As social media marketing continues to grow in popularity, a question we often get asked by our clients is if posting on social media helps SEO. Read on to learn the answer to that question and learn more about the impact that posting on social media has on your SEO efforts.

Social Media and Its Effect on SEO

So, does posting on social media help SEO and your organic rankings? In short, the answer is no—however, posting relevant links from your website to social media can help not only boost your brand awareness but can drive traffic to your website as well. In fact, according to a study by Hootsuite and We Are Social, there are currently over 4.2 billion active users on social media worldwide. This represents a significant potential audience for businesses that are active on social media. In short, social media—while it does not have a direct impact on SEO—is a key asset in any digital marketing strategy.

How Social Media Efforts Support SEO

Investing your time in social media efforts while also investing in SEO can have a positive impact on your overall online presence. In fact, social media efforts support SEO in many different ways including:

Social Media Profiles Can Show up in Search Results

Have you ever done a branded Google search and had social media profiles come up in the results? I know I have! Well, if you have a strong social media presence, your profiles on those platforms may rank well in search results for your brand name or other relevant keywords. This can lead to increased visibility and potentially increase the traffic coming to your website.

Drive Traffic to Your Website and Improve Visibility

As mentioned previously, social media posts can drive traffic to your website. In fact, when you post content on social media, it can be shared by your followers and potentially reach a wider audience. If this content includes a link to your website, it can drive traffic directly to your site and even potentially improve your local search rankings.

In addition, posting consistently on social media can help increase your visibility. With billions of people on social media sites, the more you post, the more eyes you can get on your posts.

Going back to the point mentioned previously, a strong social media presence can help you rank higher for branded terms and thus increase your overall visibility online.

Increased Brand Recognition

Another way social media affects SEO is by increasing brand recognition. Essentially, the more channels you can have your name on, the more people will start to recognize your brand. So, if you are consistently posting on, say, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn just to name a few, people will begin to recognize your brand more and use those branded terms to find you online. Essentially, it can increase the branded organic traffic that comes to your website in a positive way

Increase the Lifespan of Posts

Social media affects SEO by increasing the lifespan of posts. For example, say you recently wrote an article that was seasonal as in having something to do with the winter season. Well, social media can help increase the lifespan of this post and help make it relevant again when a year passes and you reshare the article link on your social media profiles. This brings relevancy back to the article even though it was posted a while ago and, in the case of our example, a year ago, thus increasing the lifespan of the post by another year. This same method can be used each year by simply sharing the seasonal article on your social media profiles during the time of year it is most relevant.

Gain More Backlinks

Lastly, social media affects SEO by giving you the potential to gain more backlinks. For example, the more places you share your articles, the more people will see that article. The more people that see your article, there is greater opportunity for someone to discover it and even link back to it and as you may already know, backlinks are an extremely important part of any long-term SEO strategy.



To reiterate, social media is not a ranking factor when it comes to SEO; however, posting consistently on social media and having a strong social presence can help your business in a variety of ways.