At Specialty Coffee Finance, helping small businesses succeed is our specialty, that’s why we strive to smooth your sales process with tailored financing options for your customers. We also have professional insights that can help your business grow to the next level. Did you know that 80% of consumers use the Internet to research a company or product before making a purchase, which is why it is so crucial for your company to be found in Google, Bing and Yahoo searches, but what’s more important – SEO (search engine optimization) or social media?
Recently, it has become apparent that social media has greatly impacted the way users find
websites, companies and products. Many claim that SEO is on the decline and that social media will eventually be the sole way in which users find the information they’re looking for online. This may not be far from the truth when you consider that the average American spends 3.5 hours on social media each day, however, it is more likely that the two will continue to integrate.
Due to the changes many search engines have made to their algorithms, a mathematical formula designed by the search engines to find, rank and place websites, social media content will continually impact a company’s search engine rankings. Below we have provided you with the top 3 ways social media affects SEO.
1. “Shares” Are The New Form of Link Building
Social media activity can help to increase awareness of your brand or website content, which can lead to “link-building” or social shares. For example, let’s say a brand publishes a blog post and posts it to their social media accounts and the post is shared 20 times. Subsequently, the shared link is seen by another blogger or reporter and the blogger or reporter decides to repost the link to his or her followers, or better yet, feature the link in his or her publications. These backlinks contribute to the popularity of your page, post, brand and link profile, thus boosting your ranking in various searches engines by being recognized as a legitimate source of information.
2. Content Indexed Faster
Content that is engaged with and shared across social media prompts search engines to rank websites higher than others due to quality and credibility. Not only that, but content shared across social media also notifies search engines which brands are on trend and which are not. Because social media influences the quantity of links a piece of content collects in a short amount of time, it also speeds up the process at which your website content is indexed.
According to a recent study, content that has been extensively shared can cut your indexation time by half and can reduce the time it takes Googlebot to find your content from 2 hours to 2 seconds. Using social media to share brand posts can be especially helpful to those who are not SEO professionals.
3. Search Engines Look To Social Media for Trending Content
For years, SEO and Google have been strongly correlated for good reason; Google is the most popular search engine with a 67.3 percent of market share according to a recent study done by comScore. However, SEO isn’t just for your everyday search engine. Each day, social media platforms are adding to the functionality of their search capabilities within their sites. Like any other website, social media platforms want to lower their bounce rates. To do so, they are adding search functions that mirror some of the most popular search engines.
As social media usage rises, so does the volume of searches on these networks (YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google and Twitter receives 2.1 billion queries per day).
Each day search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing become more sophisticated at interpreting search intent, quality of content, producing relevant results and fighting spam. Search engines are increasingly turning to social media to understand what is popular, relevant and credible, thus brands cannot skip on social media if they want to grow with the ever-evolving digital world. These examples are just a small glimpse into the importance of social media in your brands SEO strategy.
At Specialty Coffee Finance, we believe that every business deserves to succeed, and whether you’re starting your business or hoping to grow, we can help. Our professional insights and tailored financing packages will streamline your business for success.
