As a dealership, you’re constantly looking for ways to improve your websites SEO – but how does social media factor into that?
There are many opinions on the matter, so I asked a good friend of mine, Tony Ly, who is an SEO expert. Here’s what he said:
“Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a process of configuring the owned website and 3rd-party sites to be shown in organic search results to attract and brand Internet searchers for specific keywords. Google, Bing and other major search engines use sophisticated algorithms to draw in Internet signals to decide which websites get shown and in which order. SEO signals or search factors may include page contents, metadata, 3rd-party website activity, data consistency, internal and external links, etc.
Though only the search engines know the true SEO ranking signals, it is speculated that search engines can use more than 200 different ranking signals to determine search engine positions. With the growth and relevancy of social media, many web marketers, including Social Climbers Pro, believe that social media plays an essential role in website SEO and SERP SEO. Website SEO aims to rank as many keywords to the owned website, and SERP SEO aims to rank as many 3rd-party sites.
According to a survey conducted by Moz for their annual Local Search Ranking Factors report, many SEO experts said that social signals can influence local results. In addition, many search engine marketers indicate that social signals can also positively affect domain authority. Domain authority is a measure of a website’s organic ranking power. The social media signals search engines can track may include links, likes, shares, comments, followers, age of account, frequency of posts, to name a few.
Social media influences important drivers in website SEO and SERP SEO. What’s more important about Social Media is that I can drive highly relevant and trackable traffic to your website for conversion via social actions. In recent years, Facebook and other social networks have added other conversion mechanisms including call tracking, click to website, book services, download app, purchasing, and more.
As of January 2017, Facebook alone had 1.8 billion monthly active US users. If you add users on Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Twitter, we are talking in the billions. Social media has a strong hold on the Internet. Companies looking to be successful must include a social media strategy as part of their online marketing plan to target this user base.
I searched online for more confirmation of Tony’s observations, and I found this article posted on Forbes online magazine:
“The better you promote your content across SMM channels, the more referring domains you will receive.”
I love this quote from the article. This walks you through the why and the how.
Simply put, your social footprint is a huge factor in your search engine ranking. Every time you link to your site or are mentioned or tagged, your social footprint expands.
Social media is about top-of-mind awareness and brand imaging. Do we really believe that Oreo (which, by the way, has a great social presence) thinks they will sell more cookies via Facebook? Can you buy Oreos on Facebook? No? Hmm.
But dealerships want to see that ROI nearly immediately. To do that, they must recognize the SEO benefits they can gain –and will gain – with every post they make and every link back to their website they earn. I realize that figuring out how all the pieces work together and how social media can benefit your entire online presence can be a lot to consume. We want to help you to understand it.
Feel free to schedule time with us, call us, message us on Facebook or any other social platform. This is our mode of communication. We really want to help you to understand.
Robin Wilson is the co-owner of SCP Agency.
She is a self-proclaimed social media guru and specializes in social marketing for auto dealerships. She has also been instrumental in teaching auto dealerships how to market through social media to their existing database and shows them how to make sure that they do not become victims of conquest marketing. She is a marketing coach to all and has become a leader in Facebook marketing strategies in the U.S.
