Why Social Media and Content Creation is important for SEO and your business!

Getting to know SEO

SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, has evolved over the years and is changing the way that we approach digital marketing. A joined-up approach to our social media, content marketing and SEO strategies is crucial for raising brand awareness and growing your reach. 

How does social media affect SEO? And vice-versa, how does an SEO strategy affect activity on our social media channels? It’s becoming increasingly important for built environment brands to take SEO seriously. 

Read on to find why this is and why you should use social media and content creation to maximise your marketing impact, attract opportunities and win work.

Multiple strategies for digital success

We know that SEO no longer only takes singular keywords into account but instead considers multiple other factors. As reported by Quicksprout, search engines are now considering keyword intent, with a focus on how people engage with a particular brand or service.

As such, an effective social media or content strategy has to have an SEO plan in place, because both of these strategies (and its variants) go hand-in-hand. 

Search engines like Google write algorithms to evaluate how useful web pages are, this is called a Google Rank.

Content is King

You’ve most likely come across this phrase, originally coined by Bill Gates in an essay about the internet published in 1996.

Not much has changed since then in regards to this. Content marketing is still a key proponent of any digital marketing strategy. It’s the creation of a wealth of relevant, valuable and shareable content that connects you and your built environment organisation with its audiences.

Fantastic content builds trust with your prospective clients. It seems that the more value you can provide with your content, the easier it will be to build trust with your target audience.

As well as building trust, optimised content helps improve your SEO strategy. As an example, blogging about different industry topics that might resonate with your target audience gives you even more chances to rank in the search engines, increasing visibility for you and your organisation and amplifying your brand voice. It helps you showcase your expertise as well, for example on U+I’s news and views blog.

Social media is Queen

Your brand’s social media presence is becoming a vital factor in calculating Google rankings. Your social media activities can boost your website’s organic traffic through search engines. 

Organisations sharing their content on social media are therefore developing this idea of omnichannel marketing and communications, sending off digital signals that speak to an organisation’s social proof. Social media is truly a way to help build your authority as a brand and reap higher rankings as a result. 

Moreover, to help increase authentic and quality content that feature on search results, use Google’s E-A-T quality guidelines. These guidelines help you prioritise quality when communicating your ideas or businesses online. Read more about the guidelines in our blog article on SEO best practice.

It’s good to note that social shares, likes and number of followers may not affect a web page’s position in search listings. Instead it’s the quality of your social profile and content. It isn’t then surprising to learn that importance is given to high quality and in-depth content. These posts may help achieve long-term results for your brand, like it has for UNStudio, 2018 winners of Archiboo’s Best use of Social Media award.

Image: Unsplash

Social media channels, search engines of the future?

An extra pointer for you, is to think of your social media channels as search engines too. You need to ensure that it's easy for your customers to search for, find and identify your official social media handles.

Will you be revisiting your social media marketing and content strategies?

To start, why not dive into Google Analytics to measure your website’s traffic and performance? You can check your traffic sources and referral paths to see if visits to your website are coming from your social media channels or blog content.

You can also use Google Search Console to find out what keywords people are using to find you. Google Search Console is an extremely insightful tool to optimise your SEO.

Need help with your social media marketing or content marketing strategy?

Get in touch with us, we’d love to provide you with tailored branding and marketing support to grow and elevate your brand by using social media.