Being Found on Social Media and the Web
One of the many challenges faced when running a social media is how to be found. Sure, you have an account but so do billions of other people. After all twitter alone, system wide has 9,596 posts going out every second. One thing that has to be done is optimizing those posts for both internal and external (search engine) indexing.
Let’s break that problem in half. First, how to be found on the social media channel itself. Second, how do we use social media to increase the possibility of finding that account and also to aid in the google ranking of the company or personal main website.
Good news first. SEO rules are SEO rules no matter where they are used. In other words, our article on those rules applies to both social media and to the blog and to the website.
Use of Search Terms on Social Media
Tags are the social media equivalent of keywords and are assigned to really specific bits of content. Be sure to use tags or words that are actually helpful to that platform. For instance, it does no good to use your own name and take up space in your post when character space is very limited in some cases. Use keywords that are common use language. For example, for a long time WMD was one of the most commonly used phrases around. More recently COVID19, then COVID, and so forth.
Hashtags are a thing. #fiction is a hash tagged version of the word fiction. These are fantastic for internal searches on a social media platform and work wonderfully for that purpose. One of the more challenging things to do without some form of tool is to determine which hashtags are already being used for your topic. Starting a new one is difficult. One For All offers a tool that makes this easier.
The page content will matter for establishing your presence. Posting frequently is important, but so is consistency. Using similar words and phrases is important. For instance, if you are a fiction author consistently mentioning fiction, or novels, or action thrillers is going to aid in your chances of being spotted. Also, commenting on other accounts posts aids in visibility greatly. After all, the entire point to a social media account is to be social.
Optimizing Blogs/News for Search Algorithms
If you are doing a blog or news section on your website there are lots of tricks of the trade to increase the location on a google search result, and the closer to the prized first slot the better. Using keywords in the blog or new page title is an effective way to accomplish this. It isn’t the only necessity, but it is helpful when used along with other techniques.
In addition to a keyword in the title of the page, don’t get cute with titles of articles, use keywords. Things that will grab attention not only of readers but of those all-important algorithms. If your article is about cars, don’t just list “1972 Plymouth” sneak the word car in there.
The first sentence of content matters to those algorithms. Getting synonyms into that first sentence can be helpful. For instance the word car might be in the title, but automobile might be a good choice for that first sentence.
Content is king. Don’t just post an article with text, get a video or images in there. It helps the algorithms find you and will aid them in ranking you higher than one type of media alone. The richer your content, the better your search result, and being found is all that matters in this fight.
Use links in your posts and articles that refer back to the main spot of interest. For instance if you are posting content about books, and you are a book seller, don’t necessarily sneak a link with a huge ad into every post, but it in there with regularity.
Each system or platform has its own set of tool, tricks and techniques. Here at Basal Smart Solutions and our subsidiary One For All Social we can help you with the one of interest for you. If you have a custom website, a WordPress Site, Wix, or other system not listed, we can help you dominate in your ability to be found.
Images, Videos and Podcasts
These are everywhere in the modern world. There is a joke that you can’t walk down the street in some cities like Los Angeles without being asked to be on a podcast.
Like everything else the title needs to be catchy. The filenames of the images should not be generic. Image1.jpg does not help your image be found by the all mighty algorithms. Something along the lines of tabby-cat.jpg that describes the image is helpful.
Tag those images and videos. You can tag all sorts of things, and these are no difference. It does help them get found. In the long description field you can get really down to it. Instead of just tabby-cat.jpg you can put something longer, like tabby cat 6 foot up in a tree.
Optimizing Specific Platforms
On twitter even your username acts as a tag. If you want to build notoriety, or brand recognition your username on different platforms is going to be part of that like or not. The bio on twitter matters. Pack that thing with keywords that the people you want to have as your audience will use to look for content. Those pesky header images are the first impression someone will have. You may be tempted to use a cute picture of your dog, but if your intent is to discuss RPGs, don’t put your dog unless it is dressed up like a dragon.
Engagement on twitter (and all platforms) is really key to visibility or going “viral.” This engagement, replies, reposting all of which can be done with a click of the mouse makes your post visible to the followers or friends of whomever took that action. Someone merely seeing your post is great, someone interacting with it is the real currency of social media.
In future posts we will go through social media platforms one at a time for how to optimize your posts for each and every one of them. We will even discuss some tools One For All Social has to make that process easier, faster and more effective for you and your platforms.
