These days, there are many questions surrounding the viability of link building. Webmasters and site owners are concerned about the safety of linking to potentially low ranking sites. Other users, since the end of Google PageRank updates in late 2013, don’t necessarily know what is a good site is to link to or try and get links from.
So what’s a link builder to do? Here’s a hint: you’re probably already using high ranking websites every day and you don’t even know it. What are these magical sites that we are referring to? Social media sites. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest. Most of these sites were highly ranked prior to the cessation of the PageRank updates and get millions of unique visitors every day. In fact, out of Majestic.com’s top ranked sites, 14 of the top 50 are social media sites, beating out sites like eBay, Reuters, PayPal, and Forbes.
Social media is a tried and true method for generating quality links. So where do you start?
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Linking Properly
You should always provide links to your social media platforms from your website. This way, your loyal customers can become your loyal fans. They can leave reviews for you on your company page, which will only help drive more potential customers to your site. See the pattern? When you link to your social media profile, always always always check the link. How many times have you attempted to click a link for a social media profile, only to get redirected to the social media site’s home page instead? It’s frustrating for you, and frustrating for your potential customers.
Know Your Audience
Not every social platform is meant for every company. If you are an ecommerce site, you don’t necessarily need a LinkedIn company page. Should you have one? It won’t hurt. But you should probably spend your valuable time building out a Pinterest page with pins linking to all of your products so that users can buy your items as soon as they see them. By optimizing the product descriptions, you’re only helping your SEO efforts. Although there is some debate over whether a B2B company should use Pinterest, we say yes. Why? Because this is a key part of branding and name recognition.
Consistent Branding Message
What do we mean? Think about what major brands do, the ideas and concepts that they are known for. Lexus is known as a high class luxury brand. Trader Joe’s is known for their low cost, healthy food. Nike is known for its athletic gear and high performance athletes. What do you want to be known for? Lexus wouldn’t start Tweeting about the latest compact car design. Trader Joe’s wouldn’t talk about GMOs. Nike is all about athletic performance, so they wouldn’t post pictures of couch potatoes wearing their cross trainers. Convey a clear brand message, the one that you want to be known for. Inconsistency can be very confusing to new users who don’t know your company.
Planning Your Social Media Content
While current events may sometimes influence what you might post on a particular day, try and plan out posts. Whichever you choose to use – Wayback Wednesday, Throwback Thursday, Flashback Friday – these posts need to be figured out ahead of time. This gives you time to create some interesting, engaging content. And don’t just post for the sake of posting. Give users a reason to come back every day and interact with the post.
So what’s the takeaway? Very simply put – use social media as a way to build high quality links to your website. Ideally, you want to grow your audience and acquire more authority for your site. Social media sites can be the answer, especially when done properly, no matter what your ultimate goals are. Attract new talent to your company with LinkedIn. Increase sales with Pinterest. Or just get to know who your audience really is on Facebook. The fact is, if you aren’t leveraging your site’s SEO via social media, then you’re missing out on one of the most significant resources available.
