5 Ways to Improve Your Google Ranking Using Social Media

Social Media Zone...By Vicki Flaugher, aka @Smartwoman, a digital marketing consultant

I’m a Google freak. I love it! I know what life was like before Google and I can tell you it was no life at all. Even with the doom and gloom prophecies about Google taking over the world and stealing everyone’s data (see the Google Domination graphic to the right), I still love Google. It makes my life easier. It provides me with info and fun. Yes, I am a total Google fan girl.


Too often, I see social media dropping the ball on interfacing like they could and not using solid SEO principles to move their message forward. Today, we are going to tackle some of those issues with 5 ways to to improve your Google ranking using social media(for a primer on SEO and what that means for Google search, click here).

#1 – Pump out more blog content and include it in your social stream

The best way to get noticed by the spider bots and to get more result listings in Google is to have more content. Extra points when the content is so compelling that people love to share it. Focus on using your keywords, include your name,  an active hyperlink to your social media, social media icon sharing buttons, and a great keyword rich title and description to your post. Install an SEO plugin so that it’s easy to add SEO meta-data to your posts and add the keywords related to the post rather than just general keywords related to your business.
Remember that, generally speaking, people linking in to you is better than you linking to them so use your social to get people talking about you and provide them with links that go to a relevant page that is properly tagged with keywords that Google can appreciate.

#2 – Get more links

Reach out for guest blog opportunities and mentions in other people’s material. Include a one sentence blurb about re-publishing your posts with a resource box (which will include your bio and an active link back to your site), at the end of your posts, so people can share your content on their site. Share the post freely via social media and that will pay off.
Be openly and expressly giving with your resources, mentions, thank you’s, and social media sharing. One of the best ways I’ve found to do this is to feature other people in your social stream. Many people will mention me back and if I’ve been generous enough, they will write a blog post about me and link to my site, or ask me to write for them, or ask me if they can use one of my articles, or interview me, etc.

#3 – Give more interviews

If you present yourself via social media as someone who is easy to reach, people will reach out. If your About Me page on your site doesn’t include a way to reach you easily, fix that. Answer your private messages and direct messages on social (or at least have your VA alert you when those things come in). Be responsive. Demonstrate that on social and pretty soon it will be synonymous with your brand.
When you get the interviews, provide them with your profile bio that includes an active link to your site. Add meta-tags to your bio picture and have relevant anchor text on the hyperlink. Giving this to a host so they don’t have to do it is always appreciated and I’ve never had anyone go back and strip out the do-follow hyperlink. Promote the interview when it’s posted to encourage a virtuous cycle of sharing.

#4 – Make more comments

Google terms that are used by your target audience, go visit the top ranking blogs, and make a keyword rich and value added comment to a blog post there. Instead of linking back to your site (which we’ve talked about before), put in your Facebook fan page or your Twitter URL. Connecting via social is an intermediate loyalty step to subscribing to your blog and is generally easier to get a conversion for. Make it easy for people to continue to develop a friendship with you. (I use CommentKahuna to do this)
This is a more roundabout way to get Google mentions – it’s not that someone linking to your Facebook page is going to directly rank you higher or will automatically be caught in the listing, but rather that Google is now taking your mentions and your social media influence into account when serving up results. You want other people mentioning you – it all adds up to being a more yummy treat for Google.

#5 – Be more sharable

Give your visitors an easy way to share what you do. Keep your tweets under 120 characters so it’s easy to retweet. Write a great hook on a Facebook link share, adding your own commentary. Compel!! Make your content worth sharing. Ask people to share without being a pest. Make  your content make them look good. I know I’ve said this before, but it’s worth repeating.
As often as we talk about being social, for me, it’s actually all about content marketing. I confess that I might be a hammer looking for a nail all the time, but here’s the short of it – most people are lurkers. They want to find stuff worth sharing because they are not content creators. If you are, you can fairly easily become a thought leader in your space if you find your voice, create compelling content, and share it via social. Google finds you when you are putting out great content. Do that, like yesterday, OK?

Go Google Yourself Right Now

I dare ya. Do it. You might be upset by what you find (or don’t find) there. The good news is it can be improved by just paying a bit more attention, with understanding SEO just a bit more. Not all of these techniques are a straight shot to success but they do work. Start today and within 90 days or so, you will see a difference if you do the above items. Seriously, it works. Try it!
[grapic by jurvetson]