.ly is our recommended URL shortener for two reasons:Bit.ly-shortened URLs use a 301 redirect to send a user to the link you are sharing. 301 redirected links are considered permanent and pass along the SEO value of that link to the content on the web that they direct to.

Bit.ly is a free service that also keeps track of how many people are going to the URLs you’ve created, allowing you to have a better view of the effectiveness of your social media efforts at driving traffic to the links you’ve posted.

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D o ’ s a n d D o n t ’ s o f S o c i a l M e d i a

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Do’s of Social Media

Do post frequent, relevant and conversational updates.

Do post unique content to each platform that fits how users interact in that particular platform.

Do share photos with captions; photos are the most-shared content on social platforms.

Do completely fill in all the relevant profile information.

Do follow the 80/20 rule: talk about what interests your customers 80% of the time, and your own products 20% of the time.

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Do’s of Social Media

Do occasionally insert your brand name in posts.

Do include links to your website and other social profiles.

Do use your full name when possible for your profile information.

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Dont’s of Social Media

Don’t post photos of your customers without asking them first!

Don’t post content that takes a side on a political issue.

Don’t post anyone’s account information. Do delete comments from followers that include personal information.

Don’t post the exact same thing on every social network. Make sure your message suits the social platform you are using.

Don’t start using social media without talking to your compliance department first.

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Dont’s of Social Media

Don’t create social media profiles and then abandon the effort. Create a plan and stick with it.

Don’t use lots of industry jargon. Use language that is understandable to the average person who is not in the banking industry.

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T h a n k y o u !

Business

SEO for Social Media Guide